Three legs good…
The Grey family are back from a week in the Isle of Man, a small Island in the Irish Sea. The pace of life is much gentler there and it is great for a holiday, although it has seen better times. (Several Douglas Hotels were boarded up, with warning signs that they were being used to train Police dogs).
The Island is very dependent on its flight and sea links to the UK and Ireland for logistics. On our first day, we went shopping at (the only) Tesco to stock up on provisions and the cooked chicken display was empty- an apology was written on the glass in chinagraph, saying “No roast chicken- The boat didn’t come today”.
The symbol of the Nation is the Manx Triskelion, three armoured legs with spurs arranged with a threefold rotational symmetry. The angles and the direction of rotation do seem to vary though, a thought which didn’t occur to me until I started reviewing my photographs.
Here are some I snapped round the Island, some snipped from larger photos. A brief description can be found by hovering.
I think the first time I saw the design was on receiving a postcard of the Laxey Wheel from a friend as a teenager. It struck me that if I was a one legged man, a machine based on the design would prove very useful, should I be invited to an Arse-kicking Party.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
It does probably not speak in my favour :), still I do confess: I’ve learnt something new here. Very interesting. Thank you.
Well, and the apology at Tesco’s made me smile.
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Sean, if I had taken my pocket camera to Tescos I would have snapped the apology because it made me smile as well.
I missed out an arse kicker, a clockwise yellow fridge magnet.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
And some are going clockwise and others in reverse. Very weird symbol.
August 4th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
To be fair, some are reversible, such as the ones at the top of the lamp posts and the ones on cheap flags. It seems the old ones are anti-clockwise, the more recent ones clockwise.
The other thing Man was famous for was birching miscreants and whilst they no longer carry out corporal punishment, the symbol still implies to mje that you could get your bottom kicked if you stepped out of line.