Thursday 11th May 2017

Rather oddly, a few days before I travel to Canada and the US, I feel the need for a health kick.  My diet has been pretty good for the last year but the major thing I did was give up caffeine.
For the first couple of weeks I was a total mess.  Caffeine withdrawal is bad and at times I felt like my head would explode.  But after I got over the worst of it, I felt so much better for it.   The only downside was that I got tired a lot quicker.  But that was a small price to pay for just feeling less drained.
Obviously my diet played a big part in that and so maybe it’s not a surprise that in trying to get the structural edits of the first novel and the first draft of the second, I decided to go back on the caffeine.  Working late nights and early mornings meant I needed the hit to keep me writing.
But now both those exercises have been complete, I genuinely feel terrible and want to detox again.
Except, that’s not going to be too viable with my trip looming.  So instead I’m mentally preparing myself for a hard detox when I get back.  In the meantime I’m trying to limit my caffeine intake as much as possible.
And I really need to drink more water.  And get more sleep.  Like I said the other day, I’ll push myself past the point of injury, and this is a little similar.
I went into the office today to find the room I normally work in surrounded by perfect silence was locked.  So I went to another hot desking area only to find it very noisy.  One guy was telling a colleague over the phone how he managed to cut an axe into his shin.  My sympathy is limited because given how he described the injury, I was left thinking, “how the fuck did you manage to do that?”
Bad form leads to injury, kids.  You heard it here.
Then there was the other person who decided she was going to run all her conference calls from the room.  I got so much more work done yesterday when working from home.
I did manage to change one of my seats on the flight out (for secret vlog reasons) as well as book my car parking at Gatwick whilst I’m away, so the morning wasn’t a complete loss.
The good news is that tomorrow is my last day job day until the start of next month.  I truly can’t wait as the last few weeks running to offices has just caused me stomach issues.
I went into town to get my Canadian currency this afternoon.   Now I’ve got that picked up, everything seems so close.  I’m sure I’ve forgotten something.
I got back and had a little time before I needed to be out, so I edited #vlog0005.  It’s very strange how much I enjoy the editing more than I did the filming.  I’ve also got a lot quicker at doing it.  I managed to do #vlog0005 in about an hour and got it up and online before I left the house.
Tonight was our second cake club meeting.  I’ll point you back to an old The Climb for details on what Cake Club is, but needless to say, we didn’t get a lot of business done.  To be fair, we already know we have a big project coming up when I get back from Canada.
So instead the evening was spent talking about our successes and worries.  Sophie’s having a blinding year, Kate seems to be successfully battling a tough year, and I was talking about a lot of the excitement, worries and impatience I felt yesterday.
I talked a bit about the vlogging experience.  I’m currently of the mindset that once I get back from Canada I’m probably going to have a break from it.  It really depends on the response.  Whilst the next few weeks are going to be action-packed, once I get back and have to pay off my credit card, I’m going to be a social hermit and I don’t think that will make for interesting vlogs.
It depends on the response though.  I just suspect that after storm chasing the viewers will find the return to reality a massive comedown.  Plus, trying to do this whilst having a day job is proving very difficult.  If I was writing full time I could plan to do something every day to make the vlog a little more interesting.
We’ll see.  I’m just very tired and I think the scratchy throat I had yesterday has turned into a little bit of a head cold.
I did film a load of footage for the vlog tomorrow though.  As difficult as it is, there’s still something I really enjoy about it, although whether I still will when I have problems uploading in the field will be something we will all find out in the next 10 days or so.
We spoke a lot about Sophie’s triumphs and challenges, I spoke a bit about tornadoes and how, in a quite zen way, it makes you find your place in the universe.  And we also talked about leggedon.  Kate even managed to get a word in occasionally.
It was great catching up (even though we’d done it only a week ago) and we left with cake, which is always a bonus (thanks Kate!)
I now have a ton of content for the vlog, and so editing tomorrow should be a challenge to get through all the content.  I made a point of copying the files across to the right folder tonight as well as doing thumbnails
But somehow, I actually managed to get started on The Climb a little earlier than normal, when I’m a little more awake.  I do worry that The Climb is being neglected as a result of the vlog but I think both the vlog and The Climb are finding their place.  They are a bit like warring siblings right now.
But I still need to get to writing The Climb earlier in the evening as if I give up caffeine, I’m going to feel more tired than I currently do… and I’m feeling really tired tonight.  But that in turn will mean less time to create content for the vlog, at least during the time I have to have a day job.
Maybe one day in the distant future, but for now, as we discussed tonight at Cake Club, I need patience.
What I also need, is sleep!
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels.  Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.

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