Reynard

You do, and it's a fucking tremendous hassle to keep yourself at that. Hanging leg raises and planks are also quite good for strengthening the abs in places that sit ups dont touch. All youll really do if you do that many sit ups is give yourself a sore back.

You will either need to exercise more or eat less. Preferably both.

I tend to plough on with some sort of bodyweight exercises even if I have a stinking cold or dont feel up to it. I keep the chin ups and press ups and stuff like that on the go, so when I actually feel OK again I dont feel too bad lifting weights again. Its the cardio stuff I dont do/dont feel like doing when I'm in that state. I'm back playing squash again now anyway, so I'm getting plenty of cardio action from that, plus its actually enjoyable for me. I hate running distance which pretty much rules out going for a run with some of my mates, I just dont find it remotely enjoyable. I do like doing HIIT stuff and tabata which gets it all over and done with swiftly, which for a lazy fucker like me is ideal. I can go and crunch out ten minutes of tabata then Im back in my chair for Emmerdale. Just drop the weight down to something you are happy with and maybe slow your reps right down? I sometimes do that with lighter weight and it really burns like f**k.

Back into it after New Year. Been doing the usual stuff but have got the kettlebells out again and FFS I am sore in the thighs and hamstrings afterwards. Must have lost a bit of fitness after being out of action for nearly a month with that cold fluey virus thing but you get it back fairly swiftly. Quite enjoying the training just now but not liking walking like the tin man.

Ive been helping clear out a whole bunch of crap from and aunt and uncles place in Largs. I blagged shitloads of bottles of port and whisky as well as cigars, which is lovely. Anyway, I was visiting them in their new "away to die" place and was blethering to the old boy. He was high up in the Bank of Scotland back in the day but he was telling me that the value of his shares had dropped by over two hundred grand :lol: FFS! That's got to sting a bit!

Telling Stories by Tim Burgess decent bio, funny in places and a good insight into his lifestyle especially during the height of his excesses. 8/10 Forgot to mention that I expect the book to be getting a second edition pretty swiftly especially as Burgess describes Jimmy Savile as one of "the good guys" Ooops!

The bloke I play squash with a sa training partner has been drunk for three weeks so I've not played at all. And I've had some sort of snotter fuelled cold thing going on for about a fortnight. I've not felt like training at all, and now Christmas is coming up so its difficult to find time to do much. I'll just watch what I eat and take any chance I can get as far as exercise goes. I'm meant to be hillwalking in between Christmas and New Year, so that's something I suppose.

Tremendous effort to win the series out there. A rare occurrance, they have caught India at a good time I suppose, but even so. Good to see Trott and Bell getting a good innings each under their belts.

Yeah. I think some folk are definitely more vulnerable to these things. Alcohol or whatever lifestyle they go for probably accelerates things or makes them worse.

A whole load of the folk languishing in psychiatric wards are in there because they have fried themselves on alcohol or some other drug. Not all of them of course, but a significant number. You will see a significant number of alcoholics in there attempting to dry out, and folk that have fucked theiur heads from drug taking in general.

I was in Lidl on Sunday morning for some of their freshly baked pretzels and I had a swatch at this mythical pizza. Nah.

Been killing myself to get up early to watch this series. An absolutely brilliant performance by Cook and Pietersen and Panesar and Swann. Those four guys performances did the job for England and it keeps the series alive until the last game, which is great. I was fully expecting a total routing for England in this series and particularly expected them to be horsed after India ordered a worn, turning wicket for this test. AND England losing the toss, which would have normally meant them batting last and at least having to chase a big total on a nightmare spinning surface. It was a tremendous test match for England really, and Petersen's century was absolutely outstanding. He batted beautifully and never looked in any great bother at all. When he is playing that way he does stuff not many others can do. Cook was his usual solid self too. The rest of the batting order were not fantastic though and will really need to chip in more. A win in India for England is a rarity, a win like THAT is a real rarity!

thirty rockets into Be'Er Sheva last night AFTER the ceasefire. Praise to Allah for that.

lol

Why don't they just get all they want off Egypt? Surely they will be only too happy to help their arab brethren out.

I have a friend who married an Israeli girl and now lives out in Be'Er Sheva. His neighbours are Arabs and he works alongside another two. In fact, one of them is his direct boss. Oppression all over the shop there! His town is getting hit pretty hard with the rockets right at this moment. He has decided to move north to stay with friends as it is too dangerous now. Incidentally, I just wonder if it was mentioned in any of the news bulletins that a convoy of 80 lorries filled with medical equipment and food supplies drove south from Be'Er Sheva yesterday morning into Gaza. These people are obviously just Nazi scum.

There can't be a peaceful agreement. Thats the whole fucking point I have been making for days now. If the state of Israel is not going to be recognised by some then there is no prospect of any peace. A Palestinian state will not make peace happen either. There have been a few attempts to make peace. Israel wholly fucked off out of Gaza leaving not a Jew in the place. People left their homes and businesses behind for that to happen and still the rockets came over. Still the suicide bombers came across and Hamas continued to attempt to smuggle in military equipment. Israel doesnt bomb Jordan or Syria or Egypt anymore because they brokered a peace deal and stuck to it. They all did pretty much apart form the odd random scuffle. Israel handed Sinai back to Egypt too in oder to get peace, which HAS lasted so far. Gaza seems to be a different story, mainly because it is being run by a bunch of jihadist Islamists who dont want peace and who dont recognise Israel as a state, and who want rid of it. Do you think Hamas will suddenly change their minds or something? I'd like to see a peace agreement between Gaza and Israel, but while we might get a short term ceasefire I can't see any room for movement with Hamas in charge. That's surely a bit of a problem for any peace talks. Hamas would need to alter their charter almost totally in order to do this. It's not going to happen, and Hamas are not going to go anywhere anyway.

Should Israel simply accept the fact that rockets will continue to be fired into it's state from outwith? Is that what you are saying?

It may do. But the jihadist Islamist mindset is available throughout Islam and isn't confined to the Gaza strip. Israel has over a million arabs living inside it's borders and they are given an education and all the rest of it and have the same rights as any other Israeli citizen. They are not being driven out as Jews are in other Muslim states and indeed in the immediate neighbourhood of Israel. I think it's probably better to judge Israel for how they treat their own citizens inside their own borders than expect them to be responsible for how another state treats it's own citizens. If rockets keep being fired over the border then they will respond with force, everyone knows this and everyone would expect their own state to respond in a similar way. You look after our own citizens because they pay tax to the state to be protected.

I'm not, I have a good grasp of this subject for once.

Islam is powerful in a variety of areas in the world and it is growing in much the same way that Christianity did in the middle ages and onward. The actions of the jihadists running the likes of the Gaza Strip will make sure there is always fresh meat for the cause as that is exactly what they want. As I said already, there will never be peace. The persecution of Palestinians is simply a red herring. They'd have had their Palestinian state back in 1948 if they actually wanted it. They didn't want it. They've been offered terms since then and rejected those too. The suffering of the ordinary arab punters stuck in the middle is a result of their religious leaders/politicians playing games with them. A Palestinian state is not the end game here, not by a long shot. You surely need to understand this? They are using these poor buggers as pawns in a long long game and it's a fucking shame for them. The religious thing is not going to go away, it's going to get much much worse. Its not even about portraying Israel as good guys, as it wouldnt matter if they were complete c***s or were fabulous neighbours, the jihadists want rid of them and they want a united Islamic arab nation. Once they have that they will simply kill one another as they struggle for power in a sectarian way. But they will simply focus on ridding themselves of the Jews in the meantime.

That's the sad bit about it all. Speak to either side one to one and you'll probably find agreement that they just want to get on with life, just like anywhere else in the world, people just want to look after their family, make a life and do their thing in peace. The problem is always above them.

I wouldn't say they have become "more extreme" seeing as their stated aim in their charter is to eradicate all traces of Israel and Judaism from the area. They are jihadists who want a single arab Islamic nation in the area. I also want to see a two state solution, most normal folk do, but Hamas don't want that and will simply carry on firing rockets into Israel to provoke the response they are getting now. It certainly DOES play into their hands and the body count also plays into their hands and doesn't actually bother them at all. Israel could of course simply ignore the rockets coming over or ignore the suicide bombings which used to be a daily occurrance, but they do have a responsibility to their own citizens, Jew and Arab alike to protect them. And Hamas know this and will not stop. There will be a ceasefire for a period of time and then it will start again, or at least die back a bit to levels Israel might just accept. But ultimately it will just carry on as before, there willl be periods of escalation, Israel WILL continue to attempt to cut off the snakes head with targetted assassinations and the whole thing will continue. Do you honestly believe that even if we went back to the initial 1948 borders for instance, that hostilities will cease? I don't, because I know that there is a pretty large element of these arabs who are jihadist Islamists and they will never stop until they turn the area into what they want to see. They will never accept an Israeli state as was proven in 1948 when they attempted to wipe it out on day one of it's formation. That mindset will never die and there will never be peace in this area. As long as Israel remains and as long as their are Jews in percieved Islamic lands then this will carry on in some form or other. Israels actions do indeed make things worse at times, but even if they did nothing at all they will still be a target. Its either a sitting duck target or a moving one as now, but they will remain a target nonetheless.

They elected a group of people who's charter states that it wants Israel and the Jews to be annhilated. Do you support that charter?