There is a saying that I often use: ’Never allow an irritation to become an obsession.’

An irritation is a nuisance. It always seems to get in your way.

It could be something as simple as that barking dog three doors down or that red sports car with a noisy exhaust that wakes you up at the same time every day.

But when something has become an obsession, you will probably will be lying awake waiting for your unwanted alarm clock to go off.

We are fortunate in several ways. Not only is Pullyman Towers a detached bungalow, we are blessed with grade-one neighbours. They are what the pattern for neighbours was based on.

We moved to Onchan about 10 or 11 years ago. Parkinson’s disease was beginning to dig its heels in, and it was obvious that it was not going to get any better.

In those days, I was much more mobile than I am now. I was able to walk from Onchan to Douglas, enjoy a coffee either on the way there or on arrival.

In those days, we were blessed with a bus service that was second to none. It seemed as a if a parade of rolling stock was waiting for someone to open our front door and favour them by making use of their fleet of luxury vehicles.

Yes I’m just being facetious, but you know what I mean.

The fact was that we were served by four routes that travelled up and down Groudle Road, the star of which was the number 23.

This bus would travel to the four corners of the world, (well almost).

Slowly but surely, all good things really do come to an end. Our dreams became nightmares and the frequency of our service was gradually nibbled away until the last remaining survivor, a lonely one per hour number two, was all that we had left.

Now I’m sure that some folk somewhere might be delighted to give a right arm to have a bus service every hour, but to our standards, it’s a big drop in wages.

The man who runs the buses has done it again. On the surface,we have a bus into Douglas every hour, but in actual fact, our one per hour bus goes absolutely nowhere.

Allow me to explain.

Bus service number two reminds me of one of those birds that does everything on the wing.

It never lands. It passes by but never stops.

To demonstrate the last variation, it began its journey to Onchan, at the bus shelter on the Loch Promenade. Along the Prom to Summer Hill and upwards to the Manx Arms. It would loop around Ballachrink, down and through Lakeside into Groudle Road and rejoin Eskdale Road.

The devil is in the detail and this is where the plot starts to become tricky.

I’ll try to explain.

Before the latest ’adjustment’ we could hop on the bus in Groudle Road. This was the bus that is on its way back to Douglas via Onchan Village. We could leave the bus in Onchan and attend to our business. We then had one or two hours before the bus returned to Onchan to take us home.

All things change. Our bus still travels along the prom to Onchan. It still travels up Royal Avenue, and still arrives at Ballachrink. After Ballachrink, it still works its way through Lakeside Gardens and down Groudle Road .

It does everything that it should, except stop in the Main Road in Onchan Village.

Has anyone used a new mini bus?

I think it’s worth a phone call.

We were all excited the other day, they were taking the scaffold down from the office block opposite the sea terminal.

That’s good, I thought, it will be nice to see that site tidied up. It has been like that for years.

However, they must have had the wrong address. Unfortunately it’s back again.

Do you remember when that square was a bus terminal?

I do.