May reflection

May was busy, social, a bit all over the place, and mostly spent away from our usual routine.

Down south

After our trip to Arran last month, I spent the first half of May in England. I stayed with a friend, worked remotely, played a lot of pool, and spent a suspicious amount of time in pubs for someone who isn’t drinking right now.

The funny part is that after drinking the pub out of their supply of alcohol free Guinness, I felt like I needed a break from that too! Still, it was a reminder of how different trips feel now: no hangovers, no hangxiety, no wondering how rough I’ll be feeling at work the next morning, and the useful bonus of being able to drive everyone about in my new, fancy Ford Puma from Enterprise (more on that later!)

The Guinness switch

I wasn’t all good - technically I did drink some alcohol: an accidental mouthful. One day, we had food before migrating to the pool room and ended up mixing up our alcohol free & normal Guinness pints. They were in identical glasses, they looked the same, and after taste testing both, my friend actually picked the AF Guinness. He blames the spicy food he just had, but I’d say it’s an endorsement of Guinness’s ability to make a damn good AF beer! It’s funny, but I knew immediately that I took a mouthful of real Guinness.

Language barrier

One of the things I love about going home is being understood - no need to rehearse German in my head before doing anything.

I obviously got too relaxed and forgot the language barrier when going from Scotland to England, as one day, at Seaways (a hot spot cafe for people on 2 wheels), I ordered a black pudding roll and struck fear into the heart of the woman behind the cash register. She looked at me like I was an alien, before turning to look at her colleagues in the kitchen looking for help. Thankfully, my friend was on hand to translate, and I did indeed get my black pudding roll.

Relaxing the routine

May also gave me a useful reminder about the importance of balance. Since early Mach, I’ve been tracking food pretty consistently, and I continued whilst we were away, but at some point it became tedious and detrimental to the trip. So I stopped. I loosened up a bit, ate more freely, treated myself, and shockingly, I didn’t regain 10kg immediately.

It helped me realise that when my normal routine is generally solid, a couple of weeks of not being perfect really isn’t the end of the world - which is great, given we are going to Turkey soon.

Testing my shoulder

One of the best parts of May was doing something more physical again. I spent a bit of time helping build the foundations a summer house, which involved digging turf, shifting mud, filling wheelbarrows, laying bricks and pretending I can use a measuring tape.

It was also a decent test for the shoulder. I’m still not fully there - mobility isn’t back and it gets tired easy, but compared to February, the difference is huge. Playing all that pool felt like accidental physio too, and whilst I still struggle getting down on some shots, there’s progress in that I wasn’t getting beat as badly as I was in February.

Car hire: freedom with a side of stress

On this trip to Yorkshire, I decided I’d rent a car. Having it gave us a lot of flexibility, and I did enjoy that part. What I didn’t enjoy was driving around in a brand new hire car with less than 400 miles on it and an eye-watering excess hanging over me like a curse.

Apparently Enterprise don’t do older bangers, despite me asking, so I was driving extra carefully, hoping that stray stones wouldn’t damage the car, or that somebody wouldn’t open their door and bash into it in a car park.

Books, games, and smaller things

For all the getting about, May still had some quieter moments.

A few months ago, I was recommended The Martian as a book to read. Upon arrival at my friends house on this trip, we got speaking about it and he told me he had the book, so I read the whole thing while I was staying with them. I then watched the film when I got home, which felt like a good way to round it off. It was one of those rare cases where being told to read or watch something actually paid off. I also got too be that annoying person complaining “that’s now how it was in the book!” when watching the movie - but all in all - I enjoyed them both.

We also started playing a board game named “Threads of Fate” with a friend - it’s a puzzle game that sees you assume the role of a private investigator, with some Norse mythology elements. We completed 1 chapter - it took us a few hours and we did need some hints, but so far it’s quite good.

Reading

A productive month for reading with 4 books done this month, bringing me up to 8 for the year. My goal of 12 is looking very achievable!

• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Overthinker’s Guide to Making Decisions: How to Make Decisions without Losing Your Mind by Joseph Nguyen
• Thicker than Water by J.D. Kirk
• A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

Wrap up

May was busy, and it was great. It was a good reminder that whilst having a routine and healthy habits are good, you don’t need to always enforce them. Some flavour of 80/20 is ample!