It is a fact universally acknowledged that a woman in her thirties in possession of a ticking biological clock MUST be in want of a baybee.

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

The former thread proved full of sadness and most vexatious disappointments, wherefore we know not :(. Therefore the BESH will be donning their empire dresses and enlisting the assistance of Captain Wentworth and his admirable breeches and Mr Darcy smouldering damply in his transparent white shirt both of whom with their pleasing countenances and sound judgements and enormous fortunes, in short both of whom are everything a young man ought to be in the expectation that happier times may be ahead for the BESH.

Hello, popped in again to see how the dust had settled.

For what it's worth we've always had readers n lurkers. That Xmas day I was in hospital with the ectopic miscarriage and I posted to the BESH thread cos they'd made MrGin go and I was all alone and it was SHITTER THAN SHIT- the first, lovely, sweet and caring post was from someone I didn't even know.

But she knew me.

Oh fuck I'm welling up. Quick someone break a chair over my head or something

Gin - there will be no breaking of chairs over heads. We may seem hardened biatches but the worst we are generally capable of is a punch in the kidneys or the tipping of a bucket of smelly prawns over the head. Would you like the prawns?

Faith I have made a momentous decision, if IVF fails, I am going to become a qualified fitness instructor. I've been looking at NVQs for gym instruction and teaching exercise classes to music and think I might have a look at a nutrition qualification too.

Good luck with the Clomid Bugs, did you have any side effects on the lower dose?

Right, a not-great dinner-time discussion coming up: I'm still spotting brown gunk (3rd day of it). It's not loads, enough to require a change of pantyliner 2/3 times a day but definitely not of droidal proportions. Anyone got any ideas about speeding it along? Any Old Wives Tales - herbs up the fanjo or the like?

Oh holy crap, I appear to be making a commitment. I won a place in the RideLondon 100 miler (I suspect they don't get too many 30 year old housewives applying, and I'm helping the diversity quota), and as HOTB didn't, I ignored the deadline to pay the entry fee so assumed I'd lost my place. I am rather afraid of doing such things on my own, you see. However, today I got a letter saying they've extended the deadline, so if I pay up by 18th March I will still have my place - and I'm thinking I will do it.

The event is on 3rd August, so there should be plenty of time to recover from the laparoscopy beforehand, and we're unlikely to have started IVF by then, so it's not bad timing. The question is, can I do enough training to be able to cover that distance fast enough? The furthest I've ever ridden is 30 miles, and that was with a rest in the middle...

Lots of extra cycling can only help with lowering the BMI though, right? Oh god, I'm scared...

That's a good plan rasp, very productive and will certainly make a difference though I'm still rooting for you.

Thanks Faith, I just need something to look forward to 'on the other side' if what we really want doesn't work out. That's my coping strategy at the moment!

Evil do it DO IT!!!!!!

Rasp I'm one of the early ESH, am a firm believer in random violence. And tequila pleased to meetcha.

In that case Pleased to meet you wench.

Laters biatches. May the ESH be with you.

Yeah, I think I will, rasp.

Bugs I have no clue about the profile of the route, but it follows a fair bit of the Olympic road race, though thankfully only the one ascent of Box Hill! Living in the fens as I do, finding hills to practice up may be a challenge... I was cycling on a regular basis (10-20 miles 3-4 times per week) until winter struck, but have not really done much for the last three months or so (though did ride 10 miles twice last week). One of the benefits of being a housewife is that there's plenty of time to train, though I'll have to harden the fuck up and go out when it's cold.

We're going to ride the Cambridge 50 at the end of April, which I'm not anticipating any problems with, and August is a good long way away...

Padded shorts are bliss! We went out to do a bit of photography the other day so rode there in jeans, and my arse was killing even though it was only about two miles - the ten miles the following day were gloriously comfortable in my padded lycra!

As far as food goes, I will probably borrow HOTB's nosebag and fill it with snickers bars The only sad thing is that as I'm so short my bike is miniscule - I can only fit one water bottle on the frame as the seat tube is too short to hold a second!

Breaking chairs over the head is great and firmly in the Lore of the BESH. I remember frequent kneecappings and actually someone being positioned under a cliff in order to drop an anvil on them in the manner of the Wily Coyote. I remember laughing my arse off at that.

OH FUCK I'VE ENTERED IT

I'm going to die

On the plus side, 100 miles of closed roads! It's going to be so weird

Am aghast at all this talk of cycling up hills.

Well done Evil

I am eating some amazing Wensleydale with Cranberry and Fudge from Tesco

Cheese with fudge? Abomination!

Cheese with fudge in it? Please tell me that's not what you meant?

Heh, great minds, Twinks

Yup, cheese with fudge in it. It's lush!

Cheese with fudge :( it makes me feel ill, but the sad-smiley is the closed we have to a sick smiley...

Actually sad is that I finished P&P. And am newly distressed that marriage is for the procreation of children - bloody hell - I missed that the first 15 times I watched it.

Really exciting draf and a good way to get vvvv fit. I got diffed after an exercise kick and a lap so clearly this is your ticket. Either irony-diff during training or a very lean and fit start of your diffage.