​I’m picking up our travel journal at the Isle of Man. But first, let me explain something first.  One of my husband and my favorite movies is Waking Ned Divine. It’s a thirty year old, give or take a few years, Irish comedy. The story is about a man in a small village who wins the Irish Sweepstakes and the hilarity that follows.  Because this was not written by Americans, every time we expected one thing to happen, the film would go in a different direction. We just love it.
 
Turns out the movie was not filmed in Ireland but in the Isle of Man – which is part of the  UK.  It is also a very very small island. We  learned that on Sundays you can’t get pastries because it’s Sunday Roast day – please don’t ask me what one thing has to do with the other because I haven’t a clue! We learned that restaurants say they’re open till after 8pm but if no one comes in by 7:30, they send the cooks home and at 7:45 you’re just out of luck! I’m glad we weren’t there for more than two days because eating out was not easy lol.

Now what we did learn is that anyplace so small tends to be very friendly. The pub truly is everyone’s living room. The town has chairs set up in the square – I stayed in the smaller Castletown not the larger Douglas – and every night there’s something to watch. Our first night it was a Bee Gees concert. The second night it was a Wimbledon match. We thought it was a great way to spend a summer night, and definitely nothing we’ve experienced coming from bigger cities.

So – now comes the story. We arrived late, there were no cabs into town from the airport and a nice lady from the car rental counter stopped to help and wound up driving us to the hotel on her way home!  Seriously the kind of thing I would expect from one of the characters in my books.  But, it doesn’t stop there. Turns out her husband was on the lighting crew of the Waking Ned Divine film. She tried to find someone who could give us a tour on a Sunday but was unable to – so – she took us herself. Yep, a total stranger picked us up and drove us all over the filming sites and to a small time whose name I forget that she says was a must see.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend it highly (we watched it again that night on Youtube) and if you have seen it maybe you’ll recognize some of these shots! 
​Then the next day,  before she picked us up to take us to the airport – Yep, our new friend informed us getting a cab to the airport would be as difficult as getting a cab From the airport – we toured the Rushen castle.  There are videos on my Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@chriskenistonauthor/shorts - of the castle. They’re short snippets but it gives you an idea of what has been my favorite castle of the trip!
 
Here you’ll see the gate to enter. None of the other castles had that so it was kind of fun. Like you might see in an old Knights movie as someone is asking to come in.  There’s also a view from the top of our hotel and the square I mentioned  with the chairs for viewing the screen with the concert or the tennis matches, and lastly, a view of the island as we flew away to Manchester.  In Manchester we spent one night at the airport and next week I’ll share France with you!
​I am now back to working every day, even though I’m not home. I may not get as much done as I’d like, but I’m still on track to bring you Sweet Obsession in September and don’t forget that tomorrow is release day for Sweet Temptation!  I hope y’all enjoy book three of the Honeysuckle series as much as books one and two!

If any of you are waiting for more Farraday Digital Audiobooks, those should be coming fairly soon too!

Okay – I think that’s enough for one day! Enjoy – tell your friends about my books and my blog and see you next week!