Thoughts and reflections from the past week or so from my own financial independence campaign.

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

The Eberspacher diesel heater on the boat works, but it keeps getting errors and crashing.

That’s a pain in the bum, because Eberspacher’s guide to the error codes just says “Go to the workshop”.

Yeah, right. We totally have one of those on the island, don’t we?

In its defence, the thing has definitely warmed the boat up, it just conks out after five or ten minutes of hard work.

Maybe I can find some blagger’s guides on YouTube to track the common faults down? Someone somewhere knows how to do this without going to get a manufacturer’s replacement.

Might be as simple as needing to poke something through a diesel fuel line to unblock congestion, but worst case it could be a software issue. I’m hoping it’s not a software thing.

Quitting and getting a new job

I’ve turned down the final interview at the government job today. After thinking through how the selection day went a month or so ago, I’m just not convinced I’m going to be a good fit there; and I’ve had a very different offer…

…which is that a crypto start-up firm on the island wants me to join their two-man band and help them get things moving.

Details of that will come out in the next couple of months, but that would scratch my itch to try my own thing while working in my specialist skill area. I’m a lawyer specialising in crypto, so joining them as a consultant/ in-house counsel/ shareholder (there’s more slashes but let’s not jump the gun) would be right up my street.

And, you know, we’re CoastFi.

Lady SierraWhiskyMike has decided to up her work from three days per week to four, so that she can cover my rent and dog care contributions. I’m a little uncomfortable about that because that job burned her out, but now that she’s effectively a consultant and dodges most of the in-house BS she’s a lot happier. She’s just happy that she’ll get to hand over her half of the chores to me, because I’ll be the one with more time.

Distractions and detours

Crypto nerd meet up

We had a meeting on Thursday this week with the other on-island crypto nerds. That’s right, I know what we are. No point pretending otherwise.

The new format is basically to meet at a bar, a few people present five minute informal introductions on a topic they’d like to cover, then we all ask questions and kick off a discussion over a beer.

Night went pretty well but I regret saying “yes” to negronis on a school night.

Anyway, it was good for meeting industry contacts but also cool to nerd out over what is basically a hobby.

Sourdough starter update

This is week 2 of the sourdough starter. I’m hoping that by the end of the week I’ll have a viable starter so I can do a test loaf next weekend.

Fingers crossed!

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

So it turns out that once again I’ve been beating myself up over my playing and my teacher wasn’t actually expecting me to succeed on that solo at speed.

When will I learn?!?!

Anyway, he’s happy with my playing. My teacher reckons that I’m now in the “difficult intermediate” stage, where technically I don’t find grade 5 music pieces too challenging (even if I’m not getting them perfectly right) but the next level up tends to catch me out completely because they’re too big of a leap.

So my challenge from him this week is to put together a list of songs that I’m interested in learning, so that he can do the Goldilocks method of picking a song that’s not too hard and not too easy, just right.

Spotify is really good for this.

Fitness

Added a bit of cardio to my training and it’s embarrassing how far I’ve fallen. Sub-20 minute 5km runs are a little way back in the past now, and getting up to 5 miles’ distance is an ask.

That’s all to be expected. I hurt myself and keep having minor niggles trying to start back up. Obviously I’m going to have regressed in that time!

Calisthenics is still going well. I think I’ve started to flatline on my regular overhand pull-ups, but Lady SierraWhiskyMike thinks my muscle definition is coming through (like I thought on my last Campaign Note – yay! I’m not crazy!). Maybe I’m just heavier because I’ve added muscle but not lost much fat?

My gym membership expires at the end of this month so I’ll be training outside from November or finding a cheaper gym to train in. Ew. The Channel Islands are super wet and windy in November as a general rule. Hopefully with my gym rings and the Napoleonic fort to train in I’ll be happy enough with winter outdoor activities!

Final thoughts

The Eberspacher is probably going to be an all-winter problem for me. We have electric radiators and stuff, but I’m keen to get that bugger up and running because it’s cheaper and dries the boat out in a way that even a dehumidifier would struggle to do.

My head is in a much better place this week. Stuff’s looking good, opportunities are coming up, and the guitar playing I was beating myself up about was just a load of fuss over nothing.

And to top it off: even though I totally sucked, I got my arse into gear over this cardio deficit I’d spotted. Quite rightly so!

It’s raining heavily as I type this. I think the best use of my time is to just have a chilled out afternoon on the boat with my dog and Lady SierraWhiskyMike. So that’s what I’m going to do.

My financial independence campaign continues!