Weston Super Saint

I'm mixing it up between the turbo in the garage and out on the roads. Since being made redundant a month ago it's a lot easier to go out on the road during the week - and thus waiting for a window of drier weather! If anyone has any suggestions for a 'winter' bike, then I'm all ears - budget will depend on how much compo I get once the redundancy is confirmed as an unfair dismissal [a matter of time but nothing moves quickly in the world of employment tribunals] but probably around the £700 mark. Already have a full carbon bike for the summer and will probably upgrade the components on that after Easter so looking for an aluminium frame for the winter bike with a decent set of components and mud guards - feel free to post links to anything you can think of

Any pictures of their pitch after this weekend's game? How is the new pitch 2.0 holding up to the weather?

Is Liam back?

I love the fact that the club are 'teasing' them with the refreshments

It's a bookshop in Portsmouth. 'How many' is probably an irrelevant question as I doubt the other books available in the shop are providing stiff competition in the race to be the best-selling.

Are you referring to this thread

Progress? They've got championship standard floodlights. That, right there, is progress.

Ridiculous statement! The bestest are still top, just like they were when they were second!

Someone should have brought this up right before they signed on the dotted line for their 'championship' standard floodlights...

That's exactly how I do it... Straight out of bed and on the bike without eating anything. I do get bloody hungry whilst on the bike but I don't take anything with me as I want every calorie I burn to be the excess that I'm carrying around! Even my three turbo sessions a week are done at 6am before I've had a chance to wake up, let alone eat anything!! The only thing I take with me on the bike is two 800ml bottles. On my Saturday [longer] ride, I take two 'electrolyte' drinks [high 5 zero] one tab in each bottle so pretty weak. On Sunday I take one with the tab in and one bottle with just blackcurrant juice in it. Being a gent of a 'larger' size, I tend to sweat a lot on the bike - even riding in 8-10 degrees! - so need to keep drinking to replace the lost fluids. Finding this an issue with how far I can ride as the drink runs out before the miles do sometimes but managed 45 miles this week... I don't over do it with the eating when I get home either sticking to a bowl of muesli to fill me up...

Some might suggest that that particular parrot is not 'sleeping' or just 'resting his eyes' but is in fact, dead.

Thanks VFTT - I think those sort of outputs are a long way off for me!!! My goal is pure and simple and that's to lose weight - lots of it!! Fortunately I enjoy riding so it's never a chore - although I've done a couple of rides in the rain and they weren't particularly pleasant, but I guess it's just a case of wearing the appropriate gear in the winter and getting on with it! We've got a decent club in Weston who are very active which I am planning to join next year - need to get a little faster and more consistent first though and quite enjoy riding on my own as I tend to go out early in the morning at the weekends to avoid as much traffic as I can! Completed my second run up Cheddar this morning [nine minutes spent in the red!] and whilst I won't be setting any strava records I did hit a lot of PBs and keep improving with every ride so I'm very pleased with the results - although I did drop the bike for the first time today when I got caught at a junction and was able to sprint across and just didn't get unclipped in time!! https://www.strava.com/activities/409856453/

Hmmmm. I'm new to all this cycling stuff - got a 'cheap' aluminium bike for just short of £200 back in May but got hooked and bought a nice carbon bike [thank you cycle to work scheme ] in August. For me a 2hr 20 min ride will usually see me in max (165bpm) for about 8-10 mins and anaerobic (141-160bpm) for about 46%, the rest of the time spent in aerobic. But to put that in context, I'm a fat bstard and took up cycling to aid weight loss - currently sitting at around 1.5 stone lost since January out of my target of 2 stone. Took up cycling because my knees and back are screwed so running or other impact sports are a no go and the cross trainer wasn't providing enough of a challenge after the first four months. I'm now averaging around 90-100 miles a week - three morning sessions before work in the garage on the turbo trainer which the old bike is attached to and two longer rides at the weekend, so far come rain, wind or shine but not sure if that will last through the depths of winter!! I'm planning my second ascent of Cheddar Gorge tomorrow - one of the [only] benefits of living in Weston Super Mare means I have that beauty on my doorstep, well ten miles to the foot of the gorge anyway! I've done four or five ascents of 'Burrington Combe' which is the 'backside' of Cheddar over the past couple of months and think that side may be harder than Cheddar - purely because the climbing is steeper for longer, whereas Cheddar is very steep but for not very long... Anyway, any hints or tips for a newbie like me will be gratefully received

I have to say, it was worth the wait. I, for one, am very impressed. Those lights look very 'special'.

Anyone got any shiny pictures of their championship standard floodlights?

Email, text message, phone call [remember them?], meeting down the pub / at footy / somewhere else - all good ways of keeping in contact with old friends. This way you get to speak to all the ones you like and don't have to listen to / read all their pointless diatribes when you really can't be bothered... After all, that is how we used to keep in touch with people before facebook was around....

Delete all links to facebook = problem solved!

So, where are the championship standard floodlights?

You seem to be forgetting the glorious car park - which was funded by the Tescos money. I assume they only tarmacked half of it because they ran out of money to finish the rest - one million pounds for half a car park is a bargain, non?

Just you wait!! One day they will finally get their championship standard floodlights. That, my friend, is the day this board will go in to meltdown!

Isn't Scott Maclachlane[sp?] also 'Pompey Scot' - one time member on here and also the admin on Pompey Online??? If so, with his past history of 'exclusions' on POL will there be any members of the Pompey Trust left after he's been on the board for a couple of months?

More importantly... I noticed last night that it was pitch black dark last night at 21:00 - in the West of the country - so assume it was dark before then further East. I'm guessing then, that their next evening game will require floodlights but I haven't seen any articles trumpeting the arrival of the championship standard lights that will definitely be in place before the first evening game. Does anyone have an update?

I love the way they try and spin it as 'giving the youngsters a chance' in the hope of avoiding a fine! The rules are very clear and they will be deliberately breaking them. If the youngsters are good enough, they should be playing anyway! If they aren't playing then they clearly aren't good enough! Same old skates always breaking the rules and trying to get away with it!

Stick with it! You will have to go through the whole process and have your Sky disconnected but log on to your 'my sky' about 2 weeks after the cancellation and you will have plenty of 'come back to sky' options available - providing no-one calls you before hand.... If you call up and say you have changed your mind before the end of the 30 days you will not get any offers at all and will be subject to a new 12 month contract at your existing rate. For the record, unless you have not had any sky products for a minimum of 12 months, then they will still class you as an 'existing' customer. Seems crazy, but apparently sky can and do, put whatever arbitrary time limit on it that they want!!

Nope. Those extra spaces are to accommodate the specially selected match officials who will be able to cope with the passion and noise of the cup final...