Loaghtan Books

   Sad isn't it? This box has now been reopened, but we are still having some problems with speedy postal deliveries as Covid has decimated the number of staff available for sorting and delivering - not only here on the Isle of Man, but also in the UK and probably globally too. Consequently we apologise if books ordered by post are not arriving as quickly as our customers (and we) might like.   I'm sure most of you know that it was the novelist Anthony Trollope who recommended that pillar boxes be introduced to Britain.  He was a Surveyor's Clerk working for the Post Office and had seen road-side letter boxes used in France and Belgium.  On his suggestion pillar boxes were trialled in the Channel Islands in 1952, and spread to the rest of Britain by 1854.  Lamp boxes, like the one above - so called because they were affixed to lamp posts or telegraph poles, were introduced in 1857.

  Odd looking ship isn't it?   We spotted it from the office windows just before Christmas.  It's a Dutch stone carrier, called, appropriately Rolling Stone .  It has nothing to do with the Isle of Man other than using the island as a handy shield to hide behind from a storm.  As the island is a very large rock in the middle of the Irish Sea, quite a lot of interesting ships pass, call in or lurk in Manx waters as needs dictate. After a day or two gently motoring up and down off Port Mooar, Rolling Stone headed off south east. Wonder what Mick Jagger would think?

Did anyone see the film 'Last Christmas' on television over the festive season?  Not a stunningly good film (I didn't like it), but we watched it to see whether we could spot ourselves in the crowd. It was filmed in 2018, much of it in Covent Garden, London, and we happened to be there.  We were kept well away from the action, of course, and I think our bit ended on the cutting room floor, but the above is one of the pics we took of the proceedings. For those of you who saw the film, the bit we weren't in is where the heroine gets bird droppings all over her.  For an interesting discussion about guano, see our newsletter 29, 30 and 31 on the website! I think the bird (briefly) shown was a peregrine falcon.  Magnificent.