A bit late with this update – my head’s not been quite right as September was a month of quite extreme highs and lows.
Highs
Work gave us the day off to do the annual charity walk.
62 of us set off early one Friday morning to do the Saddleworth 3 Peaks – not everyone completed it but I did…eventually!
Over 25km (just under 16 miles) and I made it to the pub at the end (what else? 🙂 ) in almost exactly EIGHT hours! It was pretty exhilarating, there were breath-taking views and I’m glad I did it but not sure I would (or could) do it again!

At the 3rd peak where we looked back and could just about see the cenotaph behind us in the distance!
I nearly joined some others in giving up after the second peak, but decided to soldier on, despite being in real pain – my left knee did not cope well with the downhill pounding. I had a walking pole (which helped) and ended up taking painkillers (which didn’t help).
Still, we couldn’t have asked for better weather and I’m certain I wouldn’t have made it if we’d had the rain-lashing and high winds experienced during the Snowdonia walk from a few years back. £5000 raised for charity (as a team) with the company matching it so all went to good causes.
Lows
I found out a few months ago that one of my friends from uni (fellow course and house mate) had undergone chemo for cancer. First round went well and all sounded quite positive.
However, the second round of chemo didn’t go well and she was in a coma for a month. She won’t recover fully from this and there was mention of her in line for a move to a hospice.
I and some other friends went to visit her as soon as we found out (6 hour round trip by car, plus hotel stay). What a roller coaster of emotions that weekend was – my friend was herself but also, obviously, not herself. We don’t know how long she has left (could be weeks, months?) and they continue to monitor how her body is battling the illness. She has however made it clear to all that she does not want to ‘exist’ like this.
As she has lost most of her sight, when we turned up, we played the game “Guess who I am?” and she got us all by our accents! The ward nurses said that it was lovely to hear laughter coming from the room as we reminisced about our foolish youthful antics and were probably a bit loud! It’s down to us now to provide a little joy in her life.
Us friends realised regretfully that it had been over 10 years since we had all met up face to face – busy lives and all that, although we did catch up via video during lockdown and the friendships and connections have been maintained over the years (we all graduated in 1991!) first via Facebook, but lately via Whatsapp.
Life is just far too short and we must make time for loved ones before it is too late.
Sorry for that downbeat update but I feel better for writing that down.
I guess one good thing to come out of this was that I caught up with the friend who had FIRE’d (mentioned in my July interim post). It was as I thought – two good careers, leading to a couple of investment properties (sold) and now living the good (retired) life. Great for them, hoping to join them in the not too distant future!
Anyway, how did I get on with my numbers?
I saved 15.1% of my net salary. The above includes £31.94 from doing Prolific surveys, £10 from a charity lotto win and £20 from matched betting winnings.
Shares and Investment Trusts