This is where all the action is and the whole area will be effected by the actions of the US and UK over the coming months.

I’m not a big fan of discussing the news. I’d far rather wax lyrical about my mountain biking trips, my footballing skills (or lack of) or what a lovely holiday destination Yorkshire is, but I can’t very well ignore what’s going on in Iraq now can I? I’ll just get this off my chest and then get back to my usual routine.

It’s getting nasty. And it’s going to get nastier. The well-stated aim of the US/UK invasion is to liberate the Iraqi people from the rule of Saddam Hussein. This is not going to be an easy thing to do whatever tactics and technology you use. I can well understand why the Iraqi people would be mistrusting of the US. Try to look at it from the Iraqi on the ground’s point of view…

America stood by and watched while the Kurdish uprising was quashed by Hussein. After the 1991 war, the Iraqi people were abandoned by the international community and punished with heavy sanctions that left many to die from starvation and disease. The US support the Israeli regime who in turn are an enemy of the Arabic people. The US have let down the Iraqi people before and there’s no reason they won’t do it again. And all along Hussein and his men have been terrorising the people while feeding them anti-west propaganda. Right or wrong, you can understand their point of view. And with that much distrust going on, it’s always going to be a tough proposition to turn the people around. But not impossible.

Once the military objectives have been met by the coalition forces (as I have no doubt they will be), the question will be “what’s next”? The aid already flowing into Iraq is proof enough that the coalition’s intentions are good. They really do want to help the people of Iraq, the difficulty is that people will die before that can happen. Innocent people have already died and many more will before Hussein’s regime is destroyed. It’s extremely unfortunate, but it’s a fact of war. And it’s unavoidable. I just hope that the Iraqi military don’t use some of the more evil civilian shielding tactics when it gets to close quarters battle in the streets.

This is how Beirut looked a few years ago as it was being rebuilt.

But I’m hopeful that, with the right approach, a peaceful long-term future can result. I stress though, if the right approach is taken. A few years ago I visited Lebanon for a couple of weeks. Anybody I’ve ever told about it has said words to the effect of “are you crazy? you could have been killed” and every time I’ve explained what it’s really like.

I grew up hearing about suicide bombings, hostage taking, civil war, Hezbollah and everything else that went on. But that’s in the past. There is peace. Okay, there are some dodgy areas (as there are in any country) but talking to the young people it’s hard to believe that just a few short years before there was all the bloodshed. It’s a multi-cultural society (Beirut was once referred to as the “Paris of the Middle East”) and the young people are exactly like those you meet in any modern country. And they didn’t let bitterness show (not that I mentioned Israel, however). It’s a fascinating country with some truly amazing sights and history, and it has survived conflict and occupation.

My hope is that Iraq can too. Should the US pull out of Iraq too soon or not take into account it’s neighbours or not put enough effort into rebuilding the infrastructure or not put a proper leadership in place, then the repercussions will be felt for many years to come. But do a good job and there’s no reason we can’t have a lasting peace. The trouble is that I don’t trust the US leadership either. And if I can’t, can the people of Iraq? I guess actions speak louder than words.

We’re well into the ground offensive in Iraq and I’ve deliberately avoided writing about my feelings about the whole situation before now for several reasons. Firstly, I think it’s a bad idea to wage a war without international support. No country should be allowed to wield such power alone and act with such impunity. That aside, there’s no sense in arguing the point. The reality is that the battle is underway, the decisions have been made and no amount of protesting will stop the war (really). I disagree with the war (especially for the repercussions Britain and the US could face after the Saddam Hussein regime is in pieces, depending on the outcome), but now that it’s underway I want the troops involved to get the job done with minimal casualties. The less loss of life the better in my book.

If it weren’t for a bout of flu, I could quite easily be one of the Royal Marines fighting in the desert. And, sitting comfortably on my sofa watching TV thinking of what might have been, I fully understand the seriousness of the conflict. I watched the video of laser-guided missiles destroying targets in the 1991 war with amazement. It was like watching a video game and I was younger and less worldly-wise. This time around I’ve been watching the news channels on satellite TV in a different frame of mind: more analytically and less like it isn’t really happening.

What strikes me straight away is how more tightly information is being controlled than in 1991. Invading a country is a much bloodier thing than trying to expel a force from one. There were going to be fierce fire-fights, close quarters combat, friendly fire incidents and much worse (such as POWs being bandied on TV). With the amount of media coverage from 1991 on such a grizzly battlefield the public and politicians could find it hard to have the stomach for a drawn-out campaign. This time, however, the press is being kept in the dark. No laser-guided precision bomb video feeds. The military briefers are remaining tighter-lipped about operations than before and the reporters are being kept out of the “areas of interest” by the soldiers they are following. The trouble is though that it’s not taken long for reporters to involved in fierce fire-fights and there’s no way to keep a lid on that sort of horror.

The different news channels I’ve been watching have dealt with the conflict quite differently so far. Sky News have been using technology to let the reporters in different parts of the battlefield interview each other, which has been a bit strange. The BBC News 24 team have been doing (in my opinion) a better job. Whereas Sky has been letting presenters on location lead the reporting, the BBC have been taking a more classically detached approach. They sit in the studio in London, speak to reporters in the field as thing happen and then discuss them in a calm, balanced manner. It’s less close-to-the-bone, but feels less frantic. Both channels have interactive services where you can watch live feeds from Baghdad and catch up on the latest events when you like. CNN is a waste of time as their reporters have been expelled from Baghdad and NBC is just too dumbed down for my liking (no offence, but it is).

I guess that we’ll only really hear about exactly what’s been going on after the event and I’m not going to sit for hours in front of the TV trying to follow every grizzly detail. There’s nothing I can do about it and I’m just hoping that it will all be over soon. But deep down I don’t think it will. I have this sneaking feeling that when the US and UK troops hit Baghdad it’s going to be one hell of a bloodbath. I just hope I’m proved wrong.

Enjoying a brief rest before more pleasure in the saddle.

A few friends and I went out mountain biking yesterday and it was superb. The difference a nice sunny day makes is almost immeasurable. Lately it’s been a case of dragging myself out on my bike and fun though it’s been at night, I’ve been longing for a summer day where I can go out in shorts and t-shirt and just enjoy the terrain and the views. Finally, it arrived.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the forecast was for more, which normally means that it’s raining by the time Sunday comes around. Not this time. A friend and I decided to do a route near Kilnsey crag so I gave another friend a call and it turned out that yet another friend had already decided he wanted to do the exact same route (what are the chances of that?). So all the evidence pointed to us going there.

The calm before the storm. The final descent.

I’m not going to go into too much detail because I could go on for a couple of thousand words about how the initial long, rocky climb is punishing but well worth it as you get on top of the moors. I could continue to explain how after some ups and downs you eventually get to a final long climb on steep grassy terrain. I could even describe in minute detail the awesome downhill (my favourite in Yorkshire) that leads you back in the blink of an eye to the road and a couple of miles from the start point. I could then finish by describing the pub and how we sat outside and discussed the day’s events. But I don’t think I will. Because I wouldn’t do it justice. You’d just have to have been there.

Well, here’s a follow up from my previous posting. This is the timeline:

• Thursday: My girlfriend and I are happy living next door to each other.
• Friday: My girlfriend and I happen to see a house we’d have in an estate agent we just happen to go in to.
• Saturday: We go to see the house and love it.
• Sunday: We decide that we want it and speak to my father (a financial adviser) about mortgages and the like. We also decide my girlfriend will sell her house.
• Monday: We go to see the house again and are absolutely sure it’s the one we want.
• Tuesday: We make an offer, it’s accepted. In principle at least, it’s ours!

So there you go. I’m going to have a kick-ass house of my own. With my own garage. With 4 bedrooms and more space than I know what to do with. Oh, and there’s the small matter of actually living with my girlfriend (that’s the easy part, I hope). Who says buying a house is tough in this market? Okay, I realise that the deal could fall through at any time throughout the no doubt lengthy process of actually getting the house for real - but it’s all fun and games.

It was amusing seeing the difference in responses from myself and my girlfriend over the past few days. I was really wanting the house and hoping we’d get it, but just getting on with life as normal and staying cool. My girlfriend felt the same, but she was excited, apprehensive, felt sick, tense and nervous all at the same time. Maybe it’s got something to do with her being from Venus and me from Mars. Maybe it has something to do with the prospect of living with me. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over the next couple of months and if we actually do get the house.

And before you ask, no. I won’t turn this into a “John buying his house and going to DIY superstores weblog”. I hate that sort of thing.

So my girlfriend and I are walking up the high street on Friday. Hang on. Rewind a bit. My girlfriend was a bit knackered and decided to take Thursday and Friday off and suggested that I take Friday off and we could have a nice relaxing day together. It doesn’t take much to persuade me to take time off work (in fact it takes no persuasion at all, just the hint of an idea), so I jumped at the chance. Anyway, we went for a pub lunch (with my work colleagues I might add - that’s how well we get on) and afterwards we thought we’d have a wander through the centre of Skipton. Which we did.

Okay, that takes me to us walking up the high street. So we wander past one of the estate agents and do our usual routine of looking in the window to comment on how bloody expensive houses around here are. Wait a minute. Let’s just rewind a bit more. In case I haven’t mentioned it before (or you didn’t know), my girlfriend and I live next door to each other. We met over the garden fence and we both have one bedroom houses. She owns hers and I rent mine. We can’t move in together because there’s not enough space for the both of us (and everybody needs their own personal space after all) plus, we’d have to argue about which settee to throw out (quick answer: mine).

Anyway, we’ve talked many times about how much money we could save by moving in together but the problems with that plan have always been as follows:

• Her house is too small for the both of us.
• My house is too small for the both of us.
• Houses are damn expensive just now and so it wouldn’t be a good time for us to buy.
• We could rent a larger house, but that’s a bit pointless as she already owns her own.

In short, we’ve talked about it but not really taken it seriously. And that brings us back to the estate agent. We went inside to have a look at houses for rent and after picking up the leaflet, had a quick look at the houses for sale. And then we saw it. Our perfect house. And at a price we could afford. We couldn’t believe it.

We had previously decided that should we live in a house together it would need 3 bedrooms and a garage. That way I could put my gym in the garage and turn one of the bedrooms into a second lounge to give us a bit of personal space when we need it (i.e. when I watch football on TV). We realised that houses like this were expensive thanks to the strength of the housing market, so we kept on dreaming. But here we were looking at the perfect house (it actually has 4 bedrooms, but nothing’s perfect), and it’s in the same village we currently live in, which we really like. We wandered around town a bit before deciding to arrange an appointment to go and see it.

We spent the evening talking about the reality of buying a house together and my girlfriend decided she would sell her house to move to this one because it’s exactly the sort of house she’d want to live in (albeit with me). I was all for it, mainly because it’s an ideal house for me and I’m an impulsive, do-or-die sort of person. So Saturday comes along and we drive the short distance to the house, and it’s raining cats and dogs. But as the owner showed us around I could see myself living there more and more. I’m stupefyingly observant so I was making mental notes of little bits of cracked paint here and there (it’s a 2 year old house and I know what current building standards are like) but I was liking what I saw. After we left my girlfriend was smiling too. We want this house.

So there you go. We’re going to make an offer. Well, to be more precise, I’m going to make an offer. If I get a mortgage sorted out then we can get the house without having to wait to sell my girlfriend’s first - so no chain. At this point, I’m not expecting that we’ll get the house. It’s a seller’s market just now so I’m not going to get my hopes up. However, we’re going to arrange to go and see it again ASAP (unless somebody else has already bought it) and mention to the agent that we’re interested and are not waiting to sell. Fingers crossed.

I’ve tried recently to be less impulsive and save money and be more predictable. I guess it didn’t work and it’s rubbing off on my girlfriend too. I suppose you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

No, it’s not sex before you ask (it doesn’t get your heart rate high enough, believe it or not). I used to think it was swimming. I spent several years solidly swimming 25-30 miles a week and up until I discovered The Best Exercise Ever, I thought that there was no better way to burn calories than knocking out laps in the pool. But no, there’s a better way. And it’s much harder than negative splitting 5×400m freestyle.

Cross-country skiing also comes close. Well, my attempting at cross-country skiing that is, given that my technique is completely terrible. It’s cardiovascular, it’s anaerobic, it uses just about every muscle in your body, it looks ridiculous (once again, I mean that I look ridiculous when I do it) and it has the added bonus of extra pain when you fall over. But it’s still not there.

Running in army boots up and down sand dunes is very close indeed. It’s one of those things that is way harder than it looks and can have you collapsing onto your knees after just a few minutes. It uses your legs (naturally) and your upper body has to work hard to keep the momentum going. It’s both aerobic and anaerobic and I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s a close second.

And here we are, time to reveal The Best Exercise Ever. It’s 20 rep squat sets. Doesn’t sound very exciting does it? A colleague told me that I needed to do it and stop being a pathetically weak beanpole so I borrowed a book from him called “Brawn” by Stuart McRobert and read it. One of the things that stood out was the power of squatting. The idea is simple. You start by putting a barbell across your shoulders at a standing position, then squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then stand up again (making sure you keep your head straight). You do this 20 times, have a short rest and do that set a further 3 times.

Warning: this is the bit where my girlfriend, who proof-read this article “got bored and switched off”. But I recommend you read on and make your own mind up (comment below and tell me if you agree with her).

The next time you do it you add half a kilogram to each side and so on. It’s not a lot of weight but over the months it soon adds up. Before you know it you’re squatting more than your own bodyweight. But the reason that it’s The Best Exercise Ever is because it is so incredibly, fantastically, awesomely hard. It really is. Try this: stand up and do 20 squats with no weights at all. Do them slowly, say taking a couple of seconds over each repetition. Hard work isn’t it? Now imaging doing that with 100Kg over your back. Damn hard work.

Since I started squatting a couple of years ago my body has changed dramatically. Squatting doesn’t just work your thighs, it works your calves, your quads, your buttocks, your back (lower and upper), your shoulders and your heart. My legs are a lot stronger, my back that used to give me quite a lot of trouble is now as strong as a tree trunk and I get injured playing football far less. I can’t stress how hard it is though. The day of my training session is spent dreading the inevitable torture I’m going to endure (although I do look forward to it). I literally drop to my knees between sets and if I didn’t I’d probably collapse onto the ground anyway.

I’m not joking when I say it’s changed my life. I do a lot of other exercising and weight training but nothing has had the obvious effect on me as squatting. So my advice is if you’re injury prone, have a weak back, spaghetti-thin legs, have problem hair or no confidence with women, then get into squatting. You can join a gym (although most gyms these days are for people who want to pull members of the opposite sex rather than get in shape) or buy yourself a bench, some squat stands and safety bars then get to work! I’m not kidding.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve managed to live these 28 years without ever being a Pink Floyd fan. Sure, I remember when the single “Another Brick in The Wall” was in the charts when I was a kid, but I just thought it was about a bullying teacher and thought nothing more of it. Over the years I was aware that they have cult status and many millions of fans all over the world. Quite a few of my friends have been very vocal over the years about how good a band they are and how good their music is. And mostly I made mental notes to get around to listening to them eventually.

This isn’t the first time this has happened (and I bet you can already tell what’s going to happen). The band James, fronted by Tim Booth, were a massive band throughout the 80s and 90s and I must admit that I never really paid much attention until they released the single “Laid” from the album of the same name. I woke up one morning and heard it on the radio, decided then and there that I really liked them, and bought all their albums not long after. I’m still a big fan and was lucky enough to see them live a few years ago.

I did the same thing with the Stone Roses. At the time they were at their peak I was listening to rave music and missed the whole scene. But a few years ago I heard a copy of their first album (called “The Stone Roses”) on tape and thought it was the best album I’d ever heard. Naturally I have a copy of it now and still believe it is the best album ever recorded. However, they’d long since parted ways by the time I became a fan. Which was disappointing to say the least (you never know, they might have a comeback tour when they’re all old and run out of money).

Anyway, back to Pink Floyd. I was telling one of the guys at work that I’d always meant to get around to listening to them and he said he’d happily lend me the CDs. I asked him for his favourite two and we compromised on his favourite three instead (he just couldn’t choose the top two). So he brought in “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall”. Thus far I’ve listened to the first in the car a few times and the second at home a few times (I’ll get to the third later today). And I’ll tell you one thing. I should have listened to them years ago!

First of all, I never realised that “Money” was by Pink Floyd (the one that starts with all the cash registers). It’s funny to know a song so well but never know who it was by or anything about it. Quite a surprise. It’s clear though that a lot of modern music that I know and love has been blatantly copied from what Pink Floyd did around 30 years ago. Even in now what I’ve heard so far isn’t dated at all. What I will say at this early stage is it’s quite clear those guys took an awful lot of drugs, I don’t think you write that sort of music with a clear head.

So after putting it off for years I’m going to immerse myself in their music and will come out of the other end a better person for it (I’m sure). Then I plan on watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” as I’ve been meaning to for years. In fact, I’ve borrowed the DVD and it’s sitting under my TV just waiting to be watched (as it will for a while longer yet if I know me). Are you detecting a pattern?