Tynwald Day

I?ve come down with a bad case of MCS, an illness characterised by the urge to take a fellow Rock Dweller down a peg or two. The symptoms are outbursts of righteous indignation and incoherent ranting, followed by vague feelings of guilty unease ? followed by more ranting and so on. Manx Crab Syndrome got its name through generations of fishermen watching crabs pull each other away from escape. A crab figures, ?Buddy, if I?m stuck here in this miserable net pot, so are you.?

I don?t often get MCS, but I?ve got it bad this time. My town on the Rock is hosting a week-long Viking Festival, complete with a working Viking village on the beach, just like in the old days. Only this particular village has one of the stages used at Glastonbury plonked down on the sand only yards away. It kinda ruins the whole effect, ya know? Aside from two nights of ?tribute? bands ? and the resulting out-of-place stage - I think it?s a great idea. No, it?s not the Viking Festival that bugs me, it?s the modern clutter they?ve tacked on to the side.

My Manx Crab is snapping at the man who organised the festival, purely to create a week long advertisement for his property development company. The commercial aspect is why he?s brought in the bands - he?s squeezing every last drop out of Preserving Heritage. I feel like he?s turned my neighbourhood into an amusement park. He likes to spout about how much good he does for the community, but ordinary locals can?t afford his conversions. I?ve also spotted him eyeing up the building I live in, with his clipboard in hand in the middle of the street... Sheesh.

But that?s beside the MCS point. The point is, you can?t move down my end of town without seeing huge banners blocking the view with his logo. His theme supersedes the Viking theme. A huge grandstand has been erected on the beach, blocking the view of the castle, Viking village and bay, draped in? you guessed it, banners that announce his presence with not a Viking in sight.

I don?t suppose it would be getting on my nerves so much if it wasn?t all happening on my doorstep. And anyway, I don?t understand what Abba, Queen and the Bee-Gees have to do with Vikings. Arrgg? they?re doing a sound check now by the sounds of it, and that will only be for the ?Free Beach Party? tonight. Free? I don?t normally have to pay to walk on the beach! It?s loud anyway. Have I mentioned that the stage is only around 400 yards as the crow flies (if that), from where I sit? Yep, there were people sitting farther away from that stage when it was at Glastonbury than I am now, only presumably they didn?t have three buildings blocking their view. ~sigh~

Yeah, so, MCS. I?ll get over it in a few days. It?s none of my business that a local is making money off this ? even though it is at my inconvenience. Hoards of people are enjoying themselves, including the Viking role play people. (Is there an official name for role-play people?) I know what the cure is ? take a deep breath and chill out, Ann. Get off your soapbox before you fall over and get hurt. It will all be over Sunday evening. If you can?t let go of this, please seek the assistance?

By the way, today is Tynwald Day

?The observer at St. John’s on 5th July, the Manx National Day, watches a ceremony which has continued unchanged, except in detail, for more than 1,000 years. The annual outdoor sittings of Tynwald, the Manx Parliament, date back to the Viking settlements which began in the eighth century of the first millennium AD. No other parliament in the world has such a long unbroken record.? ( tynwald.org )