As the island returned to normality this Monday, we headed down to the pub, The Thirsty Pigeon, to get a sense of how people feel to be back.

When we spoke to Ray Sheldon, 77, Douglas, about how he felt to be back out of lockdown he said: ’Well, quite frankly, I think it’s wonderful.

’But being a retired person it’s no different for me, because I take it quite leisurely every day really.

’I don’t come into town every day, I only come in when I want to - but today I wanted to.’

Asked how he found the third lockdown compared to the others, he said: ’It was easy for me, I enjoyed it.

’When you’ve got children in England who’ve had 10 months of it, it is simple - the kids in England have really suffered.

’We’ve had it very easy.’

Asked what he had missed most during lockdown: ’I like a beer with some friends, I like to go to lunch with some friends.

’We have a regular meeting at the La Piazza restaurant every week, and we’d missed that - but’s it’s easy enough because I happen to live with a wonderul cook. [his wife].

’[But] I’m very happy doing my crossword watching a bit of television.’

Next we spoke to the pub’s landlord Rob McAleer Jr about what it was like to be reopening for business as usual, he told us ’It’s great to be back, deja vu yet again - at least the sun’s shining.

’Being back, and having the people come in again and seeing people’s faces, shaking hands - it does make it worthwhile, it’s what we enjoy doing.’

When asked how things were during this lockdown, he said: ’We just had to bide our time, polish a few things and wait to get back in the mix - and now we’re here, we’re going to have live music on as always, the sports will be back on, we’ll be having a bit of fun before you know it.’

Douglas Mayor Jon Joughin also happened to be stopping by for his first pint of Okell’s bitter.

He told us: ’It’s tremendous to be back out there again, everybody’s been locked up for so long. I got to see my grandson on Saturday, I’ve not been allowed to see him for [the] six weeks since he’s been born, so that was fantastic for me.’

He said he had been looking forward to travelling around the island again, seeing friends and relatives and being able to go out for a meal with the Mayoress at Wine Down in Duke Street.

Asked how he kept occupied in lockdown, he said: ’I’ve been doing stuff in the garden, but I never got my motorbike up and running, that project never got underway.’

When we talked to Andrew Dallison, 55, from Douglas, he said: ’It feels great, hopefully it’s the last one - I don’t want to go through that again.’

As he continued working throughout lockdown as an engineer, he said that aside from the roads being quiet he didn’t really notice much difference to his lifestyle.

’Read a load of books, because the TV’s rubbish at the minute - nothing but Covid.’

Talking about the sudden transition to normality he added: ’[From] masks and social distancing to nothing in one day is a bit weird. There’s not been a gradual step down, it’s all or nothing.’

He added that he most missed being able to go out and travel around normally, and to sit down for a meal.