Hols, Garden Room Builds & Dealing with Negativity

Nov 17, 2021 1:01 pm

Oye amigos,


For the next couple of weeks I'm going to be a bit like that annoying work colleague who sends you holiday snaps while you're stuck in the office. My hope is that I've shared enough of the ups and downs over the last 6 months that it can be taken in that full context and there'll be some value delivered along the way.


πŸ‹οΈ Habits

On the plane ride over I listened to Atomic Habits by James Clear. It's a really great read/listen and one of his pieces of advice is, if you can, start new habits in a new location so you can link the two together. So far each morning I've been doing a bunch of squats and other exercises on our terrace overlooking a golf course:


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Not a bad place to work out I'm sure you'll agree, plus its quite fun watching the golfers balls up their shots πŸŒοΈβ€β™‚οΈ.


πŸ’‘ Borrowing Ideas

When abroad, I like to look at the design features of the houses that I could potentially incorporate back home. Here's a few from our villa:


I'm impressed with the use of natural branches to filter the light. Not a bad idea for a pergola or veranda.


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There's no guttering on any of the houses so for the flat roof below either there's a down-pipe hidden inside the walls that leads directly to a drain or it just doesn't rain enough here to worry about. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ


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I like the lack of grout lines in the tiles, especially on the floor where grout can get grubby or crack and get vacuumed up. I'm sure they spread grout over the tiles to fill any small gaps but no spacers were used. It must be done this way in the UK sometimes and I've just never noticed. Is this a thing?


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β˜€οΈ The Climate

I can see why the Canary Islands often top the list of places with the best climate. At this time of year it feels like indoor temperature outdoors. Not too hot, not too cold and the African sun doing its bit to make it feel like summer.


We met a retired British couple who have recently bought an apartment out here purely due to the weather. They considered mainland Spain but for the extra 2 hour plane journey they just couldn't resist the stable Canarian weather.


If you compare Gran Canaria to Malaga you see can see how little variation there is between day and night and over the year in GC, thanks to the cool ocean currents.


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Of course, all this will will come back to bite us when we return as we'll have acclimatised to the warmer temperatures. Then you can laugh it up.


🏊 Activities

It's been pretty relaxed so far as we've been mixing activity days with chilled out days. Knowing that we're here longer than for a usual length holiday has meant we aren't rushing around trying to do everything, which is nice.


For activities, I've plotted all the places we want to go to on My Maps on Google, useful for seeing what things we can combine on a particular day and it stops us from floundering around in the mornings figuring what we're going to do.


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So far we've done a couple of beach days and a hike in the mountains with the bubs in a carrier backpack. It's absolutely stunning among the pines though not quite as other-worldly as Tenerife's Mount Teide.


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πŸ—οΈ Your Builds

While I can't do any DIY, I can still highlight your works so have added a couple more builds to the website.


First up is Kaye's which is was a joint effort with her husband Mark but we're chalking it up as hers to get the first female build on the scoreboard.


The finish is fantastic but what I really like is how the garden room is situated about 2/3rds down the garden rather than right at the back like most. This creates a bit more intrigue to the garden and a more private area behind.


You can read her write up of the project below all the pics here.


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Next up is Mike's pentagon shaped build. Non right-angle corners create a lot of complexity for the walls, cladding, fascias and the roof slope so kudos to Mike for navigating those issues so well and making the most of his garden space.


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Both of the builds were planned out on paper which goes to show you don't necessarily need to learn a 3D modeller to complete this project.


Garden room bars which seems to be all the rage right now. Makes sense seeing how Β£5 pints seem to have become the norm, except in good old 'spoons of course.


πŸ‘Ž Dislikes

I'm pretty much over the dislikes I got on my crypto vid, partly because I've had some good feedback on it which made me feel better - thank you to those who reached out ☺️. Interestingly, Youtube have just announced that they are removing the dislikes seen by other viewers to help with creators' mental health. It's a one size to fit all solution which I think on my vid is the right thing because I know the people who disliked it aren't going around YT disliking every crypto vid nor was it because my video was bad, they disliked it because I made it.


However there are plenty of other times when seeing dislikes is really helpful. Whenever I'm trying to find a tech solution (a recent example was figuring out how to put my downloads folder back in the Mac OS dock), I home in on vids that have very few dislikes because I know the solution will be there. So I'm not sure it's the right move.


These days though I almost never click the dislike button because I know first hand how much time and effort goes into producing a polished video and the leap of faith you take when clicking publish.


You have to develop a pretty thick skin to put content out on the internet. At first it's usually very positive because you're seen as the underdog and only the very keen will come across your content. As you grow, you reach a wider audience and you're seen as more invulnerable and able to take criticism, much in the same way that I sometimes throw a barb or two Jeff Bezos' or Michael O'Leary's way. It can't possibly hurt them right? Or perhaps the sting of criticism never goes away, I don't know.


I was chatting to Abi about it and she said that she'd struggle to do what I do as she feels she wouldn't take any negativity well though she is thinking of starting an Instagram on the finishing touches of the house - the fabrics, colours etc which might work really well with my content. From what I grasp from emails I get, it may appeal to all your wives and partners that you subject to my vids. If it gets off the ground, I'll let you know.


Anyway Barney and I may do some other vids together on finance topics that I actually can talk confidently about but it may be sensible to put them on a separate channel. Perhaps 'Ali Dymock Too'!


πŸ“Ί What I've Been Consuming

Besides Dexter of course...


Universe on BBC iPlayer - Brian Cox explains the intricacies of the cosmos. It's a bit slow, poetic and lacking in the actual physics, but if it were anything else, I'd probably fail to understand any of it.


Foundation on Apple TV+ - has a Game of Thrones in space vibe. Visually stunning as Apple have ploughed a ton of money into it but the different storylines are a little hit and miss. The Cleon dynasty is the stand out and something I've not previously seen on tv. It's worth watching for that alone.


Diary of a CEO - I've linked to this podcast before. The host is a new dragon on Dragon's Den and in this one he interviews Jimmy Carr, the comedian, but this is all about living a happy life. Jimmy quotes many others but one of his own stood out: 'There's nothing you can buy in the mall that you'll give a f**k about in 5 years time'. So true.


πŸ‘‹

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Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)


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