I’m due to have my first baby in just over 2 weeks, I’ve been doing a bit of pillates and yoga throughout to replace some of my riding (just not so much fun when I’m terrified of falling off and then later on when I have no useful diaphragm and limited lung capacity). I’d never done either before so joined a class and from what I can gather there are quite significant modifications to what you can do when pregnant (like changes to stretches so you don’t damage yourself as your ligaments are loosening) so I would recommend either joining a pregnancy class or finding a pregnancy specific dvd/website. Lots of people from my yoga class who have now had their babies said what they learnt in class was really useful in early stages of labour too and some of the stretching is coming in useful for loosening the aches I’m beginning to get from carrying all the extra weight around.

I've got a 16" altitude 20 and I'm 5' 6". I swithered between the 16" and the next size up, but decided the smaller one felt better.

All of my research posters are done in powerpoint

Same here, find it easy to use and good enough for the job required, although I use more specialist programmes to generate images to put on the poster. Whilst its good to have a nice looking poster it is the content that will generate interest.

This maybe no help at all as I don't work with CAD, but I do use PDB files. You can just change the file to a .txt file and then open it in notepad (we do this when there is a simple problem to fix in the file) or similar, would that then allow you to convert the coordinates to a suitable format for opening in CAD? Otherwise, why not download one of the free .pdb visualisation programmes – I use pymol routinely.

I'm from nearby and have heard lots of good things about millness cottages, apparently they get lots of repeat bookings, but haven't seen inside.

What about here;
http://www.millnesscroft.co.uk

Near Glen Affric for desolate, and not too far from Golspie or Laggan for riding.

This is Marmite the patterdale terrier;

As an 8 week old puppy

And now as a fully grown nashing, woofing, digging machine

Have friends who named their kittens (Cat) Stevens and (Cat) Deeley

My folks have a holiday let near Loch Ness. When they were getting organised they found the letting agencies quite useful for advice – although they did overestimate the number of lets they'd get initially. Mum also spoke to others locally who had similar properties and got a good idea of how popular they are (or you can look at their online booking forms and see for yourself how busy they are).

Our kitchen is one of those, we bought the house with it there already rather than fitting it ourselves and I can't wait to get rid of it. Most of my issues may be with bad installation and layout rather than the units themselves. The wooden worktops are tacky all the time, apparently they were sealed with an Ikea product, (and I've heard the same complaint from other people). The tap and hob are fairly mobile on the worksurface – although I don't know if this is because of bad installation or that they are rubbish themselves. Also, I hate the gaps between and under the units, they just gather dirt that is hard to get at to clean and offer no useful storage space. On the plus side the units themselves seem really solid (around 8 years old and all the doors/drawers/handles/shelves still fine) & we've got a 3x drawer like Toys19 above and you can get loads in it. So I'd recommend the units, but not appliances from Ikea, and probably better in a large space because they are fairly bulky units.

If you liked the Croft Number 5 stuff mentioned earlier try Martyn Bennett, or trecherous orchastra.

What awful news. I took part in the event, we saw the hellicopter and heard about the accident, but all assumed it was much more minor. Thinking of the family at what must be a horrific time for them.

I'm interested, just depends when you plan to ride?

I fear I might be a poor student carried by a good post-doc.

They wouldn't have offered you the chance to stay if they thought that.

If you don't think you can survive on the standard research council rate (around 13 K) look for a CASE studentship. You'll get an extra 3 K (maybe even more now) from an industrial partner who'll take an interest in your project (varies from an email once a year to a long work placement at their site to use their resources/equipment to do your research). Alternatively, depending on your field, the Wellcome trust have higher funding levels than the research councils.
Regarding deciding if it is deffinately what you want to do, take time to decide on the group you'll go and work in. I've seen poor students be carried by good post-docs and good students struggle because there is no support available to them. How happy are the others in the group and did the supervisor give you the chance to chat to the rest of their PhD students without them there?

I did my first sprint triathlon in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago. I got wetsuit from wiggle, its an orca S2 suit (£100)and they are offering them with a buy back scheme – at the end of the season I can send it back and get back £50. I'm not sure how this compares to hiring, but I have it to get out and practice rather than just hiring for the day. I've been going practicing outside at Salford Quays in Manchester where they hold outdoor swim session and have found it really helpfull. Like you I was quite nervous about the swim and getting to try before was great for building up a bit of confidence, the things I found hardest were the poor visibility in the water and not knowing where I was going. I also found the added buoyancy from the wetsuit really helpful, although if you are happily doing 100 lengths it might not be an issue for you.

how much does a cheap swimming wetsuit cost

Wiggle have Orca S2 swimming wetsuits for £100, they seem good enough and you see loads of people in them – don’t think you can get much cheaper for new. They are also doing a buy-back scheme where you can sell it back to them at the end of the year for £50 (if you decide openwater swimming/triathlon was a silly idea).

The advantage of the wetsuit for those of us who aren’t quite so good is that I can just bob along if I get tired, relying on the extra buoyacy the wetsuit gives me – its not cheating, just using the equipment to its full potential.

I swim in Salford Quays. They open up the quay on Thursday evenings for general swimming, you just need to have registered with them before, which is free (although you get a discount if you become a member so it depends how often you think you’ll go). You don’t need to be a member of a triclub and you don’t need a wetsuit if the water temperature is above 14 degC, there were people in just their speedos last week although I have no intention of going anywhere near it without a wetsuit. It is a really nice environment to try openwater swimming, there are lots of safety boats (although I’ve never seen them have to do anything) and because it is a closed quay it is a bit easier to sight than some enormous pond where you can veer miles off course. It can be busy, so I try and get there for 6.30 when they allow people in the water otherwise you can end up waiting for someone to get out of the water before you’re allowed in.
Web address for registration form; http://www.salford.gov.uk/leisure/facilities/watersportscentre/openwaterswim.htm
Hope this helps.

You can tell they are dirty by the trail of mud they leave on the carpet and the smell.

Meet Marmite the Patterdale terrier;

The ball in the picture at the beach is the size of a tennis ball, she’s not irish wolfhound sized and standing next to a football!
Brilliant breed, I’d deffinately recommend them.

Sorry I missed Saturday’s ride (I’m MrsMW), sounded like you had a great ride – hopefully next time I’ll make it along.
The Sainty assassin can expect to see us at the starting line of CVMBC next Sunday, I’m rellying on the 4 feed stations to get me round – there will be cake won’t there?