06.11.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:55 pm by Administrator
Before I get side tracked again, I want to share some pics from the Peel Castle, which is actually on St. Patrick’s Isle right next to Peel. The castle is believed to have been originally built around the 11th Century by the Vikings under the rule of King Magnus Barelegs. Ah, why is he called “barelegs?” Your guess is as good as mine, but there are a couple speculations. . . Here’s a picture with me at Peel Castle:
The background is the view looking northerly. Here’s a pic with Brian with the Peel Harbor in view behind him. That would be a view looking easterly.
The stone structure off to the left of the picture is the guard tower and houses a sculpture of the “Black Dog of Peel.” There’s a story about that dog, which was relayed on the audio tour of the Peel Castle. For ease, I’ve copied the story of it from this webpage and pasted it below. If interested, that page also has a pic of the sculpture.
LEGEND OF THE MODDEY DHOO (BLACK DOG)
In the reign of King Charles II (1660-1685) Peel Castle was occupied by soldiers. According to legend there was, within the castle, a large black dog that appeared mysteriously at night and would sit by the fire within the guardroom or keep. No one owned this huge hound but all treated it with great respect.
Each night, when the castle gates had been secured, two guardsmen would carry the key through the ancient chapel to the Captain’s quarters where he would take charge of it overnight. For fear of the the Moddey Dhoo (black dog) no soldier would walk that way alone in darkness. Until one night a young and slightly inebriated soldier threw down a challenge to his fellow guardsmen that he would walk the dark passages alone to see if the Moddey Dhoo was really a dog or the devil himself.
Legend has it that this foolhardy young soldier took the key of the castle and walked alone down the darkened passageways to the Captain’s room but never made it. For as he left to deliver the key the Moddey Dhoo stood up from its place by the fire and followed him. Moments later the castle rang with the terrified screams of the young soldier. No one knows what he saw that night for though he returned alive to the keep he never spoke a word. Within three days the guardsman was dead. Some say he died of fear having seen the Moddey Dhoo change into the fiend incarnate. We will never truly know for from that day on no soldier in Peel Castle ever saw the Moddey Dhoo again.
Here’s a view from inside St. German’s Cathedral. Supposedly there are mysterious sightings of the moddey dhoo there:
In case you’re wondering, that little white post in the grass with the #37 on it is one of the many markers around the castle to indicate what number on the audio to press to hear a narrative of that location. I actually prefer that kind of tour since we can move at our own pace. As you can see, the day was gorgeous, so it was nice to stop and enjoy just being there and taking in the sights.
Here’s a pic looking just the opposite direction from the pic above. It was difficult for me to read the inscriptions on the grave stones:
Below is a pic of one of the other structures in the upper area of the castle. If memory serves me correctly, this is St. Patrick’s Church and round tower, the chapel just beyond peeking out at the right. This area was supposedly once occupied by monks. I think it was a Celtic monastery. Apparently there was quite a bit of religious influence with the kings/rulers during those days. It is believed that this area (St. Patrick’s Isle) is where Christianity first came to the Isle of Man. The little red flag in the background displays the three legs of man, but is too far to make out in this shot.
As can be seen in these pictures, much of the castle is now in ruins although there is still the outer wall which seems to still encircle the whole castle. The sea can be seen on three sides of the castle. Here’s a view looking over the wall in the southerly direction.
They don’t show up here, but there were actually some kayakers down below in the water, and if you squint hard enough, you might be able to make out the sheep grazing on the grass.
Okay, there, I was able to get in some shots of the Peel Castle without letting too much of my narrative get in the way, ha! Since this castle is right on the sea, there is also a life station right next to it that houses the Peel Lifeboat. It’s manned by local volunteers and is run on charity donations. The castle can be seen in the background in the pic below. The stone building with the four windows is the Lifeguard Station. The ramp on the left ends right in the water.
Here’s a pic of their lifeboat while it is waiting for any sea emergency:
Okay, so it’s not the greatest shot, ha ha! But truth be known, there was not much room in there to stand back far enough to take a picture of the whole boat. And since it was hooked up to a tractor, which is ready to tow it down to the water at any given notice, when I stood back far enough, all I could see was tractor, and no boat, ha ha! There were steps that allowed for us to get a close up look, but again all the shots I took were very close up.
After visiting the Peel Castle we headed out to Glen Maye. We did come back to Peel another day to visit the House of Mananin and the Moore’s Kipper House, so will share pics on those later along with a couple more shots of Peel since I only got in one in the post I originally intended to share pics of Peel but instead went off on a tangent on money and cars, ha ha! Until next post, toodles!
Marlakins 
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06.10.08
Posted in Movie commentary, Uncategorized at 11:06 am by Administrator
Last night I watched a video rental called, Nanking. The caption on the cover reads, “The True Story of How a Few Brave Souls Saved the lives of Thousands.” I have read a bit about the Japanese invasion of Nanking in 1937-38, and also read about how there are Japanese today who deny the truth of what happened there, instead claiming that the accounts of what happened were gross exaggerations. What I didn’t know about was this group of about 15 Westerners who stayed behind and helped to save the lives of thousands of Chinese.
The film is a documentary, which includes historical pictures and live footage of the city prior to and after invasion, interviews with survivors of the Nanking invasion, some Japanese soldiers who participated in the campaign, and actors who read sections of the diaries of the 15 Westerners who stayed behind to help in whatever way they knew how. I’m blogging about this because I am touched by the bravery and resolve some people have to do what’s right. I am encouraged that there are people who have such fortitude to risk their own lives to help and protect others. In a world so rife with violence, hatred, and greed, there have always been a few who have stepped forward to uphold goodness and decency. They are the ones who not only act out and embody goodness, but who also expose evil. I think that is consistent with the Bible as stated in Ephesians 5:11:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (KVJ)
The New King James Version says:
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
I checked out the Blueletter Bible site to check on which word (reprove or expose) was a better translation for the Greek word in that passage. Just for fun, here’s what the passage looks like in Greek:
(By the way, Brian thinks that the Byzantine Textform is better than the Stephens’ Textus Receptus, but I would have to scan a copy of it, and it was easier to lift a copy of the above from the BLB site).
The page which shows the KJV in comparison to the Greek version can be viewed at the BLB site, but I’ve just copied the word that was used for reprove/expose.
The Greek word shown in its root is elegcho. The following is the definition of that word according to BLB.
1) to convict, refute, confute
a) generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted
b) by conviction to bring to the light, to expose
2) to find fault with, correct
a) by word
1) to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove
2) to call to account, show one his fault, demand an explanation
b) by deed
1) to chasten, to punish
Seems to me that both the KVJ and the NKVJ are pretty right on with their translation of the Greek word elegcho even though they both use “seemingly” different words (reprove and expose) . The meaning is still preserved when the context is understood.
So back to my original thoughts on the documentary of Nanking, since I sometimes struggle with my purpose in life and with whether or not I’m useful to anyone, I figured the least I could do was try not to participate in evil and also expose evil as we are told to do in Ephesians. I want to expose things for what they are and not whitewash events by glorifying war as an excuse to a means to bring about good. If I can’t personally help individuals, then at least I can acknowledge their plight. If the atrocities that occurred in Nanking were real, then I don’t want to minimize it and shove it in the forgotten past. I want to show and teach my kids good, yet my kids need to be aware of how evil men can be. They need to know what kind of world they live in since oftentimes we are immersed in lies and deceit. Even I need to remind myself of that because I often find myself incredulous of it all. Brian is repeatedly telling me of how naive I am and how trusting I tend to be. It’s something I struggle with. My mind knows one side, but my heart hopes for another. And in the midst of it all, I am blessed and encouraged when I learn of people who have withstood and prevailed against evil. I am in awe and admiration of the 15 people who risked their lives to help the Chinese. It is believed that in the end, they helped save the lives of about 250,000 Chinese. I often wonder from where does their fortitude come? I’m reminded of the saying in the Mulan cartoon, “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most beautiful and rare flower of them all.” Eh, not sure if I quoted that exactly, but the gist is there. . .
Happy Tuesday,
Marlakins
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06.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:37 am by Administrator
After we were finished browsing through the Tynwald Hill info at St Johns, Brian and I headed out to Peel to see what was there. I knew that the Peel Castle and Moore’s Kipper House were there, so that’s what I had in mind to find. As I mentioned previously, the island is quite small, so it didn’t take long for us to find Peel Castle. I forget the exact entrance price, but after speaking with the lady at the entrance booth, we decided to get a 4-site pass to save some money. Keep in mind that the U.S. dollars lose quite a bit of bang when traveling to the U.K. Our U.S. currency is only worth 1/2 of what the British pound is worth, sigh. . . Anyway, basically, the 4-site pass cost us 11 pounds each and gave us entrance to 4 different Story of Mann sites run by the National Heritage Museums. That is actually a good bargain, so I do recommend that if you want to visit several museum sites there. They have about 8 or 9 sites around the island. We were able to eventually visit 7 of them before it was time for us to leave.
I don’t have the “pound” sign on my keyboard, so I’ll just write pound out when referring to their money. Actually, the Manx have their own currency also called pounds, which is equivalent one to one to the English pounds, but can only be used in the IoM and not in England. However, the English pounds can be used on the IoM. Here’s a pic I lifted off of another website on Manx currency.
At first glance, the English pounds looked almost like the Manx currency to me, but after better examination, there are obvious differences. For one, Manx currency says, “Isle of Man Government” across the top, while the English currency says, “Bank of England.” Plus Manx currency has the three legs of Man symbol in the center. One may notice that on both Manx and English pounds appears Elizabeth. I say Elizabeth because on the English pounds Elizabeth is wearing her crown depicting her as Queen of England, while on “some” Manx pounds Elizabeth is shown “without” her crown depicting her a “lord of Man,” but not queen of Man. Remember that while IoM is part of the U.K., they have their own parliament separate from England. That’s what was explained to me, anyway. . . Quite a feisty group, I tell ya, ha!
Anyway, enough of that money stuff for now, here’s a shot of what a street in Peel looks like:
The roads were quite narrow in comparison to what I’m accustomed to in many streets here in Los Angeles, but there is some resemblance to some seaport areas around the U.S. The picture above shows a street that is restricted during certain times of the day to allow only pedestrian foot traffic. Since the streets tend to be narrower, it only makes sense that they also tend to have a lot more tiny cars than what I’m used to seeing here. Instead of road-hogging SUVs everywhere, we saw quite a few little cars like this (taken in Niarbyl):
And this taken in Port Erin:
Brian and I refer to these as the mini-mini vans, tee hee!
And since I’m on the subject of cars, I’ll skip ahead to a visit we had at the Peel Transportation museum, which displayed one of the cars they used to manufacture in Peel called. . . “The Peel.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with. . . “The Peel!”
I don’t believe they manufacture these anymore, but we did see a video presentation of a man 6′5″ driving this thing around. He did have to make two attempts at getting inside, ha!, but he managed to squeeze in and drive it around to the BBC Network building and even into their elevator and upstairs in their office, ha ha ha! There is no reverse, only a “handle” on the back of the car to pull it backwards. There are only three wheels, two in front, and one in back.
Okay, I just realized that I’m late for my knit group meeting, ack! I didn’t even get to put up pics from Peel Castle, so will try to get to it later. I also want to continue a bit on the driving there since there are significant, and to me, interesting differences. But for now. . . toodles!
Happy Saturday!
Marlakins
P.S. I don’t mean to say that they didn’t have larger cars there, they did. But there were a lot more smaller cars than I see here. We did see some SUVs like Land Rovers and a couple Jeep Cherokees, but not near as many large SUVs, and we didn’t see “any” Suburbans, Escalades, Hummers, and the like.
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06.05.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:29 am by Administrator
Day one actually started on the 15th of May. We left LA on the 13th, and because of the time adjustments and flight time, we landed on the Isle of Man on the 14th May. After getting checked in and settled, our first opportunity to head out was the 15th.
Since Brian and I are pretty conscious of the foods we eat, one of the first things we did before we left for the U.K. was look for organic markets online. We actually found a few listings, so by the time we got to the Isle of Man, we knew that our first destination was to hit the organic farmer’s market near St. Johns. Our lodging for the week was in Port St. Mary, which is on the southerly portion of the island. I’ve provided a map above to help visualize where things are. I think Port St. Mary is easy enough to distinguish on the map, but St. John’s is not. St. Johns is just inland from Peel near where all the roads illustrated by the green lines intersect in the tanish colored block. The island is rather small, so it hardly took any time to get anywhere. The island is about 33 miles long, and about 12 miles wide with about 100 miles of coastline. The population is about 80,000 island-wide. The place where our friends live is in Castletown, which has a population of about 3,000. More on Castletown later, tho.
To be honest, before I met my IoM friend, I was pretty oblivious to the IoM. I knew of England, Ireland, and Scotland, but I was not familiar with that little speck of land in between them in the Irish sea that I now know is the IoM . After visiting, I was even more amazed at how far the inhabitants of the isle have influenced parts of history. But getting back to my travelogue, from Port St. Mary, we drove to Port Erin, then up to Peel, and then to St. Johns for the organic farmers’ market. Here’s a view of Port Erin as we drove by.
I was very much impressed by the terrain there because it was so nice and green and lush. Many of the fields were dotted with sheep, and knowing my love for knitting and yarns, the sight of sheep makes me very happy! But more on the sheep later! Ha!
I’d say it took about 15 minutes or so for us to reach Peel and then another 5 or 10 minutes more to find the farmer’s market. It was located just off one of their main roads, and the hint that we were near it was a line of parked cars along what seemed like to us in the middle of nowhere, ha! So we parked amongst them. When we got out, we saw this little sign:
Hmmm. That “potatoe” looks spelled funny, ha! But no matter! It’s organic! Ha! Walking along a little further, this is what we saw:
It turned out to be a “tiny” farmers’ market in comparison to the ones we have here in LA. But we found the produce very nice anyway, and boy their site location beats ours any day! How lovely to have a market right in the lush green forest, than our blocked off asphalt roads. . . I’d say there were only three tents there, one which sold breads, veggies, and organic eggs, another for herbs in potted planters, and another for cooked meals like the soups and baked potatoes. Here’s another shot of some of their potted plants for sale. I picked up a couple for our friends.
From the sign on the top left corner of the picture, it lists charcoal just under the mushrooms. I found that in the IoM, they still burn coal fires in their homes in addition to wood fires. the only charcoal I know of here in the U.S. is for outdoor BBQs, and even then we tend to use mesquite. I noticed at the filling stations they sold both coal and wood there, which I thought was interesting.
Here’s a picture of Brian after we made our selection of stuff. I love how happy he gets when he shops for organic stuffs, ha! He’s fun to shop with when it comes to herbs and plants.
He wanted to try a bunch of their herbs, and we also found a different variety of broccoli there, that I liked. The florets looks like the regular broccoli, but they were in much smaller bunches and on longer, thinner stalks. To me it looked like a cross between Chinese broccoli and our regular broccoli. I should have taken a pic of them, but I figured there must be pics online for that variety. Hmmm. Would have been easier if I just took a pic of it, but oh well. . .
Just down the road from the farmers’ market is Tynwald Hill. Now this is another one of the many things I’ve learned is that the IoM has the longest standing continuous parliament in the world. According to this link, Tynwald is of Norse origin and over 1,000 years old, and is thus the oldest parliament in the world with an unbroken existence. Normally, they meet in the town of Douglas, but on Tynwald Day, they meet at Tynwald Hill. Here’s the plaque that explains a little more.
Here’s what the hill looks like. If you squint hard enough, you might see me standing by the flagpole in the middle.
During the ceremonies, this hill has seating arrangements and a tarp over the top. A picture of what it looks like in action can be viewed here.
This is a view from where I was standing looking across to the St. Johns’ chapel. The little structure on the right side of the chapel has a few exhibits inside that explain more of Tynwald and it’s history.
Now, isn’t that just a gorgeous view? It makes me want to take in a deep breath, and “breathe.” something about clear skies and lots of green (in contrast to our congested asphalt and concrete cities) that gives me a refreshing feeling. Just behind the chapel is an arboretum. Amongst the paths and foliage were lots of birds including ducks and chickens like this one here.
I did take quite a few shots of the birds and such, and as usual, it always makes me wonder if these animals speak the same language as the one in America or other parts of the world. But more on animals later!
After visiting Tynwald Hill, we headed over to Peel to see what we could see there. Stay tuned for a continuation of day one.
Marlakins
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06.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized, cooking at 9:44 am by Administrator
I’m generally pretty good with my diet. That is, I pretty much stick to *my* tailored diets, although some people may not think my diet is very healthful, ha! But because of certain health conditions I’ve had, my diet has been a bit odd at times. An example is the things I tend to eat for breakfast. If you’ve followed along with my blog, you may notice that my breakfasts consists of foods that are similar to lunch and dinner. The reason for that is I’ve been avoiding grains for quite some time, which unfortunately means no rice, no pancakes, no waffles, no cereals, no breads. . . As my health has appeared to improve, I have managed to re-introduce some foods that I had been avoiding such as pastry flour and pinto beans. So far so good. However, while on vacation I broke the “bread” fast. . . I couldn’t help it, bread is my weakness. I tried to at least stick to whole grains, and decided to go with rye flour. Interestingly, I seemed to do well with it! And since I know that I seem to do well with pastry flour, too, my youngest son and I came up with our own bread recipe. Aaron, my youngest son, likes to cook, thank God! I suggested the ingredients, and he recommended the amounts of each. Of course, I recommended to cut down on the amount of sucanat, but overall I was happy with the way our recipe turned out. We’ve decided to name the recipe “AM Buns.” A for Aaron and M for Marla/Mom. Here’s what our first batch looked like when they came out of the oven yesterday. I think the brownish color comes from the sucanat? Not sure. . . Oh what am I thinking??!! The rye likely is giving it the darker color. . .
Well, I know they’re not as pretty as Kath’s breads or as fluffly. . . , but I thought they tasted decent for my standards, ha! The other boys in my family liked them, so that was also a good sign. This morning I cooked up another batch to see if they were repeatable or just a fluke. I’m happy to say that they came out, again! One plus is that these don’t need rising time. Just mix and chuck in to the oven. So here’s the recipe:
AM Buns
preheat oven to 400F and butter 2 cookie sheets
2 heaping cups organic whole wheat pastry flour
2 heaping cups organic whole rye flour
2 tbsps baking powder (used Rumford which advertises no aluminum)
a big pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup sucanat
1/3 cup organic sesame seeds
Mix all dry ingredients. Add spring water to mix the ingredients. Sorry that I haven’t measured the exact amt of water, but mix it to the consistency of cookie dough (not too dry). Shape into even balls almost the size of your palms and flatten out a tad. Score the tops and dust with pastry flour, then bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Serve with butter and/or whatever else you like to spread on bread! Enjoy!
Marlakins
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06.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:17 am by Administrator
To start off my travelogue of the Isle of Man and London, I wanted to put in a plug for the bed and breakfast lodging we stayed in for eight nights at the Isle of Man. This bed and breakfast house has a Victorian theme. The rooms are furnished and decorated in Victorian fashion. Not only is the house decorated in that era, but the hosts, Kath and Reggie, dress the part as they serve breakfast. Kath is a wonderful cook! Her breads are delicious! And while there were several choices on her breakfast menu, I just loved the kippers, so had those most mornings. Oh, I suppose I should mention the “name” of this bed and breakfast? Why, it’s called the Aaron House in Port St. Mary’s on the Isle of Man. Here’s Brian sitting at the front steps:
The house is situated right in the middle of the block, nestled amongst a row of other Victorian Houses. It actually reminds me a lot of parts of San Francisco, but this house is right on the waterfront. I thought for sure Brian took a shot of the view from the bay windows, but alas, I can’t find a shot! But here is a shot of one side of the street showing the row of Victorian homes.
Our room was on the third floor. There were no elevators, so we just walked up the stairs each night. I must admit after walking all day visiting sites, then doing the last three flights of stairs in the evening gave my rear a work out, ha! Here’s me at the top of the hallway standing just opposite our room door.
The more expensive suites had bathroom access from their rooms, but we had to go down this 1/2 flight of stairs to get to our bathroom. It was exclusive to us during our stay, but we were also given a “key” to the bathroom to keep it locked while other visitors were there in case they decided to use our bathroom. This was actually the first time I’ve ever stayed in a lodge where the bathroom was down the hall a bit. But it turned out fine, and again, I don’t know why I didn’t take a pic of the bathroom since it was also rather cute. A funny thing I found was that there appears to be the impression that Americans don’t like baths, and will only take showers. That was a new one on me. Since the hostess knew we were Americans, she offered us the only bathroom with a shower, the rest have tubs. Anyway, I did take a pic of the “key” to the bathroom door because this was a different kind of a key. . .
Now that I’m sharing our pictures, I’m realizing what a poor job we’ve done of capturing this cute lodging! I’ve missed the view of the bay from the front, I’ve neglected to take a pic of the cute bathroom, and now I see that the pics I’ve taken of our room also do not do justice to the quaint decor. Here is our one shot which does *not* show the small fireplace, or the vanity, or the armoire for our clothing.
I will say that the bed was very comfy. The sheets were fresh and pressed ready for each evening, and the comforter was just warm enough, but not too hot. For more pictures of the Aaron House rooms check out their link as they also had a parlour and a reading room available to us where I was able to read a bit on Manx Murders, heheh, and some of their fairytales. Each night we’d come back to find freshly baked cakes.
While I’m on the subject of food, the breakfast menu had a nice selection from pancakes and waffles to bacon and eggs to kippers and smoked haddock. I think my Filipino taste buds really surfaced here because I really enjoyed the kippers and requested to have them almost each morning while there. Here’s my first plate of it, heheheh:
Kath baked fresh bread each morning:
Now these are “organic” “whole wheat” breads! The advertisement that organic foods were served for breakfast was actually the first lure for me to check this place out. We did learn something here, too, that they don’t have “red” wheat there. Their whole wheat is naturally light, kind of like our whole wheat pastry flour. Kath made lots of other breads, but here’s another shot of only two other types, the ones on the right with the currants are scones and boy did I love those!
Since I liked the kippers so much and Kath knew we were interested in local foods and stuffs, she suggested I try the smoked haddock. This is milder than the kippers. It is smoked, then boiled in milk and served with butter and bread.
Now I hope not to mislead people as from my pictures it might sound like this is what Manx “normally” eat each day. Kath mentioned that it was not all that common for Manx people to eat kippers for breakfast as I was doing. I just loved it, so that’s what I had. Other breakfast foods on the menu included pancakes with maple syrup, waffles, eggs and toast, cereals, etc. Brian particularly like their porridge which you had to request the night before because it is soaked overnight in milk, I think, then cooked and served with butter. I had a taste and it was actually quite nice!
We had the option of having breakfast taken up to us in our room in the morning or coming downstairs for breakfast in the dinning room. We chose to come down each morning since I really like the view from their bay window in the morning. We could look out at the bay and watch the kids walk by as they went to school. One morning there was a line of kids standing out front, and they noticed Brian and me in the window. It was funny because for some reason when I was sitting in the bay window, I felt like I was in a cozy nook and I could see out, but no one could see me. I was obviously wrong! Ha! I don’t know why I felt that, but I did. So it was surprising when the kids started to wave hello to us! Ha ha! Some waved, and a couple had their hands up uncertain if we would wave back. When we waved back they started to wave to us, ha ha! So sweet.
So there’s my plug for the Aaron House! I would recommend it to anyone, although there are some restrictions such as no children allowed, and no smoking. While I know this wasn’t the perfect plug for them (I missed some good shots), I hope I at least conveyed the message that we really enjoyed our stay there. If we were ever to go back again, I would seriously like to return there again.
Marlakins
P.S. Just a little trivia that I found interesting. . . Here in America we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There in the UK I was told they have breakfast, dinner, and supper. What we call lunch, they call dinner. What we call dinner, they call supper. Good to know if you plan to make dinner arrangements!
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