Harbour reflections

                                    Still waters


Not a recent image as the Isle of Man seems to be under a rain cloud for the past 3 weeks. Grey skies do make great black and white landscapes though.  The in-between pubs walk shot. Mirror image of the Sulby River, moored boats along the quayside, looking towards Bowring Road. 


Image part of Skywatch, were other sky shots of the world can be seen.

Karaoke and sunsets

                            View from the pub


Shot from the doorway of one the local pubs, The Stanley, looking towards Bowring Road. The bonus of taking a camera out to capture the Friday night sing songs of karaoke nights and shenanigans,  the flaming orange sunsets of summer. Or the summer showers. Either way, all good fun

Part of skywatch where bloggers around the world show and tell their skies. Welcome to join and view others.

Jane Hards Photography

See you soon mon amis

Black Eye Friday

                                                                         All end in beers

What can I tell you about the curiously named "Black Eye Friday" that you can't actually surmise from the title. After a beer or several the residents of the town usually end up brawling. So what's it all about then?

Once a year this strange phenomenon happens, the last main pay day for most folks before Christmas a little earlier than usual. Now most of us are used to being relatively civilised and seem capable of going on a Friday night, let your hair down pub crawl, end of the working week type of thing we normally do. Costumes, hats whatever maybe worn week in week out. So no change there. Black Eye Friday though all hell breaks lose, and the younger folks tend not to be the idiots involved. Oh no, it's those middle aged men who go out once a year, can't hold their beer, miffed at their lives who are fully intent on causing a brawl....ending up with mass punch ups, a few smashed windows, pubs barring people and probably more arrests than for the last six months. Also the next day you will pass these shame faced idiots sporting the badge of dubious honour....the black eye.... hence the name "Black Eye Friday." Thankfully this idiotic behaviour occurs once yearly but does make me wonder is this sort or event unique to our island?

It's raining again, Bowring Road skyline

                      Typical island weather


To the right, the Central pub, where most people will probably head for a quick one after shopping and work on a cold, wet day in October. Behind the pub you can see the mountains which overlook the town. To the left, the abandoned building which still says Aladdin's cave. Once, it may have been a a treasure trove but not anymore, as it's long since been used as an auction room for Chrystals. Today the Isle of Man is bracing itself for more wet weather. Looking at those swollen clouds, I'd say yes, and head for the pub. The only wet you'll get in there, is the beer.

The Mitre Hotel, pub with a view

                                Beer and boats


The Mitre Hotel has recently undergone a refurb, but the great harbour view remains. Not many pubs can claim a view straight onto a quayside. Another place where you can find locals belting out karaoke, charity nights for worthwhile local causes, carveries and varied food themed nights upstairs. Downstairs, you can hire the private rooms for functions, or listen or to the local folk and Manx music groups. You can even join in at open mic sessions, or for those musically gifted can take their own instrument of choice and join in. Pub bands are also a regular feature. Something for everyone here, can be found at the Mitre. Even if that something is a quiet pint and an evening sunset.

See here for a night out at the Mitre in aid of a local good cause

Karaoke is King! Bar Logo

                            Steve and Bob


Ramsey, seems to have become the unofficial home of karaoke on the Isle of Man. Not that other towns here don't have regular karaoke, we just seem to have more people running karaoke and even more wanting to get up and murder songs or own a tune, depending on who it is. To be fair, the town has a high percentage of fantastic singers who are a pleasure to listen to.  Sometimes it's the comical strangled cat style of singing which is the somewhat hypnotically entertaining in a road crash kind of way.  Steve and Bob, run karaoke on Friday nights in the town, other nights during busy times, like the Isle of Man TT and special holidays. The venue may have changed, from The Stanley pub, to Bar Logo, but the full house of singers have followed them and karaoke, the Friday night Ramsey ritual remains, like the song, the same.



This post is part of abc, and more can be found here

The Britannia Pub

                     Gone but not forgotten

A few years a go I posted a round up of Ramsey pubs, which are the hub of this small town community, and featured the pub in the photo, The Britannia, known locally as the Brit. Sadly this pub served its last pint a few weeks ago, along with a few other island pubs owned by the local brewery. A shame to see a Ramsey institution close its doors and shut up shop, but a sign of the times. Hopefully this will be the only pub in Ramsey to close, and local bands can find another suitable venue to gig. See other posts to read how thriving the Brit once was.

80, 000 alcoholics, clinging to a rock

                   It's 5 o'clock somewhere


There are a lot of Isle of Man motto's but today I'll introduce you to this one. "80, 000 alcoholics clinging to a rock" give or take one or two. As the population rises the number will change but the alcoholics part of the motto will remain. It's a tongue in cheek reference to the small size of the island, its location (the middle of the Irish Sea) battered by the elements and of course the fact we have a lot of pubs. This shot captured in one of those pubs, On a cold wet winter night, a warm fire, a friendly pint puller are a welcome site to the island dweller. Pubs are the hearts of any small community. Use them, or lose them. Go with the flo, Frankie and try your gin with cucumber. Some people have a real yen for it.   Dedicate to absent friends, who miss the island and why I have reignited the blog.  Chin chin, bottoms up, Santé!  (though it will always be lemon)

The Isle of Man TT 2012.....Day 2

The boys are back in town

So, finally after a 40 mins delay with dodgy communication equipment, the long awaited return of the first practice race of the week long races. They actually start, the real races on Saturday. Weather permitting. I add that caveat. I live on a very verdant island, due to heavy rainfall, but please not these two weeks. Thank you, weather Gods, in advance.


Now, I am taking a break tonight and will be found singing karaoke in one of the local Ramsey pubs, I highly recommend, The Royal George. If click those words in red, a magic link will appear to the pub. Unfortunately I can't magic a real pint through the laptop.

The Stanley Karaoke - # My World 51

You can even find us on Facebook he is saying.

You will always find me in The Stanley on Fridays, and lots of other pubs along the way, but there is a special reason for hitting this one on this particular night...... Karaoke. Some you who know me personally will know it has a different name, but that is not something we shall go into here. So you know I have a love /hate relationship with the one horse town I live in.... I do with Karaoke too.

No, I do not take part in in. Never, ever. No, No, No. I go to get drunk and take photos of the people I know taking part as they love it so much. " The Bibles" as they are known get passed around containing the artists whose songs you can murder....... Meatloaf for some reason seems to suffer the most. I am still severely traumatised by a Minnie Mouse on helium strangling the life out of Bat out of Hell. For that rendition alone she is going there. I almost threw myself into the harbour that night. I mean it was the full version. I walked out the pub after hiding in the toilets, couldn't bear a minute longer to stop and get my cigarettes, headed for the door, resisting the urge to punch her for her sacrilegious destruction of an iconic song and took solace alone on the quayside until it was done.

Really though it is a laugh, and you do get some cracking singers there, many of who I know and if you are on Facebook you can find me "Babooshka" (click the bird) or "The Stanley Karaoke"

For more posts not like this, but around of other people's world they inhabit see here

MY OTHER LOST DAY WAS SPENT IN HERE

Plough your own furrow.

I know I know, I skipped a day again. Now do you want a blatant lie that I was working or had some emergency that prevented me from reaching a laptop or the net was down or do you want the truth. You couldn't handle the truth. Well maybe you can, that I spent early and late evening between the Swan and The Plough( the image) getting louder, drunker, emotional and of course happy to stay when it was hometime. Look it wasn't my idea, it was St Patrick's and I only intended to go to the Swan where a silly oversized hat and play punch( don't ask,I have issues apparently and er I am willful. Well obviously!!!) which you really don't want to know about, but noooooooooo! we have to go to the Plough and well. One too many for Babooshka but who cares. I am me and that is all there is too it. Having works 6 straight days(into my 7th and counting) getting hardly any sleep all work and no play makes B a dullard, and boring is not on my to do list. Ironing is but I'm avoiding it. All I can say is I had a wonderful night's sleep and absolutely no hangover. I have been ravenous all today though.


Now the image is a chance shot another running one so not neatly composed, but just wanted to get the Plough Pub on today. Too many parked cars so scooting around them. I'm happy with the walker and the bent bollard though. Great for the daily photo so who cares. It's not a work image where it needs to be precise. You may be getting more of these. I'm a tad busy at the moment as you can probably tell and really not in a mood to take petty nonsense. Anyway the Plough I'll do an in depth post another time, but let's just say it's a real pub. No airs and graces here, decent beer and constant cable sport. We watch football(it's not soccer it's football) matches in here. It's a tiny pub, but perfectly formed. This is not a pub to be seen posing in. This is a proper pub to go in take a seat, have a beer(ok Jack Daniels, who am I kidding) watch the footie, catch up with friends and you know converse with people who actually may have more than one brain cell. I like this pub. I like this pub for what it is and what it represents old fashioned but not quaint, down to earth. Yes down to earth. In a world of designer soulless pubs and bars with inappropriate trendy(no you aren't) names it's refreshing to see a pub that literally Plough's it own furrow.

Again kind of you to email asking as to my whereabouts. All's well just very busy, over tired, cabin fever etc. Probably need to mindjolt games on Facebook or something equally as mind numbing for a while.

babooshka http://dailyphotoisleofman.blogspot.com/ ramsey daily photo