What a lovely afternoon we had at St. Lukes for the MFCG carol service. This lovely little church was packed and the table groaned under the weight of all the food brought by our members. Thank you to all who attended and made it such a good event. Well done to Theresa, Lorna, Paul, Alistair, Paul and John for their readings. And finally

Another very successful series of winter talks! We started with a visit to the Aviation and Military Museum where Ivor gave us a real insight into the contribution the Isle of Man gave to the two world wars. An excellent and informative evening! Next, Brian King took us to the depths with his photos of diving on the 'Wreck of the Racehorse', you almost felt you were there! There were many chuckles as Brian gives a brilliant and humorous talk. And last, but certainly not least, Gillian from the Queens Pier Restoration Trust. Until you've heard Gillian's talk you cannot imagine how hard these volunteers work to restore the pier for future generations. We have so much respect and admiration for what they do.  Well done guys! MORE GREAT TALKS NEXT YEAR

What a brilliant time we had in the Peak District with Ken (ken@walking.in) on the annual MFCG holiday. Good hotel, fabulous views and best of all

CONGRATULATIONS to the eleven members who successfully completed the St. John Ambulance First Aid Course. Everyone enjoyed the course which was presented with plenty of humour.  We now have twenty-two qualified First Aiders in the club.  And a big Thank You to Ian, the First Aid instructor,  for making the course so interesting

Despite our best efforts of safety, being careful and looking out for each other, unfortunately on rare occasions, accidents and incidents do happen when we are all out walking. In an emergency, a very quick dynamic assessment will deduce if we need to call the emergency services  here on the island that will connect us to the emergency joint control room and one of the vital initial pieces of information they require is ‘ What’s your location?’ A number questions now confront us and the quicker we reply with this information, the quicker the correct emergency services can be dispatched.Postcodes, road names, house numbers and a gird reference are all valid options, especially the latter - if the incident is in a remote location but new options of digital applications are now available and are used here on the island by our first response emergency teams. What3Words (has been heavy publicised recently) is