Proud aunt.

This is just a little note to say how proud I am of my niece - the one usually referred to as 'Slightly-Goth-Niece'. She is the same age as D-d to a week - so was 19 in April. She works in a local financial institution belonging to one of the Big Banks, suffers painfully with excema and is also asthmatic. She is also a party-animal, and no shrinking violet!

But SGN has just achieved something which is locally regarded as a major thing - she has taken part in the famous Parish Walk. This is a walk which takes in every parish church on the island, and in its entirety is 85 miles long - but only about 150 of the 1,100 or so starters manage to cover the whole course - in fact as an under 21 SGN would only have been allowed to go to St German's, at 32.5 miles. The winner covered the course in under 16 hours.

SGN set herself the task of getting to Santon - 11 miles, but actually made it to Rushen - a walk of 19 miles.

She was being sponsored to raise money for our local hospice, where my sister works, and she raised about £120.

And I have looked at about 600 pictures of the walk on the official website - and I can't see her in any of them!