Sierra Maestra at Band on the Wall last night were terrific. Possibly the best son band in the world and the place where Juan de Marcos learned his trade.

Band on the Wall is one of my favourite venues. Just the right size, easy to get to, sensibly priced drinks and you can park virtually outside the front door for nothing. If you go early and take their meal deal (2 courses for £10) you get offered free tickets for an upcoming gig. Last night we got freebies for Balkan Beat Box in May, a band I was planning to pay and see anyway.

I know but I was feeling lazy and wanted some recommendations ha.

May try that I am a fan of the food at the Ribble valley inns but somethig similar but different may appeal

Tom - get her to Northcote - you know she's worth it.

Went to Northcote last night for the first time in a couple of years - as excellent as ever. The place was packed.

Was it better than Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek Tris? We failed to get in when we there last weekend and had to settle for two other decent meals.

We did have a fantastic meal at a B&B in Hermanus last Thursday - £20 for three perfect courses and £15 for close to the best bottle of wine on the list, but that's South Africa for you. The B&B was probably the best place I've ever stayed in as well, for just over £100 for the night.

I'm afraid I can't keep up with you guys. I plod along at 10/12mph despite my nice Paul Hewitt tourer. Just ride for fun really, with no ambitions to race or to greatly increase my speed. i would like to ride with others but I seem to be caught between club rides for which I'm too slow and other fun rides which aren't long or fast enough.

I'm looking for a good folder. What do you have?

Me too. I have twice made the mistake of buying a cheap folder for our boat, only to see them not be up to a bit of towpath work.

Some decent performances O2G? What did you reckon to the great Johnny Clarke? One of the bonuses of working from home more these days is getting to listen to a lot of radio - he was a guest the other week on one afternoon's Radcliffe and Maconie and was on fine form. Had me in stitches.

Well he was on my highlights list. He was in fine form and I think justified my decision to stay and see him rather than go to see Raghu Dixit, who I had been trying to see all weekend.

As RTH says all it will need will be some TLC and a bit of expenditure to make it a fine bike. If it was hand built 30 years ago and hasn't been ridden much it will be better than many quite expensive new bikes on the market. Unless you know what you're doing I'd suggest taking it to a good bike shop and asking them to tell you both what you need to do (like the tyres) and what would be nice to do and then make a judgement. If you've not ridden for a bit I'd get it roadworthy and take it out for a few short rides to see how you like it. Then I'll see you on a ride to Glastonbury in 2013!

As some people know, I am cycling from London to Glastonbury with my son an a friend in aid of WaterAid, starting on this Sunday. If anyone would like to sponsor us please follow this link - thanks.

http://www.justgiving.com/PiltonPeloton.

Thanks to the people who sponsored us. We successfully arrived in Glastonbury last Wednesday, to be met by Michael Eavis and a TV crew! They were doing a story on Glastonbury's environmental initiatives for the local news and were looking for some cyclists just as we arrived.

Just back from Glastonbury for the sixth time - as wonderful and weird as ever. I never get to see a huge number of bands on account of working 4 hours a day and having people to meet, beers to drink etc but these were my highlights: -

Fleet Foxes - faultless, having got the sound right which blighted their set two years ago

Elbow - Guy Garvey knows how to perfectly catch the Glastonbury mood, probably because he actually stays on site and comes when he's not performing

B B King - still the master

Stornoway

Asian Dub Foundation

John Cooper Clarke

Gretchen Peters, Suzy Boguss and Matraca Berg

Bellowhead

Plus a usual array of enjoyable bands that I heard snippets of but have no idea who they are, some fine comedy and a whole range of very odd things, most of which I have desire to see again but my life is fuller for having seen once.

As some people know, I am cycling from London to Glastonbury with my son an a friend in aid of WaterAid, starting on this Sunday. If anyone would like to sponsor us please follow this link - thanks.

http://www.justgiving.com/PiltonPeloton.

O2G do you know about this

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/getting-here/by-bike

Paul,

Thanks - yes I did. We are booked on the Wednesday cycle ride from Bristol to the festival - by which time we will have cycled from London to Bistol over three leisurely days.

Am in the Highlands at the moment, writing this courtesy of the wi-fi in the B&B in Ullapool. Had an absolutely fantastic ride yesterday on a hired bike from Shieldaig around the coast to Applecross.

No problem O2G. Apologies for any percieved confrontation.

I just like to get on the bike and go off somewhere and damn the way home. I alawys get back, Ordance Survey maps are works of art and completely brilliant in my opinion.

Cheers

No problem Colin. I appreciate that without having seen the other posts mine looked a bit odd.

I absolutely agree about OS maps. I'm off walking the south west coast path later this week and I keep picking up the maps to have another look at where I'm going. The map won't be out of my hand for the whole walk.

If I have the appropriate map for a bike ride I'll often stick it in the pannier just so that I can look at the route when I stop for a coffee and cake. The Garmin has all the benefits that I and others have outlined above but I still incur its wrath occasionally by deciding on the spur of the moment to go a different way. After a minute or so beeping to tell me that I'm off course it stops sulking and recalculates the route. On the other hand I don't think I will invest what is a lot of money to buy all the OS maps if I'm doing a long ride in a new area.

We went to Heathcotes bar and grill in Clitheroe last week and I have to say it was extremely poor to say the least.

Its on the site of the Olive press, which we actually enjoyed, but was inconsistent in terms of quality and service.

As for the grill, we arrived and the place was deserted, the walls are covered with Paul Heathcote awards and qualifications, so settled down to in anticipation. Waitress came over and took the drinks order, everything going swimmingly so far.

Debs ordered the grilled fish, which first came in batter, so we sent that back, then basically she got 4 pieces of 2” by 2” fish pieces, cod, mackerel, sea bass and salmon, which was ok, but at £15.50 we felt ripped off, and we’d finished well before her food was returned.

My son ordered traditional fish and chips, £12, and the fish was terrible, mostly batter, I got a burger which was fine, no complaints.

All in all not a patch on Nigel Howarths establishments and we won’t be going again, shame really as the building is great, setup is great, but food isn’t good enough for the price and the choice locally, puts this Place well down the pecking order.

Interesting. I don't know the Clitheroe operation. The Brasserie in Preston reopened on Friday after being shut for a few years (the Olive Press downstairs stayed open and is still there) and we went on Saturday. It was excellent. There were 5 of us and we went at 6 and wanted to be out by 7.30 to get to something in Chorley at 8. We managed comfortably to have three courses with wine, pre-dinner drinks and coffee in time.

We have eaten there frequently from when it first opened and on Saturday it was as good as it ever was. Classic brasserie fare. We picked from the top end of the menu with wine, cocktails and coffee and the bill came in under £30 a head. Clearly there are plenty of places you can eat cheaper but not many where you can eat at anything like this standard. Northcote and Longridge excepted (and they are both quite a bit more expensive) it was as good as it gets in these parts.

Perhaps it would be good to turn this towards cycling. I have what I hope will be an excellent weekend coming up in June. Plan is to take the train to Edinburgh and then cycle to Melrose where the book festival will be taking place. I shall then go listen to Mark Beaumont, "The man Who Cycled the World," talk on the first evening, the next day I shall find a nice ride around in The Borders before going to listen to Bella Bathurst talk on "The Bicycle Book," a history of cycling followed by an evening with Rory Bremner. The next two days I shall spend cycling home.

Sounds like a fantastic weekend Paul. I heard Mark Beaumont at the Kendal Mountain Festival a couple of years ago and it was well worth it.

Melrose is also a fantastic place for a cycling break. It's a beautiful small town and there will be plenty of choice for fine rides up and down the Tweed valley. My wife's parents are from Galashiels just up the road so I know the area quite well.

From Edinburgh I would try and avoid the two main routes to Melrose - the A7 and A68 will both have a lot of fast moving traffic. There are some alternatives if you're happy to lengthen your ride a bit. Coming home the B road from Hawick through Newcastleton is quite quiet and should be a fine ride and alternative to the A7.

Colin,

My comment about the Garmin was in response to a request from Paul as to how I had found it on the holiday thread - I made a new one to stop it going off topic and answered Paul's question there.

In truth if I had been buying I would not have spent as much as was spent on the Edge, but I would want some form of computer. It just shows how much my loved ones love me! But as Paul says, the real boon of a GPS is that you can record all your rides on sites like Garmin Connect and Runkeeper. This must be invaluable if you are interested in training and improving your performance. I'm not really but it's still nice to see where you've been and have all the data recorded.

As Paul also says being out and not knowing where to go can be a real problem. It's not just about getting lost, although that is a problem. It's also when you might know where you are roughly but not know the best way back on a bike. Getting towards the end of a long day you might not know the best way back without leading yourself to a big climb that your body isn't really up for.

Also route plotting from a website on to the Garmin allows you to plan really nice rides using recommended cycle routes, actively seeking out climbs or not as the mood takes you. As much as I love a proper map (I won't entertain sat nav in the car), they are not terribly convenient on a bike.

The discussion Paul and I were having on the holiday thread was straying seriously off topic so I thought I would get a new thread going in case anyone else out there was interested in cycling. It seems to be exceedingly trendy at the moment.

That's good gear and certainly mid-life crisis stuff!! I'll be interested to hear how you get on with the Garmin. I got one at Christmas but couldn't make it work for me so got a refund. I think it was me rather than the GPS. Which one did you get?

It's an Edge 800. I had similar problems to you but that's what the boys are for. Son No1 (the new born cyclist) sorted it all for me. It is particularly good when you have plotted a route on one of the many websites (eg bikehike) and downloaded it to the GPS, as it's then pretty tricky to take a wrong turn - the machine beeps at you as soon as you stray more than 50' from the route. Alex also got me an OS map card to try - it was good but my problem is that I need to wear prescription glasses when riding which are no good for watching the small screen so any detail is wasted on me. He got the card as part of a package when he bought his own Edge 800 - it was £30 more in the package when the standalone rrp is £199. As I didn't want it he flogged it on Ebay for £125. Good tip if you want to have another go.

To anyone involved in the fans forum with the club,has a Ronnie Clayton memorial been mooted or possibly renaming one of the stands in his honour?

God knows the great man deserves it but sadly seems to have gone quiet on this one.

We asked the club at the meeting in December but that was just after the takeover and as you will know things have been a bit hectic within the club since then. We reminded them last night and they promised that they will get to looking at some appropriate memorial. No idea as yet what this would look like.

OK that's Saturday night organised then!

I'm flattered Paul! I was going to say that you need to book if you're going to the Cornerhouse but I see it's on locally from tomorrow. I would avoid the Cornerhouse for this because it was in the smallest screen (3), which is not much bigger than my front room and it was packed on Tuesday night.

The King's speech was superb. Geoffrey Rush stole the show for me as Lionel Logue, he missed out on the golden globe to Christian Bale which is scandalous.

Like you Paul, the first thing I did when I got back what look up what happened to Edward (turns out he was a bit bonkers, but living in the Bahamas in near exile isn't too bad!), and of course to what extent the storyline of the film was true. I normally can't bear Helena Bonham Carter but found her quite endearing in this movie.

A must see.

Good though The Kings Speech is (and it is very good), I'm just back from seeing Blue Valentine, which I think surpasses it. Again like Colin's comment above, there are no explosions, car chases, robots shooting each other - just two ordinary people falling into and out of love. Some others who I know have seen it have found some scenes almost too painful to watch. I didn't really feel that but there is real emotion there.

May well see you there in that case, I believe we have tickets. This will be my first Opera at the Lowry though my wife has been before. Love going to The Lowry, great building, lots of diverse stuff to see and a decent enough meal at Cafe Rouge!!

We will be there on the Tuesday rather than Saturday. Saturday is Fulham away which is the perfect excuse for a weekend at the first born's flat in the East End. We will also more likely be in Pizza Express than Cafe Rouge! Agree with you on the Lowry - excellent venue, which I will be frequenting this Friday for the opening night of Richard Thompson's tour.

We had a table for 16 at Thyme booked for last Saturday which we only booked on Wednesday. On Friday tea time we got a call to say that they has ceased trading on that day. Luckily the Pines stepped into the breach with a fine meal in a private room to boot.

Clearly not a movie but a new experience we had at the cinema last weekend. Cineworld, Bolton featured a live broadcast of the Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) by the New York Met opera company. I didn't know cinemas did this sort of thing, it was both very good and very interesting, especially as during the intervals there was live broadcast of the set changes etc. which one would never usually see.

We're not great opera buffs, it's something we are trying out, and have been to a few live operas recently. Watching in the cinema is a very different experience from a truly live performance but gave us a chance to see one of the world's great opera companies "live" without flying to NY.

I didn't know there was opera on but I know the Cornerhouse in Manchester has a live feed of the musical Fela from the National this Thursday which is a similar idea.

You need to get down to see Opera North at the Lowry Paul, if you have not already done. Next visit is in the first week of March and I think we will be seeing Carmen.

Saw The King's Speech last night - excellent.

Because its the best grub in the world

In that case tha needs to get out more lad.

Mumford and Sons at Glastonbury John Peel stage=legendary.

They were indeed Oz, although arriving a bit late I was so far back I could barely see them.

Just back after another fabulous weekend (well best part of a week). Makes a change to be shaking dust off everything rather than mud. Some thoughts on my festival, although I suspect most weren't on the telly: -

Gorillaz - enjoyed in parts, usually the parts that others there didn't. The Syrian band I thought were terrific and it was worth the time for the brief cameo by Lou Reed, the man with the most lived in face in rock and roll, including Keith Richards. That was the only time I went to the Pyramid stage.

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba. Simply wonderful. I've seen the band 5 or 6 times and they just keep getting better and better. The Guardian this morning said the crowd leaving the West Holts field wore gobsmacked expressions and I can well believe that. I urge anyone interested in guitar bands who hasn't ventured into African music to see them if they can.

The Unthanks - a delay of 20 minutes with sound problems put them a bit off their stride but they still gave an excellent set.

Nick Lowe - an object lesson for any new wannabees in how to deliver an hour of perfectly crafted pop songs with the minimum of fuss, backed by an extraordinary tight band.

To Mezclao - a new Cuban band on in an obscure bar in the early hours of Sunday - a joy.

Dr John - only caught the first half an hour as I had to work. Small crowd because he started in competition with the football (that was a mistake that thousands might have regretted), but wonderful to see the legend live again after I think 38 years.

Richard Thompson - again another admirable set delivered to a small but passionate crowd.

Rodgrigo y Gabriella - I've been wanting to see them for a while now but last night was the first time. They produce an extraordinary live experience for two people and guitars. I have a theory that they are guitar heroes for twentysomethings, who didn't have anyone like Hendrix or Clapton to worship. They have invented a new genre, which Q calls thrash metal flamenco, which is as good a description as I can think of.

Gomez - closed the Avalon stage. A while since I've seen them and I managed to catch the last half hour. A nice way to finish last night.

My son and his mate are scouring the Sky+ tape looking for themselves in the crowd for Orbital, which included a stage appearance for a Rovers fan - Matt Smith. he's the second that I know of, after me last year

Other than that, a bit too much beer and not enough sleep.