When I was 13 my brother moved to the Isle of Man. He lived with his then wife in a little stone terraced cottage on the Promenade in Castletown, with just a stone wall separating them from the sea.
We would make the journey to visit several times a year, and although it was always lovely to see my brother, I was not old enough to appreciate the beauty of the island. I liked walking along the beach, although not if it was too cold, and enjoyed searching for interesting looking stones and shells, and skimming stones into the sea.
My brother would take us to lots of beautiful places - Scarlett Point, The Sound and Calf of Man, Langness, Glen Maye and The Point of Ayre, and my Dad (as an ex-biker) was very interested in following the TT route in their little yellow Volvo with the black stripe. I have written on a previous blog about adventures travelling to the Island by coach and ferry, with my niece when we were both 15. We met a couple of lovely Irish boys who livened up our trip, but all other visits during my teens were with my parents and very tame. When I was 15 I was persuaded against my will to spend a fortnight with my family on the island. I had a boyfriend who I really didn't want to leave behind, and I was very grumpy at the prospect.
The boyfriend bought me a pink hippo called Rosebud, which I insisted on taking everywhere with me, to be included in every holiday snap. I even managed to take a selfie with Rosebud, to show how very miserable I was. I look just like T in this photo, when she is asked to tidy her bedroom.
My memories of those holidays were of narrow, winding roads with strange names, and surprisingly long car journeys considering that the island is only 32 miles long and 14 miles wide. I think we must have taken the scenic routes. I was going through an artistic phase and took my sketchbook and watercolours with me, but rarely managed to finish any paintings because as soon as I started enjoying myself, it was time to move on.
I was a very grumpy teenager, and now I think that this might be a family trait. Or just karma..... These were actually very happy holidays, but as is often the case, I can only appreciate them in retrospect.
In my early twenties, I continued to travel to the island with Mr C. By this time I had developed more of an appreciation of fresh air, rugged land and seascapes and the old fashioned pubs that felt like you were sitting in the landlord's front room. I spent my 21st birthday there, in a French restaurant called L'Experience, on a flying visit booked as a surprise by Mr C. And then years later, I took my daughters T and L there, along with my sister in 2016, and showed them the places where I spent so many of my childhood Summers, and the island I have come to love.
They loved it, particularly the ice creams and the rocky coastlines and beautiful beaches.
And then this year for my 50th birthday, my sister arranged to take me back to visit my brother for a few days. It felt like going home, and we went to places I hadn't visited for many years, bringing unexpectedly happy memories flooding back. The Island has changed. There are more roads and cars and the airport has been expanded, and is no longer little more than a hut, which was how I remember it. We went to The Sound and as we walked down towards the Calf, which is an island just off the Southern most tip, we heard an outburst of loud honking. We joked that it was seals, but as we got closer to the Calf, we could see them, huge and resplendent basking on the rocks and making a right old racket. We ate lunch in the swish new cafe, which offers panoramic views over the water through floor to ceiling smoked glass windows. A far cry from the little shack which it replaced, but nonetheless a beautiful place to waste an hour or two out of the wind before a walk along the cliffs.
I even managed to do my third run of week 3 on couch to 5K, along the lower promenade in Port Erin towards the derelict Marine Biological Centre and back again a couple of times. The views were a big improvement on my usual circuit, but the wind was less pleasing. I enjoyed spending time with my big brother and sister; we haven't all been together since my wedding in 2013 and it was long overdue. But Isle be back!
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