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

Progress on my goals

Boat plan

We have decided to call today

DISAPPOINTMENT SUNDAY

All excited to get back to work, we decided to start adding new things to our electronics system. Upgrades, even. In fact, we did sort-of manage to screw into place the brand new radio. Here’s a pic:

New radio is that “Raymarine” thing on the bottom, beneath the cutout labelled “stereo”.

This was however the only real thing we achieved on the boat today.

Here’s a shortlist of our failures today:

  • We were meant to fit a new Scanstrut electronics box to hold the Chartplotter at the helm, but it turns out we’ve mismeasured the cutouts for the back and drilled massive holes that make the box COMPLETELY UNUSABLE. So now we’ve ordered another £350 moulded box.
  • The SeaTalkNK adaptor we’d ordered? The wrong one turned up. I’ve checked the order, it’s wrong, but now I’ve ripped apart the packaging and can’t really return it. Fortunately we were able to bastardise something else and get a connection ready for the Chartplotter that will eventually go in that box above the helm.
  • Tried to get the radio wires compression joined at the ends so that we can wire to mains power… but that didn’t work, and now I need to solder the bloody things.
  • Turns out that the fist mic we have for the radio can’t be mounted anywhere logical, so now that’s in a weird hidden location that will definitely not bite us in the arse.
  • I realise I haven’t ordered the parts to make a coaxial cable extension, which I now need to do to connect the radio to our VHF antenna. Balls. Forgot about that.
  • I appear to have lost my wedding ring, once again. It’s on the boat, I just don’t know where. Dangerous game of hide-and-seek right there.

Pissed off and now £350 poorer because of our own failings, we ordered pizza tonight.

Sometimes The Universe is telling you to bugger off and try again next week. We’ve taken the hint. Today was not our day.

Distractions and detours

No news yet from job applications

Either my CV sucks, people aren’t interested, or I’m just damned impatient.

Anyway, it’s obviously harder to concentrate at work when you’re hoping for a call from someone else. C’est la vie.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll do if my current job is my only option. I like the people, but the bureaucracy of my workplace is a total morale sponge and I’d like to try somewhere else, now.

Non-FIRE goals

My guitar rock god quest (AKA learning to play)

Still suck. Everything sucks. I hate it.

Actually my teacher pointed out that I sound pretty good, I’m just not good at playing the same speed as the song we’re doing. We knew this one was a big step above where I’d been to date, so it’s hardly surprising.

Would be nice to get it right though!

Hey, I can’t really complain. I’ve come a long way from where I started. Can I really be upset that I’m not instantly good? Not really.

We spent a lot of the session improvising using the Dorian mode minor scale. That was cool. I left the lesson grinning. There’s something about making music that just hits right and makes you feel good. That feeling of when you get into the flow is like nothing I’ve ever been able to recreate in anything else, even writing (which can be pretty close).

Fitness

Got into handstands again, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to do handstand push-ups yet. I’m not vertical enough that my shoes don’t drag against the wall when I try it, but even if they didn’t I’m still not quite strong enough to do good form.

Form is important with something like this strength training programme. Bad form = injuries. Injuries = no gains.

I trained for a day of the Jack H Woods-style routine, a day with weighted pull-ups, dips and a jog, and yesterday Lady SierraWhiskyMike and I decided to escape the room we’re currently in and walk the coastal cliffs for a couple of hours. Between that and normal activity, Lady SierraWhiskyMike’s FitBit clocked us in at over 10 miles.

OK, we messed it up tonight by eating a takeaway pizza, but on the whole this week has been pretty good for fitness. I’m encouraged that I’m looking leaner and making strength gains. Still a lot of fat loss that could be done, but the direction of travel seems to be the right one.

I’m looking at my gym memberships again. It’s a toss-up because my current gym is next to my work, so I do go, but it’s twice the price of most gyms on the island and there’s very little in the way of rings or training mat to do the calisthenics stuff in, so I will eventually outgrow the facilities I have to hand. So I guess the dilemma is:

  1. Do I accept the high price because it removes friction and makes sure I train; or
  2. Do I save the money, go to a better (but harder to get to) gym, and accept the risk that I overlook training some weeks?

I keep teetering between the two options and I think that’s because I don’t know if saving money to invest is more important to me or getting a consistent training session is. Both are important, but I seem to value them equally, so I’m conflicted.

Final thoughts

Frustrating times!

I can’t wait to be living back aboard again. Staying with the mum-in-law is nice in that I’m glad we’re not living in the boatyard, but I’m crawling the walls to escape at this point. Hopefully this week?

Electronics upgrades didn’t go our way, and £350 is quite a big setback. We don’t really have anyone to blame but ourselves on this one. I’m more concerned though about my wedding ring – where the hell did that go?!

Guitar probably saved my week. It was the pick-me-up I needed, even though it happened on Wednesday and pre-dated our colossal bugger ups this weekend.

Ah well. Can’t have it all my own way. Onwards and upwards.

My financial independence campaign continues!