Dead centre of town

The photograph above is from a cemetery next to the Commonwealth Games village in Brisbane, the, home of the 1982 Commonwealth Games. I went to compete in the 30km walk and, as we were arrived in the village more than two weeks before the event, I did a fair amount of training, some of it through the cemetery. At least that is the only reason I can recall having taken a photo as I only took about 30 in total - if it was these days I would probably take about 30,000!

I have been thinking a lot about the Commonwealth Games during the past few days since the team was announced on Friday but waiting for others to comment on the composition of it.

When I got home tonight I was reading the story about the team on iomtoday and I decided it was time to make a list of all the Manx athletic competitors since 1958. It was something I have been looking for for a long time so I decided to take on the task myself.

After we had eaten I resumed the task and surprisingly it only took about 2.5 hours to rattle off in total including the publication.

I had suggested to Marie that we ought to be making better use of the light nights and she suggested a walk later on and we wandered off up Somerset Road and through Nobles Park.

I keep saying that there are so many places in the Isle of Man I have never been to and tonight, quite by chance, we crossed the road and walked through the cemetery where I discovered a garden of remembrance which I didn't know existed.

Which takes me back to the Commonwealth Games. As soon as I got back I re-read the piece that I had published when Marie was shouting "are you ready to go for a walk?" and took out a few typos. I then looked for a photo from 1982 and thought that it was a good link.

There are bound to be a few more errors but now that the job is done its easier to improve than to start from scratch.

And a final memory from the Brisbane cemetery. I recall that the day after the closing ceremony, complete with hangover, I went for a run around the cemetery with badminton player Phil Mead. After not running since the previous winter I was stiffer in 20 minutes than I had been after the 30km walk. Stiffness in the cemetery? Dead right.