Have any of you been to Monte Carlo for the Formula One car racing ?

Seriously, after 61 years, I now accept the costs because the TT is the special unique event.. Two weeks on an Island surrounded by bikes, birds and booze (I can dream at my age) and something to do every minute.

We are LUCKY it doesn't cost more, in the light of the way the pound buys a lot less than it did only just a few years ago.

The cost of petrol to run me up from Reading to Liverpool was OBSCENE this year and I am certainly not doing my ten laps of the course in the car this year.

In 1974 we could get a full tank of petrol for what we pay now for a large bunch of bananas.

Personally, I am as enthusiastic about the TT as I have ever been...

Unfortunately some old friends have passed on but we make new ones each year who fill in the gaps left.......

Paul Phillips and his team are working wonders to take the TT by its boot straps and throw it into the future...

I have my wonderful memories and my loftful of souvenirs of my 61 years as a TTFan but I ADD to them now, and have given up bleating about the good old days... We can never bring them back.

Speeds rise each year making the results of any accident too awful to think about. But who decided on the places we can no longer stand.. I query some of them.......

It's called progress I guess.

Sit and think long and hard that we are fans of a unique annual event and we are privileged to be present at it.......................