Mike

I don't think Sheffield's a hard city at all. Try Manchester/Glasgow/Bradford for comparison. Sheffields nice and squidgy soft in comparison. That said, it's still pretty backward in many ways imho.

That's also my experience. My partner and I are starting to feel like the exception not wanting kids (though not the only ones), and most of my friends that are around my age have either had some or are gearing up for it. It's that "biological clock" ticking away.... or so they tell me.

Where are the topics slagging off all Americans?

First one I saw was this one: http://www.geocities.com/thomasjfletcher/Essex.htm

You have a point there, but in this particular case wasn't it the Commission for Racial Equality who took this up, not the newspapers (though doubtless they're all on the bandwagon now)? He may have only been referring to the leadership, but he didn't exactly go out of his way to make this distinction, and the starting statement "We owe Arabs nothing" is clearly designed to be controversial. It was RKS himself who brought up Hitler in his article. I thought he was taken off because Paul Merton and Ian Hislop wouldn't stop dragging the issue up, and the show become unworkable?

I think pensioner's crumpet Kilroy was trying to come up with a controversial column for the paper. Unfortunately for him, it was a nasty racist diatribe published at the worst possible time. Whoops, Kiljoy, it's backfired. I've always found him a complete w*****, and am extremely surprised to find anyone will miss him or his appalling show. We should all be thankful his rubbish is off the air for good.

Off to France snowboarding next weekend That's my holiday allowance used up 'til April so who knows after that. I'd like to go back to British Columbia, but this time in summer.

Ah cheers for that, didn't see it - I searched on curry rather than Indian - prolly best to delete this thread mods! I always avoid calling them Indian restaurants because I believe (correct me if I'm wrong here) that a large proportion of them are actually Bangladeshi ?

A proper system of cycle paths would help - anyone seen how it works in the Netherlands? Fantastic system of cycle lanes means traffic and bikes rarely meet.

I've not had a curry for ages and ages and was just reading the "curry help" thread.... So what do you think is the best curry restaurant, and which is the best takeaway?

Hasn't there always been an east / west divide in Sheffield? I'd heard that because the wind usually blew the smoke from the factories and steel mills from west to east, it was always more desirable (and costly) to live on the west side.

I've done a fair bit of climbing up there - it's lovely. Un-crowded and great scenery. I can recommend a stay at Chillingham Castle, reputedly the most hauted house in England. Not that expensive either.

Actually, I find Rain's posts admirably honest - many of us struggle with fidelity, I certainly do, but how many of us are brave enough to forgo any committed relationships because of this struggle?

I loved that program - those guys are truly talented. I bet Sheffield is full of good venues but it'd be a case of finding somewhere out of the public eye to start with I reckon.

Some people just like complaining I think

Good idea - these threads always go off at a tangent. It's bizarre how many MA threads there are in this part of the forum! I guess if faced with a boxer I'd try to stay out of range of their devastating punches and kick to the legs, but easier said than done. I think many are scared of boxers because they do so much contact sparring and are used to taking hits. This is an interesting read: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8185

I was just going to say the same thing. Even if you stay together then it's a good thing to feel good about yourself and to have your own independance.

Sheffield's not the prettiest place in the world, but it's come on in leaps and bounds since I first got here in '85 - if you think it's a dump now, you should have seen it then! And there's many, many worse places to live than Sheffield. Take a ride out through some of the old mining villages that are now like ghost-towns for starters. Go have a look at some of the bad areas of places like Glasgow or try living in one of the poor areas of Bradford - when I lived there it was horrendous in comparison with Sheffield.

I don't want to mention the W word , but what about ankle weights, you know, those light weight-belts that you strap around your ankles?

Very true - even if somebody seems like an easy opponent, they might have a knife waiting for you... As an aside, I'm surprised boxing never gets recommended as a martial art - on many MA forums i've read, boxers seem to be feared as formidable opponents.

When this sort of thing happens it's a killer - it can just completely do your head in and can be really painful. You probably feel stupid because you've laid yourself open to somebody emotionally and they've just trampled over your feelings so the natural thing is to withdraw and feel daft for ever doing it in the first place. Problem is, as Belle has said above, you only really have two choices, and that is to forget about it, or get out of there. I'm not trying to belittle how you feel but with seven years under your belts, and if you're still happy together, then you should be able to put a drunken snog behind you. If he'd been having an affair for the past six months or something, then I'd say differently.

Just asking really. I think that often the problem is even if people are in a "perfect" relationship, over a long time the grass gets greener over that fence.

What would you consider an effective art for using against multiple attackers? Everything I've read since becoming interested in MA seems to say that the only real solution to multiple attackers is to run very fast!

Is monogamy the ideal way to conduct relationships? It's always touted as one of the holy grails of a relationship, but why is this? Isn't it just some Christian ideal?

1. I believe it's got a pretty good reputation, but never been myself. 2. Ju-Jitsu is a great general self-defence art and covers a good variety of striking, throws and locks. It's very technical but I think it would be a good art for a smaller person as a lot of the techniques are about using an opponents force against them rather than trying to beat them down. 3. There's another Ju-Jitsu dojo on Little London Road (next to Stoke's Paints) and this has been recommended by my Ju-Jitsu sensei, but again never been, though am thinking of checking it out soon. Might be worth getting a free lesson there and seeing which your daughter prefers.