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The Isle of Man sounds cracking for a holiday when you speak of being set in it's way, it is that way and crime being low. I had to laugh at the idea of a robber with his loot bag over his shoulder waiting for the ferry. I like the idea of people being society minded that is what is missing in Manchester, London and other big cities.

Blackpool will have changed since you visited. I always say that Blackpool used to be a big glamorous lady with lots of pizzaz and shine. The shine has now gone and instead of glamour things are seedy and rundown. Poor old girl needs a huge facelift.

There are lots of empty shops and hotels closed on the front many of them are run down with little or no sign of their past glory.

The council is spending huge amounts of money on the very centre of Blackpool and of course the trams began running again last April. What the council don't seem to get is that people drive around the rest of Blackpool in their cars and see the run down streets and empty shops.

Yes, Blackpool needs a facelift but how they can afford this when the weather is so awful and it is probably cheaper to go abroad for a holiday or even a week-end.

The outskirts of Blackpool for instance the road to Lytham St Anne's shows how Blackpool used to be but the huge shell of a Pontin's or Butlins holiday camp with its higgledy piggledy boarding up just looks awful. I am told this place used to be a prison camp before the holiday people moved in but now it is an eyesore of the highest proportion. Just opposite there are lovely sand dunes leading down to a gorgeous beach. Few people visit only the ones like us who like their dog to run free and enjoy a little time off his lead.

There are lots of crimes in the area but not as many as you would imagine. We live quite away out of the town and if we forget to lock the car it isn't really a big deal mostly retired people live around and it is very quiet.

I have no right really to criticise Blackpool as I am a Southerner by birth but have adopted so many places that I now look upon this area as home for the time being anyway.

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To be honest Cookie - you could be describing the Isle of Man as well there. Many of our former glories are now being left to decay - the Gaeity Theatre (of which I'm very proud) has been fully restored and rightly so but so many of our shopping areas have empty shops and businesses closing down so that everywhere has an air of neglect and being unloved about it. I wish authorities would take the same approach as the Bournville Village Trust who, if you don't keep the front of your home (private or rented), your front garden, your shop frontage up to scratch - you are out after three warnings have been ignored. How can people care about their area if it looks so drab and neglected?

I was watching Miranda' Hart's programme about Eric Morecambe the other night and they showed a beautiful venue that used to be Morecambe's crown jewel and it was all boarded up and neglected. Such a shame. One of the many reasons I don't think the human race is progressing, I think we're all moving, slowly but surely, back into our caves and only venturing out when it's necessary to do so.

Do you think you'll stay in Blackpool or will you end up moving on to pastures new? That fair ground would be a big attraction for me

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We don't seem to settle for long anywhere and that's not a bad thing except now we have hubs mum to think about.

I am a little nervous of your suggestion re the Bournville Trust we visited my son's mother in law in Bocca Rattan, Florida and she lives in a gated estate where there is a board of tenants who decide what the estate should look like. Jan told us that from the colour of your front door, to the curtains on your front window they had something to say. Your garden had to look a certain way and be kept neat and tidy, and once a friend visited driving an old pickup truck and she was told that this was not the kind of vehicle that the board liked to see.

She told us that she had to keep up with the Jones's so that if a house for instance had cladding then the rest of the residence were told that they needed to do the same. It may look like neat little boxes but they do all look the same.

I so agree with you that authorities should not allow neglect. Did you know that if a building is empty then the owner doesn't have to pay any rates, so it is cheaper for him to keep the building empty and ask silly prices to sell or rent it. Even the Blackpool Illuminations look sadly unloved and the Tower has lost its magic, although the Ballroom is an amazing place to visit.

We have a lovely little jam business and would love to rent a shop with cooking facilities but the prices are prohibitive.

I sometimes wonder what the likes of Eric Morecombe would say if they saw the state of some of the theatres and hotels. Everyone seems to be staying in as you say, I mean they even have on line casinos so why leave home, although it worries me seeing these adverts encouraging people to bet. There are people just like alcoholics who might find this onslaught of encouragement just too much and end up gambling again.

Not keen on the Fun Fair but that does still look good full of magic and fun but some of those rides would simply scare me to death.

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I remember visiting Blackpool for the first time when I was six and taking in the attractions. I hated it then, and when I visited it again as an adult I hated it even more, YUCK!

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Not a nice place Willow, the attractions don't attract and the old girl has let herself go and there is something sad about Blackpool now but I'm afraid it is a lot of holiday resorts. we brits just don't use them any more the weather is too awful to waste an annual leave of rain and cold.

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I am not sure if you consider Eastbourne a holiday resort, it is more Costa Geriatrica than anything else. We were unfortunate enough to be based there for nine months in 2005 We disliked it so much were were pleased to return to our home in Wales.

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Definitely not, I love 'em. Huntsman spiders are the most common in my house during wet periods. They eat all the nasty bugs, don't build webs (the name is a bit of a giveaway) while their bite is painful they are not harmful to humans.


Don't get many funnel web spider were I live but a fair number of redbacks (black widows) again personally I never kill them, they can make you ill if you get bitten and one killed one of my dogs years ago. I have had a family of redbacks live in my garage door for nearly 30 years. Nothing to worry about - never seen one in the house.


Orb spiders drive me up the wall some years because they make massive, very sticky webs across passages (outside - can be 2 metres across) and you walk into them. As I say very sticky.

Snakes are more dangerous but no one has died from snake bite since anti venom was invented. Where I live is too far into town to see any but once you get out of town you do see them if you look. Just make a lot of noise as you walk and most hide. Brown snakes are the only aggressive ones (territorial) but the chance of being bitten are pretty remote as long as you don't do something stupid like try to pick one up.

What else? Sharks? more likely to be run over by a bus. Really the fauna is the least of your worries compared with the danger of driving your car or crossing the road and who worries about that? More people die from rock fishing.

Saltwater crocs in the tropics are a different matter they do take people I read something like a child a year on average. Don't mess with them, don't camp near water; they are big and nasty.

Ironically when I was in the UK I went clay pigeon shooting with my brother. I was taking my usual precautions walking through the paddock making noise and keeping an eye out for snakes before he pointed out that it was not necessary. doh!

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Willow darlin' you obviously didn't know, but those of us who have lived in Sussex long enough, refer to Eastbourne and its surrounds at 'god's waiting room'. Coming along the coast further to the west is Peacehaven - or once again given another title by the locals - Geriatrica-on-sea.

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I have met some Tasmanian Devils - both in the wild and in a zoo. We have ahuge problem at the moment with a dreadful facial tumour they have contracted for which no cure has yet been found. Several healthy pairs have been isolated and some sent to zoos in other countries (such as Denmark because Princess Mary is a Tasmanian) for breeding so hopefully they won't become extinct as the Tasmanian Tiger did. They are quite small and nocturnal and not dangerous to humans although they make horrible snarling noises and do kill lambs and anything small they can catch.

As for spiders, we very rarely see dangerous ones in the cities and suburbs but redbacks can be discovered in outside toilets and inside boots etc in the bush and rural areas. We had a holiday shack at the lakes in the middle of Tasmania and my boys grew up knowing to shake out their rubber boots if they left them outside!

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This is what its all about, thank you thank you Bruce and Jaywalker, you see I am fascinated to hear about these spiders and snakes which you eventually learn to deal with just as we do rats and mice. I am shocked and horrified to hear about the poor Tasmanian Devil I would love to hear this snarling when he sounds like his bark is worse than his bite and I also think I am too big to be eaten.

We went to Florida and the Alligators there were a bit of a problem mostly from people keeping them as pets and then trying to get rid of them in the sewers. But the crocodile is just nasty I think they are the ones who first drown their prey and then take the body to their nest to feed. Makes my flesh creep.

Thank you so much for your time and lovely (if scary) pictures I appreciate this thread as just talking to you about what you had for lunch or dinner and asking what books you are reading seems to be such a waste of this communication opportunity.

I dunno about the Sussex coast being God's waiting room but I suppose many seaside places could be described as that, I can imagine people going on holiday year after year to the same place with dreams of retiring there. We did this with the Caribbean and came back after a year but that is another story.