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

The big news this week is that I resigned from corporate law. This is by far the biggest event of the week, so it’s a whole post of its own.

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

We’re all set for winter now with the canopy tent up.

I’m not expecting too much progress on the boat this winter. That said, now that I’ve called quits on corporate life (for now, at least), I might have time to do things like start using the industrial sewing machine we bought to make new canvas items.

We’re also having issues with the diesel tank sensor. That’s not mission critical, but it would be handy to know what our fuel levels are at any time rather than simply guessing. This is especially true if we’re going to use the Eberspacher diesel heater instead of electric radiators this winter. Using all the fuel and not being able to start the engine would be a bit pants.

I’ll have a play with that over coming weekends.

Distractions and detours

Writing club

This week’s writing club only featured half of the gang. We had one person excused to sort out their book launch (below) and two who were off-island, but we persevered.

I’d written something for the Time and Tide short story competition, but it’s a little subversive and while the gang agreed it worked as a story it just isn’t going to go down well and definitely shouldn’t be published with my real name on it. I’d set it in a sailing club and it was quite recognisable which of the Channel Islands sailing clubs the antagonists belonged to.

Suffice to say that if I published it I’d be blacklisted from most of society here. I’m unsure if I particularly mind about that, but Lady SierraWhiskyMike is understandably less keen.

Maybe protest art isn’t such a good idea in this competition!

I’ve tried another story but I wasn’t much into it and it shows in the writing, so I’ve abandoned that one for now.

Went to a book launch!

One of the writing group people launched a book and invited us along to her launch at an independent bookshop.

I haven’t read it yet, but the book is Poole of Light by RJ Verity. It’s signed and on my reading pile.

Book signings aren’t a thing I’ve often been to, and certainly not a launch. It’s not usually something I’d keep an eye out for but it was cool to see the moment.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

My new picks turn up on Monday, weather and postal services permitting.

In the meantime, we’ve started playing N.I.B. by Black Sabbath. I managed to nail most of the riffs in the lesson, and the idea is basically to get into the solo quickly so I can start becoming a stronger lead guitarist.

My teacher seems happy with my chord playing, but I want to solo and play melodies, which means I want to get better and start playing more lead guitar stuff. It’s more fun to mess about with!

Fitness

I managed to get in two training sessions. The first was my usual Jack H Woods-inspired bodyweight session, and the second was an emergency oh-my-god-I-just-resigned blast of pull ups, weighted dips and a treadmill thrash to get the anger out.

I may have been a bit fast on that treadmill and my Achilles tendon isn’t loving the rough treatment.

Gah. I miss the days when I could just sprint five miles without a warmup. Then again, I miss being 25 and feeling invincible more generally.

So not a perfect training week, but not terrible. It’s raining today, but if the weather clears tomorrow then maybe a long walk or a sea swim could be on the cards.

Final thoughts

After last week’s update that I was just looking for jobs, I didn’t expect to hit actual physiological burnout a mere four days later.

Oh well. That’s just the Dark Gods telling me that Corporate Law may not be the right choice of career. Try again, SierraWhiskyMike.

I think the gold standard would be to create some kind of employment that works with the boat, ideally something that I could do from the boat itself.

In the meantime, I’m really happy with how my creative writing is going. OK, I’m not going to publish this week’s story, but the story itself was well received and my style has dramatically improved.

Anyway, enough for today. I’m going to play some games and some guitar. It’s been… A Week.

My financial independence campaign continues!