Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
FI wise, the damage from Download festival wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so there’s that. Minimised damage isn’t progress, but it’s welcome news.
We’ve started pairing stuff down for our move onto the boat. We didn’t have much to begin with, having sold most of it for our last move to the Channel Islands, but we’re being even more brutal this time. This is why the PlayStation isn’t going to be replaced: we don’t need it, boats aren’t ideal places for games consoles anyway, we’re not expecting to have much time for it.
I guess this week progress was minimal, but we are testing our approach to minimalism.
Distractions and detours
Sadly, my laptop is now a recurring crash-monster. The fans are silent, I’m not convinced they’re working anymore. She’s coming up 7 years old now and she’s already been repaired twice: time may be up for the old girl. I’m suspecting that it’s a motherboard fault, as sometimes she fails to register a connection with the charger, too.
So that’s a setback. Not looking forward to paying for her replacement. I might replace her with an iPad now, as that can double as a navigation aid for the boat. No joke, that’s a real nav option. What a time to be alive!
Similarly, our ancient PS4 is now struggling to play games. We’re not going to replace her, though. It was fun while it lasted and she’s given good service, we’ll keep her going to the end but that’s probably not far off. The Nintendo 64 is still going strong and to be honest is more fun because of the local co-operative games, like Mario Kart 64, so I just don’t need to add a high-spec games device to my possessions right now.
Non-FIRE goals
Started learning Sweet Home Alabama this week in guitar lessons. My teacher is really pushing me on the technique, I might actually be reasonably good in a year or two if I can keep this up! Whatever happens, it’s a lot of fun and I like having the creative outlet. Probably should’ve sorted lessons out sooner really but late is better than never.
Archery has proven difficult to get to of late because of work commitments, but I had a pretty good day of shooting at 50m this week. With a bit more practice I should be able to get up to 70m and then eventually the full 90m this summer, ready to do local competitions next year. That’s pretty cool. I’m no Robin Hood, but that’s fine by me. It’s still an enjoyable hobby to have.
My financial independence campaign continues!
