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~Good Morning/Afternoon Elle,

I have just ordered through Amazon the 'Miss Potter' film you recommended - luckily it does exist in DVD form. Unfortunately I will not receive it until 26th June which seems long to wait!

Re. doping in cycling, I too think it has gone on for a very long time but I feel that the competitors are certainly not the only ones to be blamed - the coach/team managers have a big part to play in all this. In fact I would not be surprised if some 'light performance enhancer ' was given to the cyclists unbeknown to them (in food or drink).

And it probably occurs in all the teams, to a greater or lesser extent.

I also feel the organisers have their share of responsability : How can you expect a human being, however highly trained he might be, to be able to ride up very long and very harsh mountain roads for three to four days on the trot ! I think perhaps they should review the route planning.

It is very spectacular and has always been in the spirit of the Tour, but I've got a feeling that in the old days, the mountain cycling days covered shorter distances - if you understand my jargon!

Is it just me or do other people find so called background music awful just tried to watch a programmme on Japan but had to turn off the sound plus the person doing the commentary sounded bored,also so many programmes seem to be filmed in the dark perhaps to save money perhaps

I could not agree more with you Doglet, it is the same with French TV/films. In some movies, the background music is played even when a dialogue is starting thereby making the first sentence or so inaudible.

The darkness annoys me too, and all this apply to many programmes, regardless of nationality apparently!

Pigale, I'm very glad to hear that you managed to order the DVD of "Miss Potter".
Hopefully , it will arrive sooner than scheduled - my orders from Amazon often come early.
I do hope you enjoy it!

Hi, Rusty!
Not sure if you're about....?
I've been out for most of the day, only got home about 6.45 pm ......and......guess what.... we've bought a car!
A one year old Volvo V60 estate, which ticks all the boxes!
Such a relief to have got that sorted!
How are things with you? What have you been doing today?

Hey Rusty, congratulations on your new (almost) car;
Hope it will run smoothly for many years.

Now, dare I ask ........ does the boot open...? :);)

Pigale, I think you've got confused!
I'm the one that's bought the car, not Rusty! ( and yes, thank you, the boot does open!!! )

Hello!
Great news about the car, Elle!
Hope they took the other one off you.
Hope you are fine, Doglet!
Now, Pigale and Elle, I have a wee bit of info for you about cycle racing, Le Tour etc.
The stages nowadays are quite a bit shorter than they used to be. By a 100 Kilometers or more.
I think it was in 1910 that the great French rider Octave Lapize called the Tour organisers "assassins", on the Col de Tourmalet, for the distances they had to ride on what passed for roads then.
On a sadder note Lapize was killed in 1917. He was a fighter pilot in the French Army and was shot down.
It has been very warm here today and looks like the same tomorrow!

Even worse, it was Bastille Day that Octave was shot down.

Elle, sorry, I meant to address that cheeky message to you ! And it was a joke!

Re info from you Rusty, (this is all getting confusing!),
I was not aware of the long distances covered in those early years of the Tour. I was only quite sure that when I was a teenager, the mountain stages were either shorter or were organised differently. But it is possible my memory is playing tricks on me.

I wonder if they had dope tests in those days?