Spent a weekend in St Helier Jersey in January, also at a conference. The local department store was having their "Christmas night out" in another suite in the hotel, and another colleague and I managed to get into their late night disco!
That was about 1991: bought my watch in one of the tax-free shops for £22: it's still going strong, just needs a new battery every 2-3 years.
Would have liked to stay longer and explore a bit more.

And yes, Scilly: a friend owns a holiday home there on St Mary's, and we've been over several times. Great deciding "which island shall we visit today?" Bryher was a favourite. Not the easiest place to get to from Edinburgh: almost easier to go to Australia! Last time we did train to Penzance, then ferry, but it meant an overnight stay in Penzance the night before, and the night after sailing, Tuesday of one week, Wednesday of the next. The hotel messed up and altered our booking to 2 consecutive nights in the second week, so there was no room for us on arrival at about 8.30.pm!! You'd think they'd be used to people making bookings such as ours, being a ferry port? Fortunately I had email confirmation of precisely what we HAD booked, and they found us somewhere else to stay free of charge.