Twenty-three days ago I returned to the gym for the first time in close to two years ago. Twenty days ago I continued my couch to 5k journey and managed 5.17k in 43 minutes (a mixture of walking, jogging and running). Nineteen days ago I went for a 5.3k walk. Twenty-two days ago I wrote my last journal update entitled Falling plates.
Since then I spent four days at my mother-in-law’s house on the coast (around 3 hour drive) but as for the other fourteen or so days I can’t really tell you how they’ve been spent, I think only two were spent in work. I’ve definitely found myself dipping. I was originally writing this update in my head last weekend (four days ago) with the hope that a bounce was coming and I’d find myself on the way back up shortly. Since then I’ve signed up to play touch rugby on Friday evenings as well as help coach under 7’s on Sunday mornings, gone on another run with comparable pace to my previous run almost three weeks prior, had a good session in the gym and been on three walks that add up to almost 10k. Also, I attended my first two nights at college and have ordered over £200 worth of books to help me pass the course.
My step-son is back in school and my partner is attending a few mother-baby groups so while I’m not working I’m getting a bit of time to myself in the day. Generally I’ll have a cup of tea and do a quick clean first thing so I can spend the rest of the time as I like. One issue I’m having at the minute is that I’m finding myself drawn to playing video games more than writing, reading, planning, working, finding work or pretty much anything else productive. Saying that I have been applying for work that would be better suited to the college course I’m doing and I have spoke to one business owner two or three times that seems to think I’d be a good fit.
The plan is to work for somebody else for a year or two getting extra experience which will help me to become a fully qualified electrician. Once I’m qualified I’ll be opening a business with my brother with him doing the plumbing and me doing any electrical work, he’s also experienced with plenty of other general building works and we both have plenty of contacts within trades so things are looking good. The temptation is to open this business now and concentrate on minor electrical and plumbing work as well as general building. That way we will be able to build the business up while we’re in college and by the time we’re qualified there may be a viable full-time business ready to go. The only possible hurdle is that I need practical electrical experience to pass my course and for me to be qualified somebody has to come and witness me doing certain electrical tasks of which I won’t be able to do if I’m working for myself. I think the best bet will be to open the business with my brother and see what potential jobs come up, if any, while I work for somebody else as an electrician. As a sub-contractor I can always tell the person I’m working for that I won’t be available for x amount of days while my brother and I will be working on our own job. On paper it looks good, we’ll see how it goes in reality.
Not sure where writing fits in to all of this. The outline I’ve got from college is that this course is very intensive and there will be a lot of reading and revision needed at home for the big test at the end of the year. And that’s if there isn’t any more complications due to COVID, if there is then this course could be a whole lot harder. The priorities have to be college and work followed by keeping physically active, then any creative endeavours or self-education (like languages) have to come last – I haven’t included spending time with my partner and kids, immediate family and close friends as that just kind of goes alongside what I set out above.
It’s going to be damn hard trying to balance any kind of social life alongside working full time (50+ hours), doing two nights at college and trying to keep up with my studies at home. Thank goodness I feel like I’ve watched every good series on Amazon Prime and Netflix so that’s a couple of distractions out the way, although there is a reboot of the Super Mario game I played as a kid coming out next week and the new Football Manager is coming out in the next five or six weeks. I think I mentioned it previously but I was thinking of starting a gaming channel on YouTube and Twitch to validate playing games somewhat. If I buy the equipment needed now I could be well placed to begin releasing videos on these two newly released games trying to get ahead of, or at least be in line with, the curve. Realistically can I find time to play games, edit videos and upload regularly alongside work, college, homework and trying to remain in some kind of respectable shape physically. I fear the answer is no. While I’m out of work at the minute and I could possibly manage everything else, it won’t be long before I have to be in work to pass my course.
I haven’t mentioned it, stupidly, but as some of you know I do also have a six-month old baby, a six-year old step-son and a girlfriend desperate to get married who all need a fair amount of attention. What is it they say about the hours in a day? One of my course books has been delivered so I’m going to try and get ahead of myself a little and do some light reading over the next few days. Other than that I’m going to have a couple of conversations with my partner about what to do and try and enjoy the free time I have at the moment, I know that in two or three weeks things could be very different. I’ll attempt to at least update my journal a couple of times a week but I’ve pretty much accepted I won’t be writing much else for the time being which does upset me but I’ve struggled to write when I had an abundance of free time, never mind now I’m beginning to feel the stretch.