The World is full of interesting people
The World is full of interesting people and I got to meet one such person this weekend. Akshay Nanavati lives in the American West and describes himself as follows:
USMC (United States Marine Corps) veteran, speaker, entrepreneur, explorer and author of “Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth and Happiness.”
The amusing thing is that Akshay contacted me for advice. Me! That’s the ‘Me’ who describes himself as…well, to be honest, I avoid describing myself at all. It always sounds so hollow. Admittedly I have done some pretty cool things but because most of them are BSM (Before Social Media) they are lost in the ancient mists of time. Hundreds of physical photos of Jungle expeditions, Karakoram, Himalayan and Scottish winter mountaineering trips, long distance hiking trails in Canada, triathlons and other challenge events, fester in shoe boxes hidden away in the loft (attic). Memories stored in musty old diaries, and ancient letters, the paper slowly turning yellow and brittle, are stacked in unruly piles. Not so much a firewall as a fire hazard.
Showing my age - Memories of old
I digress though.
I’m a late comer to the world of social media, which means that I am probably not as good at it as I could be. However, my blog has introduced me to many people around the world over the 4 years or so that I have been doing it. People such as Akshay.
Akshay contacted me requesting advice about the Norge på langs trip I had recently completed. He is looking to do a section of the trail as part of his training for a larger expedition and he was keen to learn more. I liked him straight away. Possibly because he used the phrase, “…in awe of what you achieved.” and said he was looking forward to my book coming out. I checked him out on the interweb, just to see if he was real, and found that he has a great web site that you should definitely take a look at. www.fearvana.com. He is also on Instagram as fearvana and of course Twitter . If you check out his website you will see that he has done some very interesting things, such as spending ten days in darkness, silence and isolation, as well as skiing across Greenland.
I organised a zoom meeting and we duly met up.
Zoom is a marvellous thing
We had a great chat and I am pleased to report that I was able to provide Akshay with at least some useful advice.
I like to think we both got something out of our meeting. It is always good to speak to like minded people and I will certainly be following Akshay’s next adventures.
On a separate note
For those of you wanting to know how my book is coming along I can confirm that things are going almost according to plan. My aim is to finish the first draft by the end of this month (July) and, whilst I may not be right on target, I don’t think I will be too far off. Here are some statistics of my progress.
I want the book to come in at around 60-70,000 words. No more
I have written 48, 632 words
I have further 30,000 roughly drafted
I will add a further 30,000 to that
I am either terrible at maths, or will need to do some serious editing
I have spent at least 20% of my time procrastinating, but the garden is looking lovely as a result
I have drunk more cups of coffee than I care to count
I developed a painful cramp in my left hand because my keyboard skills are so poor
I have still not come up with a decent title for the book, though Are we having fun yet? is looking favourite
I continue to be DEEPLY indebted to the inimitable Mrs P who is bringing in a wage so that I can write full time
The above point makes me feel bad about the procrastination.
Watch this space for more updates as the writing continues and, who knows, maybe you will be begging Santa to buy you a copy of my book this Christmas.
