Of all the gadgets and mobility aids that help me get through the day, and believe me, I’ve got one or two, the best of all, the top of the pops, the number one winner is my three-wheeled scooter.

Pullyman One. You often hear the comparison of something being described as being the ’best thing since sliced bread’. Well I can tell you, as far as Pullyman One is concerned,

sliced bread doesn’t come anywhere near.

You often see one or two electric scooters out and about in the Strand Street area.

There are usually two main types. The portable model that can be folded up and carried in the boot or the back of the car and the larger road-going version. The smaller models are normally limited to 4mph. But the big boys have two speeds, low 4mph, and high 8mph.

As with most vehicles that are used on the road there are rules and regulations to be observed and scooters are no exception.

But if you are a scooter user, maybe I can offer a few words of advice: Always make yourself visible and plan manoeuvres well ahead.

You may feel you are much larger than you really are but if you have ever driven a car on the road, just remember how easy it was to ’not see’ a double decker bus that was hidden by a door pillar.

Anyway, there won’t be much scooting being done in the next couple of weeks. There’s just too much traffic on the road at TT time, and the last thing the average biker will expect to see on the open road is some elderly crackpot on a mobility scooter.

So, what do you think of the new-look prom? Do you like pink? I know it’s not finished, but now they’ve taken the wraps off the tram shed end, you can get an idea of what the finished job will look like. The other day I decided to take a run out to check everything was ready for the visitor.

As the saying goes about first impressions being the most important I decided we should pretend to have just arrived on the island for the first time.

It was bad luck the building opposite the Sea Terminal, which was once the Peveril hotel and has been re-built as an office block, was having some repairs carried out.

Unfortunately, this involved the use of a large amount of scaffolding that just happened to be at the front.

Then as you turn onto the promenade, to your left, at the bottom of Victoria Street, you can’t miss that well known landmark the Jubilee Clock. It stands out well with the framework of a half-built office block in the background.

To your right you will notice the large glass vacant building that wraps itself around the corner and adjoins a long, freshly painted stretch of dark green shuttering boards. These boards surround the whole of the vacant and empty plot that was once rumoured to have been earmarked as the site of a new town square. The interested observer will appreciate the way the dark green shuttering blends in tastefully with the different greens of the weeds that grow on the edge of the pavement, which in turn match the soft grey brick dust covering the glass walls of the empty offices.

Cross the road to the first block of sea0facing hotels that runs along the promenade, (the large corner property is currently closed) and continue your walk along the sea front until you arrive at the Gaiety Theatre.

A beautiful restored example of Victorian elegance, which at the moment is being repaired or re-painted and is covered with scaffolding.

I would like to continue our walk along the prom and point out some well-known landmarks such as the Castlemona Hotel and the Crescent Hotel and the once busy private hotels that have mostly been replaced with apartments but I’ve just heard on the radio there is a cruise ship due in for a short visit and I thought that it would be nice to say hello.