6.18 /// Head Clearing Cruise, New Pages & planned focus...

Sixty quid for 24 hours of cruise ship internet and I still couldn’t upload a thing, sorry about that! Annoying at the time, but it accidentally handed me the best part of the trip: a proper break from being constantly online, constantly available, and constantly in my own head.

I’ve just come back from my first ever Caribbean cruise on P&O Britannia, sailing from Barbados with stops across the islands, then a wild stretch of open Atlantic that makes you realise how huge the ocean really is. 

On this episode I talk about the little realities that make travel memorable, from the daily wall of onboard activities to the food, the staff, and yes, the moment I managed to sunburn my belly so badly it peeled in sheets. Lovely.

But the heart of this chat is what the slower pace did for me. With work stress and the threat of redundancy hanging over my head, I finally found enough calm to write again. I took an iPad and keyboard, sat with a Costa coffee, and made serious progress on my railway memoir “Oi, You D*$#head, Where’s My Train?”, including how I’m thinking about organising the funny chapters alongside the darker stories. I also share what’s been happening at home, including a new roof to tackle some damp, an adjustable bed purchase that makes us feel about 70, and why I’m trying to bring that holiday mindset into everyday life.

If you’ve been craving rest, focus, or a nudge to actually finish your own project, hit play. Subscribe, share it with a mate who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Cruise Wi-Fi Fiasco And Bonus Upload

First Caribbean Cruise Highlights

Sunburn Lessons And Grim Peeling

Ports Of Call And Days At Sea

Laptop Problems And Vlog Plans

Writing Sprint On The Ship

Shaping The Book And Next Projects

Home Repairs While Away

New Adjustable Bed And Wardrobe Damp

Work Anxiety And Finding Calm

Digital Detox And Making Time

Wrap Up And Subscribe Reminder

Stephen 0:05

Hello, welcome to Infinite Prottel. Um, I don't know what today's episode is gonna be about, surprise, surprise. Um I've been away for a couple of weeks, and I think I'm just gonna talk about what I've been up to and what I'm planning to be up to. Um yeah, let's see how that goes. Thank you for joining me. Uh I've got my new glasses on and the light is shining right in them on my video, so I'm sorry about that. I'll probably take these off because that's gonna really annoy me. Um I hope you've been well. Um you'll be getting two episodes today, to be honest, but the day this releases, you'll be getting two episodes because I've been away on holiday and I planned to upload uh some content while I was away. I recorded one uh on the cruise ship. I was on a I was on a cruise, lucky me. It was very nice, thank you very much for asking. And I was going to upload it from the from the ship. I keep wanting to call it a ferry, it's not a ferry. Um unfortunately, it would not let me. The download speed was good, but the upload speed was not great, and I'm guessing that was to maximise the download speed for people. Um all very well and good, but it cost me 60 quid for 24 hours access. Ouch. More on that in my vlog that's coming up, and probably in this episode. Um, yeah, so I'm back now. Uh I'm gonna take these glasses off because that's really doing my head in. These are my new glasses, and I really love them. Um, but apparently they don't love reflections. Uh glass. Um, yeah, so I couldn't upload it, so you'll be getting a bonus double episode today. Um I couldn't post on social media about it because I forgot to do that because I ran out of internet access. Then remembered once my internet had gone, thinking I should have posted saying I couldn't upload it. So apologies for that. Um but the bonus is you'll get a cruise ship. Uh hopefully you will, uh, if everything goes right, because my computer is is uh dire at the moment and I'm ordering a new one today, hopefully. Um get an episode recorded on the cruise ship uh and an episode recorded now. So if you're listening to this one and thinking the episode numbers don't make any sense, that is why. There are a couple of video ones and I still need to update as well and upload because my computer is buggered uh and keeps it says it's full and it's it's a big thing, so very, very annoying. Um so yeah, I went away on a cruise. Uh me, uh myself, my wife, uh Sarah and her mum, Gail, and uh we had a lovely time to be fair. We went to the Caribbean, so we flew from Manchester in England uh to Bridgetown uh in Barbados and picked up the the cruise ship there, uh which is a PNO cruise ship uh called Britannia, um named after I believe the Royal Yacht, uh, after it was decommissioned, so kind of Britannia's uh PO's flagship, uh cruise ship now. Not the biggest, but their their flagship. It was the first time we've ever done a cruise uh for any of us. It's the first time Gail had flown long haul as well. Um so we won't talk about the flights by two either, we were a bit crap. Um but it was lovely being in the Caribbean, uh lovely warm weather. I did get a bit of sunburn on my belly because stupidly I'd been putting sun cream everywhere, took my t-shirt off where I hadn't put any sun cream because I had a t-shirt on, had a short little dip in the pool, um, and I was still around drying off, and Gail came out and she she got in a sun lounge, and I I lay down and thought I'll just drive in the sun for 20 minutes. Um which in this country would be fine. Uh you would not have an issue with that, I don't think. Uh, not that I'm promoting bad uh um practice in the sun, but yeah, I I lay there for 20-25 minutes with no protection on my belly. Uh arms are fine because I'd put cream on. But yeah, pretty much from here, like just below like my beard line basically, from from like my collarbone, maybe, all the way down to the to my to the the the overhang of my belly, I will say. Disgustingly. Um because I am a bit chunky at the moment. Um just was just red and it was quite tight. You know, you get sunburn and you feel it tightening. And I think I was probably borderline getting proper bad sunburn, but I think I must have uh put my t-shirt on and come out of the sun just in time before it got really bad. But it was it's still a bit red now, um, and it peeled after a few days, which was disgusting. It was like do you remember when you were a kid and you just put PVA glue? I don't know if people did this and whether they do this in other countries, but when you were a kid and you put PVA glue on your hands and let it dry and then peeled off, it was very satisfying. It was a thing that definitely any British person watching this more than likely did. Um yeah, it was like that, it was coming off in sheets. I've never had a peel where you could peel sections of skin like three inches square. It was pretty grim, but weirdly satisfying at the same time. So the cruise was 12 13 days, 12 nights, I think it was officially. Um so we we landed in Barbados, and we technically, as my manager pointed out, depressingly, we cruised back to Southampton in the UK. So we had a few days around the Caribbean, stopped in several ports. Uh obviously we were in Barbados, didn't see much of Barbados because that was the day we we embarked the ship. Um we went to uh St. Lucia, St. Kitts, uh Barbuda and Antigua, and I think that was it. Did we do any others? And then and then and then we had five days on the Atlantic Ocean, which is insane. Uh you realise how big the ocean is once you've sailed across it. I think when you fly somewhere and you see clouds and you you kind of like it's out of your brain a little bit. Um, but when you're actually sailing acqua across it and you're looking out and you're thinking, I I can't see anything, there's nothing. Um I know we stopped at uh the Azores, uh the Azores, however you want to pronounce it, uh said it quite posh then, didn't I? We stopped there in uh Porta Delgada, I think it's called, uh just for just for a day. We always arrived in the ports in the morning, departed in the evening, and sailed overnight to the next place, apart from when we had our five days at sea. And then when we left Porta Delgada, it was three days back to Southampton. So we had eight days at sea, which is quite long, but the ships are huge and there's so much to do. And I've got I've gonna have a blog vlog coming out about it. Um so I'm gonna I'm gonna get that uploaded. I've got another one, another couple, I think, in in the barrel as well that I can fire soon. Again, I'm waiting for my computer to to I'm gonna order my computer, wait for that right before I think probably get them done. At the moment, my my laptop's just it just crashing and saying there's no space on my computer, and it's just basically I I'll spend like 20 minutes doing a video, 25 minutes doing a video, and just before I come to like actually export it, it'll just corrupt itself uh and then have to start again, and it's done that several times. So the couple of videos are missing from YouTube, that's why. Uh luckily so far, touch wood, I've managed to export the audio first before it corrupts, so hopefully I'll be able to do that with the other ones. Um anyway, um I I really enjoyed the cruise, it was really relaxing. Uh I don't it went really slow, and that's not a bad thing. Uh I never once felt like oh wish I was back in the UK. Um I don't think I've had a holiday for a long, long time where time seemed to be dilated somewhat, uh, to use kind of a sci-fi way of putting it. It just didn't seem rushed. Um I actually I've got a lot of stuff going on at work at the moment, the threat of redundancy, um, and I was actually able to like kind of forget about that somewhat. Uh hopefully that won't happen. Hopefully that my main job uh will be safe, but I wanted to use the the time for the cruise obviously to relax, kind of push that out of my brain. And I took my iPad and a keyboard with me. Um because I really wanted to write some stuff, really wanted to try and write some of my books. And one of them that I'm writing, there's an episode uh from the Stephen Speak days uh called Oh You Dickhead, Where's My Train? And that's an excerpt of a draft version of one of the chapters, and that's what the book's called. It's about trains, uh my stories from trains, mate. They're like a memoir uh of my um time on the railway, the funny stories, distressing stories sometimes as well. It's not all it's not all uh shits and giggles. There's some serious stories in there as well. Um, but yeah, I I really uh focused on the writing. I got loads done. Um I wrote I think I'd got about 5,000 words of that book written. Some of them were drafts, some of them were stories, maybe, maybe 7,000. But I've current currently sit at 23,500 words. So I I wrote roughly about 16 to 18,000 words. I'd if I like in context, that's like a short novella. Uh so 20,000 words is about 80 pages, I believe, between 65 and 80 pages, depending on how it's formatted. Um so yeah, it's it's I wrote a lot, so I wrote a lot. I I I had like chapter names with like a brief thing, so it was like this chapter and a quick just to trigger my memory, remember this story about such and such and such and such. Uh, write about that. So I edited some of the ones I'd already kind of written, and then went into the ones with notes and expanded some of them. So I probably wrote um four or five complete chapters and edited some others. So I I'm I'm quite happy with that. Uh maybe more than that, actually. I think I wrote more than chapters, maybe six chapters. Uh so I'm I'm really happy with that. It's um been something for a while that has been like a splinter on my brain, knowing I need to do it, knowing I need to sit down, just getting that kind of time when you don't feel guilty about it, and also when your brain's calm enough to actually get into it, and that that that ship time kind of give me that. Um I would just take myself off of my tablet and my keyboard, go and grab a Costa Coffee on board. Yes, they served a Costa Coffee, um, can't escape it. Um, and I would sit with a cappuccino and nurse it while while doing loads of notes and and writing, and um I was actually quite impressed and quite happy with some of the stuff I wrote. And I read read one of the things to Sarah and she was she was nearly in tears about how good it was, and I was like, Oh my god, and I know she's a bit biased because she's my wife, and uh you know she's kind of got that connection with me, but um I thought, God, if someone else reacts half as good as that, then maybe I'm onto a winner. So I was I was really pleased and it and it spurred me on. So I didn't sit for hours at a time doing it, but I I probably spent a little bit of time most days doing something, um, and I feel I feel that I achieved something on holiday. I w I I read a little bit of my book as well that I took with me. Uh I've got a Kindle, so I had well had lots of books with me technically. But I read a couple of times my book. I finished two audiobooks, which is good, just walking around the ship, um, in between sitting down and drinking coffee. Um so yeah, really, really productive um productive holiday really for me in in the sense of um not just like relaxation and and first time going to the Caribbean, um, but just Just doing things that I wanted to do and and getting some stuff out of my brain into into the writing that I'm I'm trying to do. And yeah, I'm really pleased. I'm really pleased. I just I just hope I can kind of carry this momentum on a little bit. Uh well not a little bit, I want to carry the momentum on and and and finish that book. Uh at least to a draft version where I can hand it over to one of my friends or or someone to say, can you can you read through this and you and and tell me what you think, like let me know what you think. Um and trying to get it in some sort of structured order, because at the moment it it's literally just chapter, chapter, chapter, chapter, chapter. There's kind of themes going on, so um I'm not sure whether to like link the themes together. There's some dark parts of it as well about death on the railway, so I think I'll bundle them together as like a a section that takes a turn and then turns the other way and goes back into more light-hearted things. Um, but with the other ones that are connected, I don't know whether to like space them out and say like uh this type of topic, story one, and and kind of mix and match them throughout the book, or whether to keep them all as like a grouped set of chapters about the same theme. So it was something I need to work on, and I think that's probably the feedback I'll get and and ask for when I maybe pass it over to some people to to to review for me. But it's exciting. Um I started writing another Burt book as well, and I need to actually get the first one done. Um, that's kind of finished, and I I'm just uh I need to get motivated again to like really give it a good draft, make sure it's how I want it to be. And I was in talks with a an illustrator who who used to work for my friend, and she's now a tattooist, and a couple of years ago we we were chatting about it, and I asked her if she would illustrate it, and she said she would. Then she went off to basically train and being a tattooist and said, We'll have to put that in the back burner while I do my training because that's what I want to do as a job, and now she's doing that, so I need to contact her again and say, Right, let's knuckle down and let's see if we can do this because I want to get that out there, and I know she does it's something that it's my dream to publish a book, and to publish a children's book would be ace, and she would love to illustrate a children's book, so uh we've both got a joint interest there. Um it's just how do we publish a book? Um but yeah, while I was away as well, um just wanted to I just wanted to like just enjoy the moments more. And I think having never been on a cruise, I would probably go on another one. Well I would go on another one, it's not probably I would. But I think I think what I found from the ship was because there were so many activities going on, it did kind of take that out of your brain. However, the activity booklet they give you every day does actually cause me some anxiety. It's like anyone that's had a Radio Times or a TV guide, it was like that every day. It was literally like from seven in the morning all the way through to like midnight. It was just like a list of activities of things you can do. Um, but I think partly of that being planned so well enabled me to like take my brain out, especially with the nothing about food, it was buffet service, uh, and there was some restaurants as well. So, really kind of really relaxing holiday. Um, and while we were away, we were having the roof done. That's kind of a little stressful because you've got builders at your house when you're not there. But my dad's a champion and he was kind of letting them through the back gate and popping in and checking on stuff, and and Sarah's uncle came round and did the gardening one day because he likes gardening but doesn't have a garden of his own, and he came around and did a bit of weeding and stuff, so we were very lucky that you know we have these people in our lives. Um, but the build the builders were in, and um there was a few problems with that, but they seem to have done a good job on the roof. We can't really see it properly because of the scaffolding still up. But we've come home to uh a new roof, which we've needed for a long time. It was one really the first thing we should have done with the house, to be honest, is to like make sure the roof was fine and steal us in. Um we've had a bit of damp in the house and such things, so we probably should have done that, but it's one of the things we were inexperienced, we'd never kind of renovated a house before, and the roof looked fine, and it's an expense that we didn't really want to have gone out of our bank at the time, um, because we needed to basically do the electrics and the and the essential heating and all the plaster work and all that, and um the roof was like, well, we'll save up for that another time because it's like separate of the house. Um and then you know how things go, you save up, you spend on something else, or the roof will wait, the roof will wait. And then we've had a bit of damp in the bedroom. We're pretty convinced that it probably is the roof, and we probably should have done it a long time ago. So um it's now done. Hopefully it'll be okay, and hopefully they've done a good job. Uh they seem to have done, they seem pretty trustworthy. Uh it's the problem when you get people in though, it's really hard to know whether they're, you know, the right people, qualified, not gonna budge it up on you. Um you hear some horror stories, don't you, of people having people in the houses and either taking the money and running or taking the money and doing a job, but it's a terrible job, and yeah, and then having to pay out again to get someone in to to rectify that that problem. Um so hopefully everything's gonna work out alright. Um We had a new bed as well before he went away, so we had one of these adjustable beds. It's all going on in my life. Um so it was with her illness like that's really below 50%. Sometimes we need that as well because I I suffer terribly from um hay fever uh in the summer, and sometimes being elevated really helps breathe, like it helps your your sinuses. Um so we went we needed a new mattress and we we were looking for a mattress, and god mattresses are expensive. Uh so we decided that instead of buying a mattress, we would buy a brand new bed at even more cost. But you know, it's done now. We've got a new bed, two new mattresses, because it's like separate single individual beds, and you can rotate individual beds so she could be set up and I could be lying flat or I could have my legs in the air, and it's it's it's it's it's a marvel. Um, the remote controls for them have run out already, though. They're on like they've both have got a remote control, and both of the sets of uh batches have run out. Um but they were like cheaper ones, so uh the job for today is putting new batteries in the remotes of the beds, which is bonkers. We do feel a little old that we've got these though, we feel like we're pensioners, because you see, you kind of associate a bed like that with an older person that you know is infirm. Um, but we decided that you know if we're gonna spend£1700 on a mattress, which is insane, why not get this bed and the separate mattresses and just and just do it because it is going to be beneficial to us. So uh yeah, um it's it's all going on. Next job for me is trying to sort the wardrobes out because we had a little bit of damping there, hence the reason we've we've really gone gone to get the roof done. Um Sarah's waiting eight years, well six years for a set of wardrobes, and now we've we've done them and I don't think they're breathing properly due to some maybe some moisture in the wall because of the because of the roof. And um I'm hoping that's what it is, at least anyway. So I've managed to get some some of the mould out of there because there was a bit of mould forming and we've aired them out and uh I've bought some paint to seal them. Um but I need I need to really air them out first and uh make sure they're okay. I think I might put some air vents at the bottom and the top just to make sure that the air is circulating through the through the cavity. Um but yeah, it's just just a paint. The house, you know, as I was saying the other week, the house um just takes your money. Um but after that it's just organising our stuff. This room is now an absolute tip again, as you can see behind me, because I moved some stuff from downstairs up here. I have baseball hat baseball caps everywhere. I've got some new ones. There'll be a vlog on that soon. Um, because I've bought quite a few new ones since I did the last videos, and I've still got all the other ones that I'm gonna go through, so there will be more uh cap vlogs if you're into caps. Um, but yeah, I've just had a lovely two weeks to be honest. It's been so nice, so relaxed. Uh spending quality time with Sarah, uh not having to rush to work. You know, she can just focus on herself as well. She had some treatments in the spa on board and made a really nice connection with her with her with one of the spa uh people called Diana. So Diana, if you end up watching this, thank you. You know, you you really helped her out and uh she really enjoyed talking to you. Um yeah, everyone everyone on board that ship was amazing to be fair. Like they they they work so hard, they're shifts that they do, and they're always so polite and courteous. Uh but I'll I'll I'll say more about that in the vlog um whenever it comes out. But yeah, I just I just uh try not to think about work now. I'm back to work in a couple of days and I'm just trying to kind of get out of my head and and focus on the here and now and whatever happens at my work will will will be. I can't I can't control that really. Um it does scare me. Um but hopefully everything will work out okay, and uh you never know my book I might knuckle down and do my book and that might be a success and I might not have to get another job. One can dream. Um you never know my my podcast might go viral. Um yeah, I I I don't I don't I don't know what's happening there, but yeah, I I'm just glad that I was able to go away, chill out. Um, 'cause a lot of the time when I go on holiday, I don't I don't relax for the first week. The fur it takes me a week, maybe more, to like actually get into the swing of things of knowing I'm not going to work. And then by the time I've actually properly relaxed and Sank into myself. It's like we're going home tomorrow and I'm like, no, I need another week just to just to just put the you know put the ic on the cake and actually learn how to relax. Um so I say it's nice that this is the first time in a long time, I think. Probably think since me and Sarah went away for our first holiday to Greece. I I even though I was ill while we were away, um, I really enjoyed that holiday. It was it was really relaxing. I think that the it was the newness of maybe going away with someone new as well. Uh really chilled me out. Um and I had probably a less stressful job, and I wasn't a threat of losing my job as well at the time, so multiple factors. Um but yeah, it's it's just it's just so nice to to relax. And I think that's the it's probably the takeaway from this video, you know, you need that space for yourself, you need that, be kind to yourself. Um and I'm gonna try and adapt that here uh at home. Me and Sarah were talking while we're on the ferry, or we're on the cruise ship, saying like, you know, we need to make more time um for ourselves, you know, watch less TV, be on our phones less. Because we didn't have internet for most of the time. Um and it was nice not to it was it was annoying sometimes because you'd be like, Who's that person? And you don't you forget how quickly you just go on your phone and Google something. Um but it was also nice not to be connected with the world, and I think that's partly what enabled me to write because I hadn't got that distraction in my hand all the time. Um and got the distraction from watching Netflix or YouTube, even though I took some downloaded content with me. I I never watched it. I started watching X-Files one day. Watch about 10 seconds, I went, I don't want to do that, I'm on a cruise ship, what am I doing? I'm starting to do something productive, so I forced myself to write, well not force myself, I realised I'd actually prefer writing something. Um so I think I need to I think I need to like maybe put my phone in airplane mode a lot more or have a phone safe um to lock my phone away. Um yeah some lessons learned maybe? I I don't know, hopefully so. Um But yeah, that's the podcast I've been talking for like 24 minutes. Insane. Um thank you very much if uh you've only tuned in for the first time. Um I talk about many different things, so thank you for tuning in today. Hopefully you'll you'll tune in again. Um if you want to listen to the audio only version, you can. Uh and vice versa, if you listen to the audio audio only version, if you can say it, uh there's a YouTube version where you can see my face if that is something you would like. Um yeah, thank thanks so much um for tuning in. Remember, take care of yourselves and keep on prattling. Thanks for listening to InfiniteBrattle with your host Steven. Follow me on the social network at infinite brattle and don't forget to subscribe. Thanks very much.