Waiting, Isle of Man TT

                      Not the queue to the pub


It's ABC on the blog circuit this week ad the letter is Z. If you look closely on the image you can see black and white stripes midway in the photo across the road. Those are where pedestrians wait to cross the road safely, and it is called a Zebra crossing. Many countries have these, nothing unique to the island, but use of varies throughout the world. A instantly recognizable image that transcends most languages. The image taken at the two week event, Isle of Man TT Road Races. This may look like the queue for a pint from the pub in the distance, The Central, but the spectators waiting on Parliament Street for the motorbike race to begin. 

Jane Hards Photography


Other ABC posts around the world can be seen here

The Swan

                               Bird's eye view


This week my Skywatch image is a place familiar to readers of the blog from the early days, The Swan Pub.  A large public house situated on the corner of Lezayre Road and Parliament Square, a regular drinking hole for locals and a one Isle of Man TT tourists will recognize as a place to watch the motorbikes race round the route through Ramsey. Sunset, optional, pint and pub lunch compulsory, karaoke depends on who is singing. 


Jane Hards Photography - the people, the pub views

Image past of Skywatch, where people join one  day a week to show their skies.

Balck and white, harbour sunset

                        View from the pub


The colours were amazing stunning spectacular and all those adjectives some people use to describe their photos, when it should be for the viewer to decide. Stripped of colour, Ramsey Harbour, view from outside the oneof the many pubs of the town. Not a bad pint, and not a bad view either, even if it lack colour for some.

Jane Hards Photography for more images

Photo part of The Weekend in Black and White

Stanley Pub, Sunset

                      After a few Jack Daniels
 

Just your average multi coloured sky here on the Isle of Man. Taken outside one the local pubs, The Stanley, down by the harbour at low tide.


For other skywatch skies around the world click here

The Stanley

                         Karaoke anyone?


The Stanley, another of Ramsey's infamous pubs has undergone a few changes recently. The old landlord Yuki, who ran the pub for over a quarter of a Century has retired. A new paint job inside and out. The first ever pool table has taken up residence. The legendary Steve and Bob karaoke nights have ceased to be replaced by Paulette's Saturday night karaoke.  Most of my photos have actually been taken inside this pub of friends and strangers, Friday nights after dark. You can still see the harbour from the pub though and the local pint is still the same. A place many island visitors fondly remember, and locals enjoy. It's been the end of an era recently, and the start of a new, and a rare daylight shot from me of the pub and local scooter run.


Cheers.

The Central

                             Fancy a pint?


The Central is our local and favourite pub in Ramsey. This was taken just after the pub had a complete overall and upgrade from a run down on its last legs place to a thriving hub of the drinking community. A change of staff and management completed the makeover and unlike other pubs in Ramsey, (and the island for that matter) this one has survived the cull and indeed goes from strength to strength. Anyone visiting for the Isle of Man TT has to visit this pub for one of the best vantage points to view the action while supping on the local brew or whatever your tipple is. 

Pub Watch

Honestly he is working


This week Abc is bought to you by the letter P

Now, to be serious for once, "Pub Watch" is an island wide project that keeps an eye on the drinkers who frequent the pubs, one of which is yes, me. So far, the wearing of cowboy, witch and pirate hats is not an offence ( not sure about the coppers hat I wore mind) and enjoying your Jack Daniels and causing minor havoc with broomsticks for Halloween seems to be considered reasonable drunken behaviour. If I had hit someone with the broomstick for example, considered an act of drunken violence, then I would have not only been arrested, charged with an offence, sentenced or fined, but ultimately banned from the pub. Not just the pub in question but all pubs... "island wide", all pubs on the island. That is in essence what Pub Watch is, well the lighthearted version of it. So the Police, (not the group) frequenting the joint are a regular sight and anti social behaviour won't be tolerated. Also, I do wish they would apply the same rules and regulations to people murdering Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell at Karaoke." Personally I really think there should be a town bylaw against it!


So, do you have any scheme like this your way. Also for more P's of the world see here

Church, pub or both?

Wish you were here or having a beer

Monochrome

It's Sunday. My Sunday has consisted of nothing much this week. I wonder how many people in Ramsey went here, above though this Sunday for morning worship? Not going into details about this image(it's Sunday remember a quiet day), other than to say it's one of the many churches we have in town. Only recently has it occurred to me we have quite a few dotted around town. From what I can recall I have only shown you one image of a church before as far back as the dawning of the blog. We also have several pubs of course. Strangely( not really I hear you cry) I have shown you more pubs though. Perhaps I need to redress the balance a little. It seems the spiritual needs of the townsfolk are well catered for one way or another. Something for a another theme sometime to delve into. Of course there are many churches now that have long since lost their flock and have been sold to breweries and turned into pub or wine bars. Not a fate that has happened to any religious buildings so far here, but I have noticed at least one church closed for business and under new management so to speak.



Here's a question for you though. What denomination do you think this is? Does the religion dictate the architecture? Just curious. Another is why do all churches, without exception, look creepy and Gothic in black and white. For other black and whites to delight all week click here.

THE SWAN, RAMSEY - MY WORLD

Fancy at pint or a pub lunch?

My World

You have heard me mention the Swan Pub before, well here it is. Lots of you have asked to see building on the blog, especially the pubs, and particularly this one as I mention it a lot. Yes this is the other Swan of my world the one I drink in, not the one that flies around the harbour. 

This is where you will often find me on a Friday, sometimes a Wednesday and why the blog always gets updated late. You may recognize this from those TT photographs. I'm standing in exactly the same spot I take those motorbike ones from. Bit quieter as you can see. This is Saturday afternoon too, and you can see how how little traffic there is. In fact I had to wait to capture a car. Just wanted to show you some life in the town other than me and the birds. It's split into two rooms. One the Pool room and yes you can watch football(soccer to some of you) on cable in there. The other side is the lounge. Comfy sofas or you usual tables. You can even get a decent meal full meal or light lunch to go with your classic British pint of beer, larger, spirits or coffee. Lovely strong cup of black coffee.  The British have a thing about quizzes and the Swan is no exception. In fact I used to play for the Swan Pub team in the Ramsey Quiz League. Too busy to now. Geographically this is the pub nearest my house(just out of town in the suburban bit) and that other great British institution the Fish and Chip shop. Handy when cooking is not on the agenda, and it never is on Fridays. 

So not only my world today but all this week, will be a little more down to earth than my normal photos, not so much the pretties. Going for realistic snapshots on the run, dodging traffic and people, and trying to sneak shots of the very heart of the town. So this is the pub you here about I used to be a quiz team member of and stop by for the odd pint or spirit. It's actually more cream than yellow but the dropping sun cast a sunny yellow under poor light conditions. I like this guerrilla style photography of hide shoot and run. Some interesting results. More like city daily photo should be too, just a no frills photo.

Klaus, Imac,  Fishing Guy, Ivar, Tom, Louise, Wren, Sandy and others are to thank for the neme. Click here for more my world's.

Does this look like you thought a pub here would look like?

Babooshka, Ramsey daily photo, http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/