Since Cori has her new job, in a Museum where the emphasis is on the school holidays, it landed on me to look after Finn for the two weeks that our nursery was closed over the summer break. Naturally enough, I thought that I would take Finn back to the Isle of Man… Cue picture of the Isle of Man!
Finn and I had been alone to the Isle of Man back at Easter, but that was only for four days, and that was tortuous, with Finn in the worst mood that I’ve ever known him to have. However, I forced myself to believe that he would be fine this time around and that seven days wouldn’t be too much. And, in the end, I was completely right – seven days wasn’t enough – Finn was enjoying every minute of it and it was a shame that we weren't there longer to do more!
Finn really got a lot from the trip and he was really engaged with so much of what we did; it wasn’t just enjoyment, but real engagement and happiness.
The first, and perhaps most obvious, of Finn’s joys was the abundance of cars:
But, more than an multiplication of what he has at home, there were also the sort of car that he was able to sit in!
But topping all of these was the real car that he got to ride in. Finn loved to ride in the car. Loved! We had to drive in it at least once a day, and he didn’t tire of it even once, even after quite long drives around the island (though he did often fall asleep en route). He particularly liked it when granny wasn’t in the car, when I would hear his quite “wow” or “wee!” accompanying our swift attack of the winding Manx roads! (Unfortunately, there is no picture of Finn in a speeding car, but I hope that you can imagine it!)
After the cars came the trams – Finn loves trams. Loves! We’ve not been able to take one before, because they only run during the summer, but I was amazed by how intensely turned onto the experience Finn was – even after half an hour on the tram, he was still quietly staring with his concentrating-frown as we rattled along from Ramsey through Maughold. (Apologies for the poor picture, but it’s the best I got!)
I was a little nervous about being in the outside carriage, I have to admit, but Finn was too busy taking it in to fidget even a bit. We got off at Ballaglass Glen, where we went for a very nice walk before eating our packed lunch and returning for the tram home (through which Finn slept).
I didn’t think we had time to complete the transport set, but I was delighted when there was some time in the morning of our last day to get the steam train from Douglas to Ballsalla (where the airport is). I can’t remember ever having been on the train (though I know I have been), so I think that I was almost as excited as Finn when we got to the train station – it is a really giddy-exciting sight, even for someone who doesn’t really care for trains. Though, to be honest, I don’t actually think that I came anywhere near Finn’s excitement upon first seeing the trains – he ran towards them with his arms aloft shouting (I mean shouting!) “Train! Train! Train!” (The giddy confusion of excitement wasn’t lessened by having a digger and a row of buses to pass by on the way to get into the train!)
However, when we got on, Finn wasn’t so excited, as there is little to see from within the carriage, so I was rather glad that we were getting off half way along the route. (I suspect that the older male train enthusiast tourists were also rather glad to be shot of us, as I’d entertained him through the journey by spotting sheep and cows, with the appropriate noises etc.). Granny, of course, was there to meet us, and Finn was able to wave the train off with a “Bye, bye” – although not before being seriously frightened by the real-life “choo-choo”, as heard from the short distance illustrated by this otherwise lovely photograph:
However, the one experience that Finn enjoyed most of all was the Agricultural Show. I had hoped and suspected that it might go down well with Finn, though I also feared that he could have been bored or frustrated by it – I don’t think any of us would ever have expected for him to have enjoyed it as much, as intensely, and for as long as he did! We arrived at around 10am, and we didn’t leave until around 3pm. Finn was, I assure you, in his pram for only the first 30 minutes of that, before he leapt out and ran around leading the way and shouting excitedly for the next 4.5 hours! The reason for this is pretty much given in one picture:
But the Finn-excitements didn’t stop at the tractors – he amazed me by being absolutely enthralled by the animals there for the show. I had to be on guard to stop him from climbing into the sheep pens and I couldn’t stop him from reaching in to stroke everything, whether they were happy about it or not! Most impressive though was his greeting all of the sheep (he especially liked the sheep) – he would crouch down by the pen and stick his head and arms through the bars to wave at them and shout repeatedly “Ello sheep!” The only way to get him to move on was to distract him with the sheep in the next pen, gradually moving him towards the place where we actually wanted to get to! Then there were the cows. Then there were the antique tractors. Then there were the antique cars. Etc.
Worth a special mention from the show was the band that struck up as we went past – a swing jazz quintet composed of old gents who looked as though they were probably around to remember the Good Old swing jazz days very well indeed! Finn was, inevitably, enthralled. Knees bobbing and hands rolling (in a wind-the-bobbin-up fashion) – dancing like a legend in his Viking hat and with either his concentrating frown on or a smile of glee. He really enjoyed it. Really. I, however, enjoyed it less so when he saw me sat down and demanded that I stand up and dance with him (though thankfully only for a moment before he forgot about me and got back to concentrating on the band and boogieing)!
Also worth a special mention was the constant admiration for Finn’s hat from complete strangers that we passed in the Show. I had received such comments about once every time we’d been out on the island (where people are more friendly than London, and probably more inclined towards home-knitted horned hats), but it was almost ridiculous the number of people who told me how great the hat was and followed up by asking where I’d got it from. Obviously Cori should get to knitting up a stall’s worth for next year’s show!
Finn’s enjoyment of “stuff” on the island was, as I’m sure you know by now, intense and off-the-scale at times. But he enjoyed most of all just hanging out with his cousins and granny (and auntie and uncle, of course… but, to be honest, they didn't really get a look in with the boys around!).
(Note from that last picture that another great joy for Finn on the island was the relaxing of rules about sweets, chocolates, pop and treats – grannies are good for that!)
It was fantastic to see Finn really get stuck into whatever it was that the Morris Mob was up to (and to see the boys help Finn to join in so much – thanks, Thomase, Oliver and Jake!). The last time we were over, Finn was still crawling, but now that he is walking he can really get stuck in – such as in throwing water over everyone whilst nudie in the back garden in the beautiful warm weather:
Finn has always been surprisingly good at being comfortable with others and quickly fitting into being one of the gang, but it was especially good to see him do so over a (relatively) extended period with his cousins, really getting to be good mates with everyone. Unfortunately, he wasn’t up to managing Thomase and Oliver’s more difficult names, but he would shriek “Jake! Jake! Jake!” in hope and expectation whenever they were mentioned! (In fact, Finn took an especial shine to Jake, which surprised me – maybe because he understood that he was closer to him in age…?) His chumminess with Jake is shown nicely in this picture taken at the water park within the Mooragh Park, where Finn is repeating on Jake my belly slaps on him of moments earlier:
And another picture of Finn and Jake hanging out (which is also a nice depiction of anarchic fun that is liable to ensue at granny’s!):
Indeed, this amount of boisterous play from the older boys meant that it was generally impossible to keep Finn from joining in – even barriers and perilous drops did not deter him!
In short, Finn enjoyed himself immensely on the Isle of Man. But perhaps equally impressively for me was how he also enjoyed himself doing some of the things that I wanted to do. Like most parents, I am prone to not do things because I think that it will be too painful or not-fun with a toddler, but Finn was in such a good mood, and I was so keen in the good weather, that we were able to do lots of things that I wanted to do. This included going to see the pre-historic stone circle of Cashtal yn Ard in Maughold (the picture is from our lunch break by the old tholtan, just down from the stones (great picture, Oliver!)):
We also got to look around Rushen Abbey, which I’d effectively never seen before (although my enjoyment was rather hampered by Finn inevitably eating all of my biscuits when we had of cup of tea!):
But certainly the most impressive of all was his happily being carried up to Corrin’s Folly overlooking Peel (with a fair amount of huffing and puffing from his father on the way up the steep hill!). The trip took at least an hour (after the 30-minute car journey), through which Finn didn’t complain for even a moment – indeed, I even extended it at the end to go and see a few Geeky-Manx-Anorak tourist sites (such as the home of Sophia Morrison, which I discovered to now be a demolished and vacant lot opposite a petrol station!). Of particular note on the hike was our stop for our packed lunch at the top by the tower - Finn happily sat still chomping his way through cheese and jam sandwiches followed by a banana and a “snack” (which translates as a chocolate bar or some other such treat). There on the top of the hill with the sea on one side and that beautiful green island on the other, I felt perfectly contented and happy, and happy that Finn was there with me – perfect!
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