And in fairness whilst we had good wine we didn't have a lot of it.

Well I'd be interested in your recommendations for something as good for what we paid - about £40 a head for three courses with good wine and coffee.

Went to the Freemasons Arms at Wiswell last night for my birthday and for the first time. We had a quite outstanding three course meal. Everything was good but the pick was a duck egg custard tart for pudding which reminded me hw good a custard tart can be when done with care. Not cheap (£220 for 6) but worth every penny.

Duk and Pond is just Pond now, on Cross Street. Heathcotes is the best, but at this time of the year not cheap and not the place for a night out with the lads. The Olive Press downstairs at Heathcotes could be good. The Continental in Avenham is excellent but for food and beer and also live music if you get the right night, but it;s a bit out of the centre. For chinese Tang on Fylde Road is the best but again a bit out of town.

If being reduced to tears by a performance is odd then count me as well - I was by Kate Tempest at Glastonbury this year. Or is it OK if you're 60?

We went to Heathcotes last night for the first time in a while. Got home from the game at 6 soaked to the skin and debated what to do about food before the cinema. The wife suggested Heathcotes for the early bird and with a quick change of clothes just made it for the 6.30 cut-off. The food was it's usual reliable quality and with early bird prices was good value too - £15.50 for 3 excellent courses. I can't remember ever having a bad meal there over the years. As for Indians, we can never get beyond the Sangam in Lostock Hall. Doesn't look like it should be as good as it is, perched above the shops at Tardy Gate but it's never less than excellent. I find the fish deshi to be particularly outstanding.

Sparky -if Decathlon are 10% cheaper online and you're happy with doing whatever assembly will be needed then I'd take your lad down to the shop and have a look at what they've got and then come back and order it online if it's OK. SAS - any good local bike shop (and it sounds from Paul's experience that Ewood Bikes is) should be able to fit you out for £1,000. They should be fully conversant with the Bike to Work scheme and should talk you through the paperwork you need to do. And bike manufacturers are well aware of the attraction to their customers of the scheme so all produce bikes to fit into the £1,000 maximum. Remember also that you can get accessories and clothing under the scheme as well so can get yourself fully kitted out with a slightly cheaper bike and all the bells and whistles for £1K or blow it all on the bike in the scheme and get anything else you need on top

BTwin is Decathlon's in-house brand. The range as a whole is known for excellence for the price. I would normally suggest that £300 is too little to get a decent bike. With bikes the general rule is that the better the bike the more enjoyable will be the riding and the more likely you are to ride it. A big heavy cheap bike can be hard work to ride and can put you off before you've properly started. But if you're looking for a bike for a 15 year old, who will no doubt grow out of it in a few years, and more importantly if £300 is what you've got, then the Triban 3 would be an excellent choice. If you google Triban 3 you'll find some reviews including a 4.5 star one from Cycling Weekly from last November.

Velominati Rule No 12 -While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

For SAS and Marky, I have no specific knowledge of the specific types of bike you're looking for, but a couple of general points. I'd avoid Halfords as, whilst their Boardman range had a good name, they usually have very poor sales and maintenance staff. I'd go for a good local bike shop, who will be able to give you good advice, although they will direct you towards whatever they sell, or try Decathlon. They have very keen prices and well respected own brand bikes. You might have to travel a bit though - north west stores are in Bolton, Warrington and Stockport.

I think you're wrong about others subsidising my lack of tax. There might be a few at the margins but overall the tax take from VED is dropping significantly, as manufacturers adjust their vehicle engines to reduce the CO2 emissions and therefore the tax. So you're right that my zero rating is likely to change soon. It's most likely that the bands will all lower to take the tax take back to what it was and will mean that those at the top will get more clobbered. And don't worry - i pay plenty of tax in other ways.

Where does that leave me then, with a vehicle that is zero rated for VED? Presumably I'm actually costing the Exchequer money, as there must be an admin cost in issuing me with a tax disc for £0 every year. And I've got a bike.......

Agree with most of that Stuart and riding through red lights should not happen. However, the Highway Code says that cyclists should not travel more than two abreast, unless it's a narrow road.

Where in any of the above posts has anyone suggested that we do what we like or that we ignore the highway code? Clearly, there are a minority of cyclists who do stupid things in the same way as there are a minority of drivers who do. To suggest that the minority of cyclists who don't behave is between 40% and 50% is laughably ridiculous. Most adult cyclists, at least around these parts, are probably also drivers, albeit ones who have some inkling of the speed that cyclists can travel at. I have no knowledge of cycle paths in Blackburn as I don't live there, but I'm guessing they are a mixture of random lines drawn on the carriageway and shared footpaths which stop and start seemingly at random. Cycle paths which make you continually leave and join road carriageways are considerably more dangerous than just riding along the road in the first place, both for cyclists and for drivers. I half suspect that the constant niggling you get from some car drivers is them realising that it's actually just as quick or quicker in urban areas to cycle and a damn sight cheaper as well.

Agreed. Cycle paths can sometimes be useful for less experienced riders and children at busy junctions, but often they make things worse. Paths like large sections of the Guild Wheel around Preston show what can be done though.

Me and the wife too......

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend in London, doing the Freecycle around an 8 mile loop in the centre of town with 50,000 others on Saturday and then watching my eldest son complete the RideLondon100 yesterday in under 6 hours - a good hour faster then he expected. I applied, didn't get in and then wimped out when offered a charity place. I'm definitely applying for next year, when there will be 26,500 places. Applications open next Monday and close if and when they get 80,000.

I'd love to do the Manchester ride but unfortunately it clashes with Glastonbury this year, which I'm already committed to. I was down at the mother-in-law's just south of Bristol this weekend and had a fantastic ride from her house in a loop over the Mendips - 40 miles over the hills and back along the Strawberry line from Cheddar.

I've been plenty of times and have eaten in lots of different restaurants but rather like you and Belgium there's nowhere I would particularly recommend. They were all decent meals but nothing special. But if you do get a chance before or preferably after eating try the Ben Nevis pub at the western end of Argyle Street - excellent beer, a particularly fine selection of malt whiskies and live traditional music three nights a week. Mind you i have eaten very well in Brussels but it was a while ago and I've no idea now where it was........

We stopped off there a few sundays ago for something quick to eat and it was excellent. I assume you know it's vegetarian?

There is an update in today's Evening Post. The inspectors have returned and Bukhara now has 3/5.

No, but if the strong rumours of the Stones headlining at Glastonbury in 2013 are true I'll be seeing them for nowt.

It is indeed a wonderful resource for us over here. I have been right round it three times since it fully opened in the Summer and I also regularly use bits of it. In particualt having a route from Penwortham across to Grimsargh that bypasses the whole of the city centre is wonderful, giving easy access to the whole of the Ribble valley and Bowland. I'm afraid I am daft enough to have ridden down Bolton woods (and up it). I would agree that in certain weather conditions it would be suicidal but having the wodden barriers means whatever you do you can't do it fast anyway. I was reaal;y chuffed with myself when I got up it as I thought a combination of the steepness, the rough surface and the barriers would have made it beyond me. To go off topic a bit I hope you managed to catch some of the Guild when you were out Paul. Some of the stuff over this weekend has been fantastic (at least that I have been able to get near given the huge crowds the good weather brought). The stalls at the food festival in Winckley Square sold out of two days worth of food by mid afternoon on Saturday and after re-stocking overnight, the same again on Sunday. Tonight I went to hear Nick Park talk and then enjoyed hearing the Sing The Docks project again. This coming weekend, which incorporates the closing finale of the NW London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is also not to be missed. The vast majority will be free.

We used the excuse of a fish supper in Bispham to let it get a bit darker.

It was indeed a beautiful evening for it. They said last year there were 15,000 there and there must have been at least as many tonight.