Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.
Progress on my goals
Boat plan
Good news is that Lady SierraWhiskyMike got the diesel heater working… sort of.
The bad news is that I wasn’t there and can’t say for myself. Lady SierraWhiskyMike reckons it’s a bit noisy and not very effective, but that might just be underuse.
So it’s a maybe-win. A min?
Quitting and getting a new job
OK, so lots of news on this front but only some of which I’m going to blog about in public. Bear with me!
Firstly: went to a wedding this weekend and a client was there. I’m not going to hold anyone to anything they say after three beers – let alone a wedding’s worth – but they pretty much said “let me know whatever you do, we’ll be your client”.
That actually happened last, but because it was the most impactful I’m reporting it first. There’s a twisted logic to it.
Secondly, I had a meeting with a crypto compliance firm in my area who basically do what I currently do as a lawyer, but from the tech side. They suggested that there might be a place for me in their start-up team, because they’re currently bootstrapping it and launching the company but could do with a lawyer on strength who’s willing to work for equity and take risk on income. Viz: moi.
Thirdly, I had a meeting with a dude about doing a crypto hobby group once a month, with the idea that it’s kind of a monthly gathering and a talk about how the thing works and whether (or not) to use it for different things.
And finally: I’ve been invited to the next round of interviews at that governmental job I applied to the other month.
Oh wait – I’ve also been asked if I’d go have a meeting with a rival law firm.
Damn, dude! That’s a lot. I somehow think I’ll be OK in 2026.
My plan is still to basically get through my notice period and have some downtime to de-stress my brain. This might be the last opportunity to do that for a little while, so I’m going to grab that freedom, but maybe work on my own things and think stuff through.
Distractions and detours
Friend’s wedding (on island)
Went to a wedding reception on Saturday and had a blast. I know the couple from separate places: the bride works at my firm, and the groom is a client. We bonded over a shared love of heavy music. They’re into heavier stuff than my usual listening but it’s not stuff that I never listen to, it’s just stuff I don’t routinely delve into.
Anyway, it was proper awesome. I met one guy who’s turned his living room into a mead hall. No, really! I have a lot of time for eccentricity that meets execution. Will see if I can get myself invited over one day.
Lady SierraWhiskyMike couldn’t make it as she was in the UK for a charity AGM that sounded exactly as tedious as it reads. Problem was that she’d booked the trip months ago and we only got the invitation a few weeks ago, so she went off and I managed to have fun while being solo at a party. Normally I’d dodge going to weddings alone unless it’s family, but it was a good crowd.
The result though is that I was too hungover to write anything other than gibberish on Sunday – yay free bar! – so this is late. My bad.
I feel a little bad that I went to this wedding a week after turning down my other friend’s wedding in rural England, but this one was about a tenth the cost to attend and I didn’t need a dog carer because it was just the reception.
Burnout recovery
I’d like to tell you that I’m on the Road to RecoveryTM, but honestly my head is being basically useless like most of the time.
It’s like a weird brain fog. I go through moments where I’m clear and can be massively productive, followed by hours of just feeling like my brain is running on slow mode but constantly full of useless thoughts and mild headaches. I can’t answer a simple preference question, like “What do you want for dinner?” without feeling irrationally tense, but apparently I can type a blog post instead of sleeping with quasi-lucid clarity.
Plan is to just survive until the end of contract and unwind over winter. Like, actually unwind. We might be going on holiday over New Year (which is a little extravagant and that bothers me a little, but I really need the break) and then January I’m going to spend living on the boat and doing my hobbies and/or boat jobs.
Moorings are paid until March and we have the 2026 fees already saved up, so I can afford the time.
Old people skateboarding
I was sick and tired of my YouTube algorithm suggestions. Frankly, they suck. I like YouTube as a background when I’m cooking, like amateur short form podcasting, but if you watch too many financial education videos the platform gets really depressing. There’s only so much pessimism I need in life.
So I was cooking a fried cauliflower fritter bowl (don’t ask, but it’s tasty) and then I saw a video by some thirty-six-year-old skateboarder just talking about how he got back into skateboarding as an adult.
Anyway, now my feed is peppered with people in their thirties, forties and fifties skateboarding. Which, by the way, is delightful. Those guys are so damned happy!
My favourite channel so far is Steve’s Skate Explosion, which is a 53-year-old guys who’s been skating for 3 years at this point who films what he’s doing and talks about what he’s excited about that week in his skateboarding journey. The guy is turning up to skate parks early in the morning when they’re empty and just going for it on the quarter pipe and the ramps and stuff.
Dude is just so gods-damned earnest with what he does that it cheers me up.
It’s also cool that his approach seems to be to nail the basics and play around with that. He’s not been skating long, but he does quite a lot with a very limited repertoire and seems to be having a great time.
I don’t know that I need yet another hobby I can’t commit to so skateboarding probably isn’t in my future, but even if I never do it this was a fun rabbit hole to go down.
Speaking of yet other hobbies…
I started sourdough!
Inspired by some crap Hairy Bikers thing we saw the other weekend while waiting around for my sister, I’ve starter a sourdough, er, starter!
We generally eat bread for lunch – you know, sandwiches – which is a lot cheaper than buying lunches that taste like fridge or cost you a tenner. So I figured that it would be even cheaper and potentially tastier if we just made the damned bread, and sourdough is just flour and water with salt and olive oil to taste.
Historically, we’ve had a bread maker. It was brilliant, but it’s not a boat-friendly device because of the size and I believe it’s still at the mother-in-law’s house. Using it also required things like yeast on hand. However, we used it a lot when we still owned a house, and I can confirm that made bread is a lot better than shop-bought bread and we know we appreciate it a lot more.
So, screw it. I’m giving sourdough a go. This is it, roughly half-way through what The Internet reckons is the process for getting a decent starter.
I also like that this is quite a hands-off project. “Feed the smelly flour lump once a day” is easy. Various sources said to so stuff like keep it running to time but I’ve just been abusing it as-and-when and it seems to be bubbling away.
Non-FIRE goals
My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)
Def Leppard’s Photograph was easy enough to get the main parts down, but I’m meant to be learning the solos and it’s just not flowing.
It’s like I remember the parts of the solo, sort of, but getting it to flow with the rest of the song ain’t happening.
I’m going to raise this with my teacher. It might be that the only answer is more practice, but maybe it’ll give him an indicator of where I sort-of am in my playing.
Ugh. You know what I just realised as I read this back? I’m probably just distracted by that other stuff messing with my head. Maybe I’ll just tell my teacher that and see if we can tone down the intensity of our projects for a little bit.
Fitness
Beers at a wedding has added a bit of bloat, but otherwise my calisthenics journey is totally working out (HA!) for me.
I don’t think I’m much leaner. Probably not going to be doing topless model shoots any time soon, but my muscle growth is definitely noticeable. My abs are starting to show again although they’re not super defined or anything.
Which is nice!
I think I need to start adding running back in, or at least some cardio other than walking and the odd bike ride. Wait – I don’t think that, I know that, I’m just making excuses because I really don’t want to.
Can’t explain it: just not feeling the cardio love right now. Certainly not keen to go back to distance running after failing so hard earlier this year. That sucked, and the training wasn’t even enjoyable!
The calisthenics though is awesome and I make time for it every week. It’s so easy to get a single session in so it’s not a big ask. I’ve been doing two of calisthenics every week – one Jack H Woods style “limit of strength” and one that’s a handstand practice, some pull-ups and some dips, not necessarily in that order.
Just need to fit in some cardio.
Final thoughts
My burnout resignation is looking like things might work out for me after all. Maybe I should have just resigned when I was thinking about it sooner and gotten on with my life, but grizzing it out for six more months has allowed me to make bank in the short term and has probably tipped the scales in my favour on this FI Campaign.
Work are going to keep riding me until I finish there. I want to leave on good terms, but I’m already counting down the weeks to go.
In positive news, it’s looking like I won’t be out of work for long. So there’s that to be happy about. And yeah, OK, my cardio sucks because I’ve neglected it since March, but my strength training is going well and I can just reintroduce the odd bit of running, right?
For now though: I’m tired, going to bed now.
My financial independence campaign continues!
