Ahead of time

We used to think that we were ahead of the opposition with our holiday properties by supplying things like Sky premium channels and internet connections.

We tried to get ahead again a couple of weeks ago now that Manx Telecom's fibre optic cable runs past Port Soderick with the "exchange" being just 30 yards from our cottage. The result is that we now have one of the fastest connections on the Isle of Man. For those visitors that don't bring their our tablets, phones and laptops to use the facility, however, the desktop was creaking. 

My time at the cottage today included not only cleaning and gardening but a desktop memory upgrade where I managed to get it back to front at the first attempt.

It might not be cutting edge technology but we had a first in the garden. I have never picked blackberries in August before. And when I had finished my chores and went for a walk along the coast with Robbie I found more.

Talking about being ahead takes me to Robbie's changed appearance. Possibly the best value haircut ever, £8 after 15 months! My car was loaded with cuttings from the undergrowth at the cottage and I left Robbie suggesting he tackles his next!

It never ceases to amaze me that we can have large chunks of the Island to ourselves but we hardly saw a soul when we walked past Arragon and onto the coast.

Maybe there will be a few people expecting Slieau Freoaghane to be like that in the morning. They need to be ahead of the time that the fell runners reach it. And the camera man.