Category Archives: Lifestyle

An Inspirational Journey

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I’ve been quiet on here. I’ve been busy. We’re currenly in the process of selling our house and that’s a whole different level of stress… I don’t tend to deal too well with matters out of my control. Most of the factors there including Estate Agents, Solicitors, and other 3rd parties are out of our control.

I came across a recent video posted by Moog from Mighty Car Mods on their second YouTube channel covering his journey to compete in a CrossFit competition, having never done any serious exercise for decades (he’s now in his mid 40s). It’s a great documentary film, and should inspire many to get up and experience the outdoors.

I’ve exercised on/off for many years as it’s a good way to destress, and the exercise I do at home (5BX variation) is something that can be done anywhere, at no cost, without a massive amount of time required on a daily basis.

Following my cancer diagnosis and treatment 3 yrs ago, I needed to learn to walk again, but it was the determination (and requirement) to exercise and get strong again kept me going and focused.  I still needed to seek therapy following that exerience, but the exercise and determination to get back doing the hobbies I enjoyed previously kept me on the straight and narrow.

I should add that it was MCM that led me down the slippery slope to turbocharge my MX5, before it was really popular here in the UK. I’ve still got that car, and following 8 months of chemo, all I wanted to do was to get that completed and running properly, which I now have. It kept me driven.

Enjoy the film, and thanks Moog.

A big Summer Holiday!

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Sunset in St Lucia

Sunset in St Lucia

For over 8 years I’ve not been on a “proper” Summer holiday. This being a holiday somewhere where we’re truely not doing anything. Pool and sun. All inclusive. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do in a LONG time but for one reason or another it hasn’t really transpired. We end up going on City breaks, and as good as they may be, you always come back feeling more tired than when you went. So, this year we did something different and a bit out the ordinary. After my Cancer ordeal, and not being able to get away for a real honeymoon, we decided to go all out. My wife, Anna, went on Google and came across Sandal’s Resorts. My parents had heard of this company but we hadn’t.  After a bit of searching, St Lucia was highlighted and we put down our deposit.

I should say at this time I didn’t really know where St Lucia was. I knew it was an island but wouldn’t have placed it in the Caribbean. It looked nice enough and more importantly the weather forecast looked the part. High 20s., 30degrees Celcius. “That’ll do”, I said.

I for one had only two requests, those being that it was warm, and all inclusive, and we didn’t want to do anything. No excursions, tours, etc. I wanted Jet Skis but unfortunately the resort didn’t have any powered water sports toys, which annoyed me. That’ll teach me for not partaking in the search.

We opted for 10 days as the flight was 8hrs so esentially you’re spending two days traveling. 10 days turned out to be the right amount of time. We were able to fully relax and chill out and forget about any worries.

A quick summary, we drank a lot, sun lounged a lot, and ate some amazing food. The food was fantastic. The resort we went to – La Toc – had a number of different restaurants on site and many didn’t require a reservation so you could just go along when you fancied and get some food. They also had a takeaway pizza place with stone fired pizza, running from 11am to 5pm. I was adventurous and although I’m not really a fan of sea food other than plain fish and shrimp, I did try octupous and had a muscle – wouldn’t try a muscle again mind, bit rubbery!

The room was lovely and air conditioned which was bliss as the humidity was unreal. It was often 80% or higher with no rain. The fridge in the room was stocked with soft drinks and alcohol and whatever you drank was restocked for the next day. The staff were very friendly but some of the guests didn’t seem to like that. They were almost too friendly at times but that’s not so bad.

The only thing that slightly got to us was the loud and arrogant Yanks. The resort was adult only, so by default you think quiet and relaxing, which it was for the most part. But you add in unlimited alcohol and you get drunk adults by lunchtime. And they don’t seem to have a volume control.

Next time, I’ll be sure to have more search input, and we’ll probably do a villa holiday or choose somewhere that isn’t so close to America. This is coming across as anti American which I’m not at all, but I would certainly advise maybe reading some TripAdvisor reviews before booking anything!

New Beginnings

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Last week I finished working at the job I’ve been working at for 5 years. That’s a long time and a lot has happened in that time.

The postives: got another cat, got some new cars, made progress on my Mazda, visited some new places (Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg, various places in Wales, Cornwall), got married!

Negatives: Got Cancer (and covid); spent the last year working through a company that had gone through multiple acquisitions culminating in me going off on stress leave for around a month.

Enough is enough!

I’ve been engrossed in watching or learning about Cerro Gordo Ghost Town (see Ghost Town Living) and it’s been a really interesting experience watching someone who had no real life experience of living alone in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say he had the quick realisation that he was the only person who could determine anything that happened there, and he’s got some great philiosophical insights. One thing I’ve really taken away from that all is what he said and that is that if you don’t like something, do something about that. And that’s what I did!

Work got too much and after the big C, I have a different outlook on life. Making the most of every day and life in general is important, and I’m not going to spend it being unhappy, so I spent the time I had taken during the absence of leave finding a new job. Big priorities were ensuring it was another remote working role – I’ve been working remotely since around the beginning of the pandemic and I’ve enjoyed it. You do get lonely at times, but at the same time the pros outweigh the cons. Not having to get stressed in rush hour traffic and shout at other drivers is a bonus. That is one good thing that has come out of the pandemic really, and something that I could have done for a long time (working in IT) but it took that to wake a lot of people up.