Finn's birthday is on the 2nd of October, and so it is really the first story of the month. So let's start with the nice year-by-year picture for the past five years:
It is always surprising to see how much he has grown over the past year. Time seems to creep along until a year, or five, go by. How long ago, and how far away a year ago now seems. For instance, a year ago we couldn't have had Finn's cousins to the birthday dinner:
It was lovely having a space large enough to fit in the cousins, aunt, uncle & granny into the place to make the event very special. Finn did indeed find it very special, despite "just" being a meal with the family around. It was questioned why we didn't do as all Finn's friends have had for their birthdays - a hired venue with heaps of friends and party games etc., but just having family around was enough for Finn. He enjoyed it immensely!
It will, however, be the last time that we're able to get away with such a small-scale affair, we fear.
Even if there wasn't a All-Friends-Around-For-Cake-And-Games party, Finn sill had a very special weekend, thanks to its coinciding with the Heritage Open Days.
These are where access is allowed to unusual "heritage" places. There was a large list of things, nearly all of which we wanted to do, but we limited ourselves to just two or so a day over the two weekends it was offered, which was already a lot!
Cori and I each got to steal a few tours on our own, Cori to the Manx National Heritage "large object store" (including all the stuff which is too volumous and large to go into the museums), the Gaiety Theatre and an archaeological tour of Peel Castle; and I got a tour of the industrial back end of Peel. But the most of it was done as a family.
Finn's birthday weekend happily fell over the tours of the steam train sheds and the electric tram sheds. The first of these was a truly brilliant experience, which we all enjoyed immensely.
It was drizzling when we arrived for the first of the day's tours, and, even though it was fully booked, we were the only ones who turned up, and so we (by which we mean, Finn) has a personalised tour by two or so volunteers. This meant that they personally walked us around the amazing sheds, explaining everything to us at our own pace, which, with Finn, was extremely slow and detailed. We were there for well over our allotted hour, watching the second group of tour people entering the sheds as we pulled the levers in the signal box. A great time, and a perfect thing for Finn's birthday!
We did not, however, go an a train - that would have to wait for another weekend (before the end of the month, when they closed for the season).
The tram sheds were much less exciting in comparison, as they were much more modernised, and the tour was full of people, and the guide was a bit rubbish (especially for children). We had trouble keeping Finn engaged, but at least we got to peep the (extremely loud!) horn of the tram!
Another bonus was that it was a gorgeous day and so perfect to sit out and enjoy our lunch with a cup of tea at the end of the horse tram route.
It was here that Orry horrified us all by grabbing the tea's tiny milk-jug and drinking it when we weren't looking. It was emergency stations! But we gave him his antihistamine, worried ourselves through five or ten very quiet minutes, and emerged shaken but safe. Phew!
Despite expectations, Finn's favourite Open Day was not to the train, but to the WWII bunkers hidden in fields up in Bride, which used to be connected to since-removed radar stations. We had shown him a video about it a week or so earlier, to test the water, and he was adamant that we had to go on the tour. We joined a group of 30-40 people, the youngest of whom was certainly us (as in, all of us!). We strolled through the fields accompanied by an interesting talk by Charles Guard (who Finn wouldn't stop calling "Claus", confusing Charles with "Clive" the name of our landlord), but Finn was absolutely riveted to it all and he couldn't get enough of it all.
Finn wouldn't stop speaking about it after we were done, telling everyone about it for weeks after. He now refers to Charles all the time (a month later), suggesting that we give him a call to tell him about this or that which we see when we're out and about, or else suspecting that we're going to meet him when out on a walk.
The desire to live the tour again did mean that he lept at the opportunity to draw the suggestion that he draw it, in every single thank you card for his birthday! One also went to Charles Guard, who was delighted to receive it (he said!). Mind you, it was a rather excellent picture:
We rushed from the Radar Stations back to Peel for a tour of the archaeology of Peel Castle. The boys were not into it so we sloped off early, leaving Cori to gorge herself in her thing. But when we went out we had to walk very close together, silently, not looking at the very real Moddey Dhoo, which Finn could not be convinced wasn't real and liable to follow him down some dark passage to leave him speechless and dying... which seems hardly very likely when you actually look at the thing!
As was mentioned earlier, getting the tour of the train sheds meant that we than had to take a trip on the train. It was, inevitably, lovely:
However, it would have been all the more lovely had the weather not been quite terrible once we started walking into town at Castletown (having got the 30 minute or so journey from Douglas). We got utterly and miserably drenched. Things got less shivery after a trip to the charity shop for dry clothes for the boys and a cup of tea in a cafe, and then they brightened entirely when we got to the Nautical Museum and we bumped into Granny there (who we'd failed to meet up with when getting on the train).
The Museum gave us an opportunity to dress up, which was fun. But you will note that it was not the children who obeyed the necessity of availing oneself of dress-up clothes in a museum:
Looking ahead to his birthday, we tried to get some pictures of Orry by the train, some of which came out lovely:
Also lovely was the trip back to Douglas with granny!
As was suggested by the stories of the rain at our train shed tour and in Castletown, the weather is taking a turn for the worst. After the glorious days of summer, we're beginning to get an ominous idea of what it might be like for many months to come...
This, by the way, for those who don't know Peel, is the main shopping street in our City. It is, as you might see, something of a change from our previous city!
This means that we feel the need to get out whenever we can now, such as to Peel Castle for lunch (as October was the last month it was open before closing for the winter):
Also, the beach is something which will become harder to enjoy over the coming months. Indeed, it is actually too cold now to enjoy, but it doesn't seem to put Orry off!
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