Nice pictures but I think you need to take your rose tinted historical glasses off.



My grandma was born in 1910 and raised down Hessle Road, her father died when she was about six, lost at sea and her mother remarried a drunken alcoholic brute. They never had enough food and lived in slum housing, she suffered with malnutrition, by the age of thirteen she had TB. The abusive stepfather eventually committed suicide and her mother remarried, at fifteen the new step father threw her and her younger brother out and she went to work in the Needlers sweet factory to support them.

She met my granddad and things were better but still I suspect tough, although normal to them she led a fairly normal life from there on in and died in 1987.



I doubt her experiences were at all unusual.



My point is, that away from the offices of the big shipping lines and fishing companies responsible for some of the beautiful architecture I would say life was very much worse for your average citizen in terms of social and economic opportunity than now.



Preston Road is well known as one of the most disadvantaged areas of the city but has recently seen the opening of what looks a very nice school, the opportunities are there to be taken, yes, it might be hard, but at least they're there.



I'm generalising an awful lot and I admit to having little knowledge about Hulls current climite as i haven't lived there for a long time, but you get the gist.

Oh, I know. I'm not glamourising the poverty, ignorance, misery and rudimentary plumbing. Now [iis[/i better - it just looks worse. You take things very literally sometimes.

You asked the question, and if you're accusing me of having a binary world view then how very dare you Sir, how very dare you.



fx> Removes gauntlet and foppishly swipes Mild Rover across the chops <fx

One of these in the garden this morning... www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx Odd little thing, anyone else seen one?

One of these in the garden this morning... www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx Odd little thing, anyone else seen one?

Quote Wildmoose="Wildmoose"One of these in the garden this morning... www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx Odd little thing, anyone else seen one?'" Can't say I've ever seen one, we have a very angry Robin. He's great, he terrorises the Guinea Pigs if they're out.

Quote Wildmoose="Wildmoose"One of these in the garden this morning... www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx Odd little thing, anyone else seen one?'" Can't say I've ever seen one, we have a very angry Robin. He's great, he terrorises the Guinea Pigs if they're out.

My Bike to Work voucher finally came through and I've GOT MY BIKE! IT'S ACE! I've been playing on it this afternoon and I'm going to ride to work on it tomorrow if it's not raining.



Took Marfa and Sandra's advice and got a hybrid. Was a bit scared I might fall off because I haven't ridden bike for about 20 years, but it really is like "riding a bike..."



It's a Specialized ladies black Globe:



...but I've got mudguards and a rear basket on mine. It's very beautiful.

Anyone watching Wales v Aus? Great opening quarter.

Territorial little things robins...maybe it's very red robin in your garden? Don't think he'd be taking any crap off those guinea pigs

Nice....You will love it I adore mine, it has definitely toned my bottom and legs as well.Make sure you have a good quality lock, thieves target hybrids.

Looks a very nice bike that, I keep toying with getting one but I don't really want any more hobbies that I can't do with Ms. Terrorist and there's no way I'm going cycling with her.



The only time I've seen her on a bike was in San Francisco when we hired bikes with our friends. Ms. Terrorist could understand gears at all, the one hill of any size that we went up lead up to the Golden Gate bridge, in the end the quickest way to get her up was for me to ride to the top, leave my bike, run down and then ride Ms. Terrorists bike whilst she walked.



It was ridiculous, mind you, I then got knocked off my bike by a taxi so i wasn't a whole lot more proficient.