April 2019 update: The one that’s all over the frickin’ place

May 2, 2019 10 By Caveman

Hello everyone and a belated Happy Easter to you all. Did you miss me?

What do you mean that you didn’t notice I was gone?

Ouch.

As you may have deduced from my last post I’ve been on holiday this month. It was brilliant, but I didn’t forget about you lovely people. I had three (3!!!) posts that I wrote in advance to go out while I was away. This is huge. I’ve NEVER written posts in advance before. Who’d have thunk that you don’t have to just do posts by the seat of your pants the night before they go up? Mind. Blown.

Having said that, I felt like I was very distant from the community. Not only was I not able to fully join in the conversation in your comments on here, but I also didn’t read any blogs or check twitter while I was away. Very unusual for me.

April 2019 update

There was maybe a bit of this going on in April

But I’m back now and good to go – if rather disorganised. While I pre-planned posts the rest of this month was all over the place. You’ll see what I mean.

Nonetheless, as always, I’ll cover:

  • Money
  • Health
  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Books
  • Film and Theatre
  • Friends and Family; and
  • Blog and social media.

Feel free to jump to whichever bits you’re interested in the index.

Money update

In most circumstances going away would have been a big financial drain. But, as I said, my parents paid for this one. It was also all-inclusive (including drinks). That meant that while we paid for a few extras it really didn’t cost very much at all.

Beyond that, with the start of the new tax year I fully intended to crack on with putting money into my Lifetime ISA and the kids’ ISAs and pensions. What’s actually happened is that I have been so relaxed since coming back that it’s taken all of my energy just to go to work. When I get home I’m just trying to unwind. I’ll take that though!

Health update

My weight has been all over the shop this month. I ended at 218lb but that masks a lot of ups and downs in particular a peak of being 6 pounds up when I came back from the cruise. The timing of my last update meant that I didn’t build in the impact of the stag weekend that I went on. But that was small beer compared to going on an all-inclusive holiday. That is a recipe (pun intended) for disaster.

Actually I’m pretty pleased with how I limited the damage. I decided before I went away that I wouldn’t eat any carbs while I was on board but otherwise I would let myself relax. That’s really helped as it’s a simple rule that still gave me a huge amount of choice while keeping me away from pastries, chips, sandwiches, scones, paella etc

While I had a few drinks, despite all of the alcohol being included, I didn’t drink very much at all. As I’ve mentioned before I’m really enjoying the clear headedness that comes with not drinking.

Net, net? In terms of raw numbers I’m up 3 pounds for the month. That’s not ideal, but it’s explicable. If I can get back to my end of March weight (215lb)) by the end of May then I’m going to take that as a win. Wish me luck!

April 2019 weight update: A bit up and down but I CAN do this

A bit up and down but I CAN do this

Exercise update

Exercise was very mixed this month. The big thing was that I chose not to take my tracker on holiday with me. It was a deliberate decision to reduce the volume of information coming at me during the holiday. As a result though I don’t have a full record of how many steps I took during April. What I can say is that I kept up with my average daily steps for the month during the weeks either side.

The spectacular bit was that I went to the gym while on holiday. In fact I went ten (10!!!) times across the two weeks. A bit of HIIT on the rowing machine or treadmill and then weights for legs, arms and shoulders, or core and chest in rotation (Looking at that I realise that I neglected my back but you can’t have everything).

I totally loved it. Even in two weeks I could see my body shape start to change and I could feel the benefits in terms of strength and flexibility. It was never for more than 30 minutes in total for any one session. It’s what I always knew. Exercise works.

Sadly, what happened on holiday, stayed on holiday. Since I’ve been back I’ve not been to the gym. It would be too easy to say that it was because I didn’t have enough time, but that’s not true. On Sunday I had very little that I HAD to do. I could easily have found an hour to head out but I didn’t. So why not? I think it’s partly as I’ve not been good at going to bed which has a knock-on effect to every part of my life. But it’s also laziness. Hopefully I’ll have better news to report next month.

Exercise update April 2019: It looks weird but it's what I got!

It looks weird but it’s what I got!

Sleep update

As I noted above I didn’t wear my tracker when I was away. That means that I don’t have detailed figures for my sleep. What I do know though is that I was in bed with the lights out for over nine hours most nights. I’m not brilliant at sleeping in other beds though. The net result is that while I think I got a lot of sleep overall while I was away I think I was low on that really refreshing deep sleep. Being in bed for that long and waking up naturally without an alarm was lovely though.

Unfortunately, I’ve not been great since I came back. It would be too easy to blame that on jet lag, but if you don’t go to bed in good time then you’re not going to get enough sleep, jetlag or not. I’ve averaged around 6 hours sleep a night. Definitely not enough. As I noted in the health section not getting enough sleep has had a knock on to my motivation and pretty much everything else. Definitely need to get a grip on that.

Books update

Being away definitely gives you time to read more. While I was away I cracked through The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley, American Sniper by Chris Kyle and The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street was excellent. It spanned the Victorian London and Japan in a beautiful way. When I stopped to think about it the premise was ludicrous, but it was so well done I didn’t notice or care.

American Sniper was the autobiography of the most prolific US SEAL sniper. It was an uncomfortable read at times as he doesn’t pretend that he doesn’t like war or killing. He largely takes the view that he is a solider and he has to do a job. If he follows the Rules of Engagement then he is getting rid of the bad guys and making the world a better place. I’ve not really done his case justice in summarising it, but his uncompromising argument is compelling. If nothing else it will make you think again about your own beliefs.

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy Agatha Christie. The ABC Murders is a classic Christie and a great, easy, holiday read. It didn’t disappoint.

Having said all that, like a few other things, the reading has taken a back seat since I came back. Again it comes down to sleep, if I go to bed at a decent time then I’ll want to read for a bit before turning out the light. Reading for a bit then means that my brain winds down and I sleep better.

When will I learn?

Film update

I totally smashed the film watching in April with 12 films. Given that was my target for the whole year I feel pretty good about it. Two long distance flights helped with that as did the cinema on board the ship. For the sake of completeness, here’s the full list. Deep breath.

Creed, Aloha, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Spinning Man, Venom, Gnome Alone, Mary Poppins Returns, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald, The Greatest Showman, Boss Baby, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Adventure

Phew.

Of those I would give honourable mentions to the two musicals (Mary Poppins Returns and The Greatest Showman) as they were fabulous.

But, my two favourites were Venom which combined action with really good dialogue and characters. And, wait for it, Boss Baby. Yeah I know. I can’t remember the last time I saw a cartoon that combined such great dialogue, belly laughs, plot (and plot twists) with an ending that had all the feels. If you haven’t watched it you’re missing out.

Also, while it’s not a film I also watched Fleabag on BBC iplayer in April. Amazing.

Friends and family update

Well with two weeks back to back with my family I think that I thoroughly ticked the social box in April. I wrote about it last week so I won’t rehash that here, but the ability to create memories with my parents was invaluable.

Even more importantly we were all still getting on when it was time to come home. I have to confess that I was a little worried that we would be at each other’s throats by the end of it but that wasn’t the case. Yet another thing to be thankful for.

Beyond that I didn’t get up to much to be honest. But I’m OK with that.

April 2019 update: Lots of family time this month

Lots of family time this month

Blog and social media update

Despite not actually being around for half the month I’ve had my best month yet on the blog with 2,345 pageviews from 908 visitors.

Pretty sure that the growth was down to a few factors. One was that I have been accepted onto the EU Fire Hub directory. This is an excellent EU focused directory of FIRE blogs, that also covers events and curates blog posts. After they featured my posts I got an increased burst of activity. Thank you folks, delighted that you enjoyed the writing!

The other was that it was another Saving Ninja Thought Experiment month. This month it was about what we all want to do when we achieve Financial Independence. That meant I put up an extra post and also got a bump as we all linked to each other. I didn’t get round to commenting much, but I did read everyone’s fascinating contributions after I got back.

Interesting coming back to writing after not having done any for two weeks. Before I went I was getting really efficient. I could crank out a thousand words or so in an hour or two and be pretty happy with what I had produced. The first post that I did after coming back on buying happiness, inheritance and cruises was much harder and didn’t ping or flow the way I wanted for a while. To be honest I’m not totally satisfied with it even now.

Ah well. It’ll come back I’m sure, but it’s a reminder that writing is a skill and, like any other, if I don’t use it then it’ll gets rusty.

In addition to those two and last month’s update I also wrote in praise of paying taxes and on networking.

Twitter

After having hit my target of 500 Twitter followers for 2019 in March I was probably always going to ease off from Twitter for a bit in April. Obviously not going on at all for the two weeks I was away had a big impact on that. I set up a few tweets to go automatically in that period. Essentially I did that to let people know when my new posts went up.

Somehow though I added more than a hundred followers over the course of April ending it on 669 followers. That was great. It’s lovely to be able to get my random musings out in front of more people who will, hopefully, find them interesting.

I’ve got a Twitter experiment that I’m going to try for the rest of May though. While it’s been fun it’s taken AGES to set up. To be honest I’m not sure whether people will find it valuable, annoying, or if they will just shrug with indifference. For now I’m not going to tell you about it as I want to see if anyone realises. Don’t worry though I’ll reveal all next month. It kicks off tomorrow so see if you notice!

Conclusions

A mixed bag in lots of ways this month. Really pleased with the exercise burst and managing to limit the weight increase. The blog is going great guns and I loved watching all of those films.

On the down side I need to get more sleep. That’s the biggest thing holding me back on all sorts of fronts since I returned. Overall I need to try to (re)introduce good habits in terms of sleep, diet and exercise. All doable, I just need to do it.

As an end note it’s also been six months since I started this blog. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to keep it going but I have. Most importantly I’m enjoying it more and more, basically because of you lovely readers, so I’ve got no plans to stop just yet. Thank you again. Here’s to May and beyond!

*Late Update*

So I had written this and it was all ready to go when Rockstar Finance decided to feature my last post. You know, the one that I thought wasn’t that good… Shows what I know doesn’t it? The pageviews are still rolling in. I’ll let you all know what the outturn was in next month’s update!

Thoughts?

How was your April?

If you got any downtime over Easter, what did you get up to?