Lets's not let this thread become moribund. It's all very well and good to rant and rant what a useless tos*er Steve Kean is and how Venky's are absolutely F**cking useless. So in the spirit of Blackburn Rovers' fans knowing where to put their apostophes and, despite generic opinion that we are just a bunch of knuckle dragging idiots, can we get this thread back on? I'd like to recommend "The God Of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. It won the Booker Prize. Its language is so very rich and fertile that the first page knocked me backwards. The narrative leaps backwards & forwards over time so the temporal fractures are very difficult to comprehend. I had to read it twice to fully comprehend the narrative. Defintely worth the effort. Also worth reading is Alan Bennett's " The Uncommon Reader." A lovely short book with humour and hardly a word wasted. If you think I'm being a bit "high-brow," then tough ####. This place could do with a little uplifting. BTW..... Venky's are still absolutely ####### useless. Cheers everyone

Six of us went to "The Clog & Billycock" today. We were all impressed. I was also impressed by the "beer boot" where you get a third of a pint each of Wainwright, Original & Bomber. What a cracking idea! A good choice for car drivers.

You seem like a forthright person. Perhaps an option the next time you go there is to say that you do not want to donate 40p to "some youth club for up and coming rioters and looters in the Darwen St area." Just something for you to consider as an option. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Cheers

This place is not at all fancy, nor does it pretend to be. Hillcrest Tea Room at Mitton

Funny no one ever spotted this before. Just have a look at the letters on the football shirt. here

I think the science means just simply more revolutions of the wheels per distance travelled. Perhaps a tad more friction in the axle, and a propensity to buckle a wheel in a slightly smaller sized pot-hole BTW, I took your advice on ditching WD40 on the chain. Thanks, proper oil does make a difference. I wiped of the excess with a rag dipped in white spirit so that it doesn't attract crud. It seems to be working well.

I've been more than happy with a Trek Navigator equipped here OK, it's not exactly a sexy beast and if you have issues with "looking stylish" then it's probably not the bike for you. You get the full mudguards and luggage rack in the deal. (You'll pay a few quid more for them as extras) The former because I don't want to arrive at the end of my commute looking like I have severe digestion problems. The latter is so much better than a pack over the back. It also has a stand which I thought was a bit wussy, but after a couple of weeks I really appreciated its simplicity and usefullness. There you go, just my recommendation for what it's worth.

Good job this bloke doesn't have to watch Rovers......... here If there are any Spanish speakers who can translate... does his use of the word "pussy" refer to cats?

Theno & everyone else, Growing your own chillis is worthwhile. They will fruit in a small-ish pot in a warm place and give you a chilli that is warming and wonderful. They look quite nice too with little white flowers that you may need to cross- pollinate with a little paint brush. Just keep feeding them a bit of fertilizer. They feeeze nicely too. As Theno said, no nose/eye/genitalia scratching unless you've washed you hands first. I can back that up from bitter experience. Is that the "restauraunt thread" suitably diverted?

SAS, I don't think so, the strips sit between the tyre & the inner tube, so I'm thinking that they may just add a couple of grams to the weight of the bike. I can't see any reason why they should affect performance (apart from preventing punctures - which must be a plus.)

Three punctures in a year? I pitched up at work about a year with both tubes punctured, then the back one went on the way home! You can also buy kevlar strips (or other material) which fit inside the tyre between it and the inner tube. I've not had a puncture since putting them in (touching wood now.) A tip I was given is once a week turn the bike over and check the tyres for bits if glass, stone & metal embedded in them. Flick then out with a small screwdriver. It takes five minutes but saves them working their way towards the inner tube.

That's OK by me Bacup, but to me it's like driving a car on under-inflated tyres or taking a photo with a sticky finger-print on the lens. Each to his own, as they say.

Paul, What's the problem with WD40 on a bike chain? I quite regularly clean mine with white spirit, via a paint brush, and then give it a squirt with WD 40. I did have some expensive chain lubricant in the past that didn't seem to make any difference from WD40 Cheers Colin

rather gathered my interest last week.Just out of interest, does anyone else share my disappointment that so many people never get the full texture of music via a decent hi-fi system. Youtube gives you the video and some tinny music, and downloads are handy, but compressed and you play them through little earphones. I played The Pierces Cd on the tinny little system in the kitchen a couple of times before I fired up the hi-fi in the front room. By Crivens! It was like listening to a whole new experience. My hi-fi is not particularly briliant, although it's set up properly. It does seem a shame that if someone takes the time & effort to record a decent sounding CD (or LP) that it only gets played via a compressed download via a pair of 50p earphones. Any thoughts?

My Mum & I went here today. Nor exactly a restaurant, but excedingly pleasant. According to the old dear the line was originally built from Preston to Longridge to bring stone from the quarries at Longridge back to Preston. Horses pulled the empty wagons from Preston to Longridge and, as it was all downhill on the return trip, the horses were loaded on the wagons with the stone. Weeeeeeeeeee! Gumboots - I didn't expect that! That'll teach me.

Ahem, Your daughter has got a first in her Masters Degree and you are worying about a meal. *facepalm* (as my daughter has taught me to do.) Congrats Gumboots, & to your daughter too.

Lawks! It's me again.I'll admit to having some time on my hands... I picked up Ben Elton's "Chart Throb" from the library the other day. I'm on page 333 of 463, so those of you with Maths GCSE will realise that I've not yet come to the denouement. Yet it is one of the most unusual novels I've ever read. Its whole story-line is based on nothing else but a massive and severe kicking in the testicles of the whole idea of "The X-Factor" & "Britain's Got Talent." Simon Cowell is in there; Louis Walsh too; & Sharon Osbourne (grotesquely disguised as Ozzy after a sex change operation;) as are the "it's my dream, I want it so much" contestants. I suppose that they haven't sued Ben Elton is that it is far too close to the truth. Recommended for some light reading and for laughing at Simon Cowell. Fyodor Dostoyevsky it's not, but a good hoot it certainly is.

I've just finished "Confessions Of A Fallen Angel" by Ronan O'Brien. It was like the last game of the season against Wolves (this is a Rovers' web site after all...) Half way through I was really enjoying it, but fully aware of the potential horrors that awaited. If you don't get a speck of dust in your eye somewhere in the second half then you probably stamp on kittens for enjoyment.

If it's any help, "spelling-nazi Colin" has been on their web site. Oh dear.

Agree, an excellant and entertaining book.

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

Only2Garners, This is not looking much like a biking thread, more like a grump about technology. When I go out on my bike I know where I'm going and I don't need satellite GPS to tell me. Ditch the technology and just get on your bike for the hell of it. You don't need GPS to tell you what to do. Same as you don't need it to tell you where the local McDonalds or KFC is. Do you want your life the be dictated to by your sat-nav company? Just get yourself out on your bike and go where you want to go.

Newcastle 4 - 4 Arsenal Arsenal 4 - 0 up at half time. An Arsenal fan watching on his computer, in his replica shirt. Here Good job he doesn't support Rovers or his head would have exploded years ago.

A bit of a change of direction, but I'd like to recommend "Risk," (The science & politics of fear) by Dan Gardner. He's a Canadian writer so draws much of his material from North America, but most of what he describes is applicable to western society in general. He looks at our daily fears and dreads and worries and analysises them from both a "human" nature view point & a statistical bent. Shark attacks; Madeline McCann; paedophiles lurking on the internet; mad cow disease; cancer; road rage; drugs; terrorists; crime? The lot of them are blown out of all proportion, either by the media who love a good "out of the ordinary" story, or by various organisations which have their own agendas to push. Be very, very afraid of your own ignorance & paranoia.

Pretty good ad for going to Lincoln University