Ere, Sheal. Been Horseriding recently?

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/manx-link-to-lady-godiva-1-4831540

 

Sorry Zigs, I've only just seen this. I haven't been able to raise GC on Google until today, since Wednesday.

Well, I'm certainly no Godiva and I'm not Manx either, but I'll mention this to a very good Manx friend of mine, she'll probably just laugh at me.

The island has now got Anglo-Saxon occupation though, that's my blood line I think. My uncle traced our family back to the 15th century and we originate from Foulness Island off Shoeburyness in Essex.

Oh! And I haven't ridden since I was fourteen, I'd probably need a winch now to get me on one.

 

There's an actual place called Foulness Island? It sounds lovely

 

It lives up to it's name Clueless, well sort of. It's a small island and the army use it as a firing range. There are still resident farmers there but not much else, it's flat and is surrounded by mud flats. The general public are not allowed access and I would probably have to gain permission to go there. My maiden name would probably get me the pass.

 

Years ago the wife and I did a stint living in Whitehill, near Boredom in Hampshire. Our house was on the very edge of the village. Straight over the road was some woods. Every morning at about 5AM, we'd be rudely awakened by some bloke blowing a whistle, which clearly annoyed people enough to try to shoot him with all manner of weapons by the sound of it. The noise was obviously an army training range.

After about a week, the wife and I decided to explore the area for nice walks. One such exploration took us into the woods. After walking for a while, we came upon a barbed wire fence which had obviously been quite secure before a tree had fallen on it, so we just stepped over it and walked on. We saw strange little wooden signs here and there that meant nowt to us, and then I spotted a couple of bullet shell cartridge thingies (I don't know the term, but i mean that the back half of a bullet where the explosive charge lives, that is discarded from a gun on firing. I shrugged, figuring it was off poachers, and we carried on. I kept spotting little patches of several of these empty ammo shell thingies, then the penny dropped. The army practice shooting somewhere nearby, we'd crossed a busted barbed wire fence, about two miles ago, we'd passed loads of signs that meant nowt to us having never seen the symbols before, we had probably wandered into a live firing range. I can tell you it took us a lot longer to get into those woods than it did to get back out. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. I'm not sure what was worse, fear of being accidentally shot, or fear of having to explain ourselves to trained soldiers.

 

I think the British are so used to living in a non-gun society, that we don't actually think or worry about these things until we get ourselves in a predicament, when the penny has dropped.

You wouldn't have seen me for dust either Clueless. I've never liked guns and last summer I found out I actually have a phobia. My family had booked a session at a clay pidgeon shoot for my husbands birthday. We all turned up and as we all parked I could hear firing and I froze in my seat. I felt sick and I was sweating. I eventually drove out and said I'd go back for them later, I just couldn't cope with it. I don't think I could live in America either, I'd never leave the house.

 

Non-gun society is a quite optimistic definition I would say in the case of Britain.

 

I think Sheal means that it is very unusual to encounter guns in our society, except at organised events, ie they are easy to avoid and most of us don't even have to give any thought to it.