The 1st night you spend under canvas in bear country is not 1 filled with sleep!

Years ago did a canoe cicuit in BC (Bowron lakes) where the campsite can only be reached by boat or helicopter/float plane. They had bear boxes/metal clad trees and ladders to hide all your stuff. Still woke up to snuffling sounds outside, sounded like it was a grizzly about 2 feet away. Was probably a chipmunk though.

Wouldn't fancy being dropped where that guy is though.

Pet insurance is something that most people who have it are likely to use at some stage, just like medical insurance would be.

Lots of people have very little idea of the potential costs that can be involved as we are insulated by the NHS (as a side point I think it would be a good idea to present everyone with a costing when they leave hospital, might reduce some wasters but would introduce another layer of staff to manage it.

I would also go with a life cover plan and would check with your vet before taking it out or changing insurers as many companies will happily take your premiums, then when you try and claim for say something like a skin complaint, weasel out of the claim by requesting a history from your vet and noting previous visits with skin complaints when insured with other companies!

Ah too late, found it though!

What section is it in?

Great kick at the end there!

Fantastic performance over the 2 days

100 m final up soon!, right after Ennis's 800m.

That kiwi shot putter is some lass isn't she. Looks like she has been transplanted out of the All Blacks team.

Go Jess!

Yeah they won't post Fox forks to UK, shame as I spotted some F120's for abour £260 including shipping on their website!

Now who do I know in the States?

Could be argued that horsey events hark back to original olympics with horseriding being an important warrior skill.

Still we often do well at horsey events so lets keep it!

Don't ride but can appreciate the skill involved in getting a horse to do dressage and if you have ever walked round a cross country course and seen the fences up close you would be terrified about trying to jump them!

Agree re Football, (it's not the pinnacle of the sport and they don't even have all the top players taking part, Tennis maybe less so as people like Nadal and Federer do seem to take it pretty seriously but it is not the highlight of a player's career in most cases.

Golf was behind Karate in the initial vote so I suspect that the Rugby 7's will probably eventually be the sport selected.

However it does show that the Olympics is all about the money. Both sports have a large and vocal sponsors list behind them. What about squash etc. More gladiatorial like I believe Olympic sports should be.

I still think that golf is a good walk ruined and dislike the way large areas of desert etc in the states are expensively watered and pruned so some business idiot can show off his bad dress sense.

Are you in cheshire?, my signal is often variable at the weekends/evenings, think it is all to do with the digital upgrade and work on the Winterhill transmitter.

Re OP, can't bar the poss easier to fit/cheaper/can have shower if boiler packs up.

New leccy shower 10.5 kw thing in spare bedroom en suite earlier in year and now new combi fed shower in new bathroom downstairs.

Ok water pressure between upstairs/downstairs may have a part to play but the combi shower walks all over the leccy one, heats up as quickly, much more powerful and probably cheaper to run.

The leccy one is like being in a facsimilie of a shower, it looks like the real thing and does an ok job but sometimes only having the original copy will do.

I met a family walking up the trail at Carbisdale near the end (Fairy trail I think) where it is rocky and painted arrows for direction on it. As it is open, they stood off the side of the track to let me past but they would have had to walk past a big sign with map of trail and bike code etc on it and a couple of waymarking posts to get there.

Think they just didn't expect to meet anyone as the car park was empty bar mine and theirs when I got back.

Whilst it would be great to have freedom to bomb down our tracks, keeping people off is always going to be hard and I guess you have to compromise, go faster than on bridleways etc but not flat out like if you are racing on a marshalled course.

I suspect more of us use cheeky trails regularly than walkers use our waymarked bike trails.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't have more access like discussed in ST51

I have had one for 8/9 months now. Quite like it really. Handy for email, browser is pretty good, works ok for phone and with micro sd card can load it up with music/videos.

You get used to the click screen to the point I struggled to use a mates iphone.

Not perfect as no wifi and not the same app support as the iphone but I got it free on contract without having to bargain too heavily with Vodaphone including unlimited email/browsing.

Battery life seems to be better than iphone too, but it isn't as cool if that matters to you.

Lots of breeds ie collies and gundogs would make great trail dogs. However some of them can have other issues.

It needs to be a choice based on your whole lifestyle not just 1 fun part of it or the dog will not be happy and then neither will you.

Choice also depands on how experienced you are with dogs, ie I would not suggest a new dog owner started with something like a Wiemeraner or Pointer type dog.

Head to your local rescue 1st and see what you can find. Often mongrels are healthier and can make great all round pets.

Yes, great line and well delivered too. Really enjoyed this program. Odd how at the start you would have laid good money on Fogle being the weak link but he coped remarkably well.

Blackberry Storm, great for email, can store up to 16gb on micro sd so lots of tunes and mine came with gps etc all preloaded.

What about Merida 96 thingy, pretty good spec for prices and they are mostly xc though i think they will take up to a 120 front fork too. Meant to be very fast and the £1600 one I looked at the other day was well light too.

Palma? never even considered that googled it and town looks quite interesting.

Tani Ryoko

7 times World champion, 2 times Olympic gold medalist, 5 Olympic medals and went 4 years and 84 matches without defeat. She might fight in the -48 kg cataegory ie about 1/2 my weight but I still wouldn't fancy my chances of not being bounced off the floor

Had a 1.8 focus for 3 years and 90000 miles, very little went wrong and was great fun.

Now have a vectra diesel and whilst it's a size up and an SRI it is utter dross compared, not as comfortable, handles terribly, boot is smaller than focus.

Exciting would be the fear as it understeers straight on as you try a corner at 2/3rds the pace the focus took with no probs.

Anyway, millions of foci around, hunt for a good one.

Guess it's all to do with the speed of shutter etc. I quite liked the effect though!

Pissing wet pushing back up to JJ's spotted the beams and was grateful it had stopped raining at last.

Sony cameraphone

Whistler

Llandegla

Both with Blackberry Storm, horrible shutter lag but otherwise ok. Previous Sony was def better for photos.

Ginny, 13y and 3 legged, she likes a comfy bed.

Seve, 2y and should have been named Begbie for his pyschopathic tendencies.

Fittest dog i ever saw was a Husky that was with 2 Snowboarders in Kaprun.

It ran down the hill after them, occasionally struggling through the off piste and caning it down the piste.

Then when they got to the bottom it either hopped on the chairlift (he had a pass round his neck!) or 1/2 the time ran back up under the chairlift. We saw him carrying on like this for a whole afternoon and the guys were proper shifting it too!

Only for short blasts as she gets bored and wanders off.

Great piccies on here as always.

So many what ifs!

What if the Lions management had bigger balls and had subbed Vickery earlier in this 1st match (or even better not picked him in the 1st place)

What if the Ref/TJ (both equally culpable) had shown red to Burger.

What if there has been a conclusive angle on the SA try.

What if ROG hadn’t had a ‘rush of blood’

We can’t go back and change it, we aren’t in a position to make those choices and who would want to be the ref in his 1st big match that sends off the talismanic Burger for something he didn’t see in the 1st few minutes.

What we can do is ask that these things are dealt with correctly afterwards and I don’t believe that the punishment has been severe enough for Burger and the behaviour of the the SA coach has been inappropriate and also deserves censure by the IRB.

As for giving them a seeing to in the last game, yes on the pitch by playing rugby, not by thuggery.

Only sport, doesn’t really matter.

I think it did matter to Fitzgerald, who described himself as lucky to have his hands free to stop any damage being done!

The 8 week ban is below the reccomended 12 weeks of the IRB and can’t be based on a history of previous good behaviour like the Italians players was.

This has been a great series. The Boks have been more clinical in all departments from the very start of the tour to try and ensure they won the series. However the Lions have done themselves proud unlike the SA coach who had to back down today from defending Burger presumably after a bollocking from his bosses in a meeting with the SARB.

I would love for the last match to be a classic and will still watch it.

2 weeks for Bakkies Botha for dangerous charging, haven’t really seen what he did so can’t comment but does augur well for a good lengthy ban for Schalk Burger.

As several others have commented the loss of Burger won’t really weaken the Boks as he has been comprehensively outplayed by H Brussow.

Still would be good for the game if the SA management could have the decency to condemn his actions.

Did this years ago when flying out to Canada for a couple of months. Was early nineties long before 911 etc, my hand luggage had cranks, chain, brakes, pedals, rear mech etc in it and weighed a ton.

I think your chances of getting large lumps of metal, some with sharp edges onboard are very slim now though.

Strange what they will let you take on though, my friend had a polo mallet taken off her (she’d been allowed it on the internal flight in NZ) but I was allowed on with a large piece of carved rock which could easily have been used as a club.

Highlights on S4C now.

Just seen the 1st half, gouging was deliberate and he knew he was walking as soon as the ref called him over. Had a huge S**t eating grin when he realised the ref had bottled it by opting for a yellow card only.

Touch judge states ‘at least a yellow’ he should have said straight red too!

We looked great in the 1st half, shame the 2nd half was so poor.

I know you wanted it ready built but I’m sure you could put something similar together off the classifieds which wouldn’t scream STEAL ME like a brand new bike might.

****, found a P2P feed and watched second 1/2 but the Lions lost too many players to contol the game as well as the did in the 1st.

Even more nervous now! Anybody got Sky and seen the gouging incident? Really sounds like should be the Lions game for Burger’s foul play should have seen him sent off for the whole game by the sound of it.

Go Kearney, sounds like he is having a great game.

Aye it will be a nervous time until we see how the scrum and lineout hold out.

I’m also worried that the Boks will have worked out the centre pairing of BOD and Roberts and the penetration that they got in the last test will be strangled at birth.

Still come on you Lions.

Stay away from naming it after footballers etc. Know lots of staffy owners with dog’s called Rooney who don’t support Man U!

Short, distinct sound and not embarassing to shout repeatedly across the park are good ideas,

Buster, Butch and Prince are pretty common names for Staffies who can be fantastic pets in the right hands. Just make sure you socialise it with other dogs eg puppy training classes etc.

It would be good if he made it as I’d love to be able to cheer a Scotland player on. Blair should make the bench and get some game time as he does have quicker service than Philips though he has been pretty average so far this tour.

He’s good at starting scraps but does lose the head quite often too. Still might risk it as we need an edge in the pack.

Liked Flutey’s tackle late on in 2nd half but still can’t get past BOD and the man mountain Roberts.

Looking forward to the game on sat still.

Sorry DezB watched it on freeview so don’t know about Sky. For Saturday I think the highlights are on at 9pm if you haven’t got skysports and you want to watch it.

Subtitles suggested the 1st half was better, was it the pack or O’Gara doing a better job?

Thought Hines was going to do his usual and get himself sent off from the clips I saw, why does he like a scrap so much! Though might be worthwhile to get in the Boks faces on saturday and disrupt them a little.

My Ghillies are so comfy, but if yours are broken in and still uncomfortable then you are probably better off getting some dark brown decent brogues as that will be easier to find than Ghillies in Switzerland.

Best option is to try several pairs on and see, cannae really buy shoes off tinternet.

Just watched it on S4C with the sound off and subtitles on (can’t understand welsh and it disrupts me abusing the ref!)

Only caught the 2nd half which looked pretty poor, Hook didn’t seem to run the game on the few occasions we had the ball with some poor kicks (I know it was windy), think that’s him out of starting unless Geech is mad.

Williams looked good on defense and I might be tempted instead of Moyne.

Good on Vickery winning the penalty that drew the game but please Geech don’t play him in a test ever again!