Posts

Hive and Life in 2022...

avatar of @revisesociology
25
@revisesociology
·
0 views
·
7 min read

It's most interesting looking back at 2022 in comparison with the previous years....A LOT has changed, and it's most dramatic if I compare the last two Christmases.

I literally spent Xmas day in 2021 cleaning the house in Portugal, this year I did the full-on Christmas, cooking from 9.30 a.m., dinner and then drinks until around 1.00.

What a difference a year can make, and here I'm just looking back and charting the changes, pretty much all of which I see as positive!

Actually one indicator of this is that i didn't get enough time at the end of 2022 to reflect back on it, hence why i'm doing so at this relatively late stage in early 2023!

January 2022

I started off the year in Portugal, with some optimistic plans for the land - and the house which back then looked like this...

I was still gung-ho into being in Portugal in January 2022 and I put (for me) a lot of effort into learning the language to no avail in the long term but it's good to be reminded I gave it a good shot!

On Hive I got involved with the 1UP cartel and writing some posts about CryptoRaiders - something for me to find out early this year is WTF happened to 1UP - the domain seems to have disappeared!

1UP where are you now...?

Oh and I reached reputation 78 in January 2022 - worth noting as a marker as it took around 11 months for me to get to reputation 79 just a few days ago in late December 2022!

February

In February I quit my job marking for a teacher training company, my last link to 'reality employment' and also my least efficient income stream so that was the right choice.

February was also a month when I was still gung-ho with land development - I started on my irrigation system and did a lot of land tidying besides.

I'll say this much for January and February in Portugal - the afternoons are warm. I remember oftentimes being out in mid afternoon in just a T shirt! Can't do that at this time of the year in the U.K.!

March 2022

In March I was pruning my olive trees

I also had a track dug out going up to the house on my land...

It's interesting to note in retrospect that I observed at the time that being able to speak the language and networking with the locals was by far the most efficient way of developing my land, and my inability to do so eventually led me to leave Portugal!

April

On Hive the HBD interest rate went up to 20% which I think may have been a good idea at the time but now I'm thinking a reduction to 15% might be in order, 20% simply isn't sustainable, well neither is 15% but it's better than the fantasy return of 20% - this kind of rate is probably going to end up tanking the Hive price at some point!

In the now not so wonderful world of DEFI I was also defo loosing the faith in protocols such as Fantom by this point.

Back in the real world I bought a house in Penamacor, for the princely sum of 14K EU - so still gung-ho determined to stay in Portugal even as late as mid-April!

In retrospect I still think this may turn out to be a good investment, I can only see property prices going up in this part of the world, it is a very nice place to live Penamacor, at least for those who can speak the language!

May

I set up my first ever node - A SPK claim node which is still up and running and earning and I've been stacking LARYNX slowly ever since!

I also signed up to a 70 EU a month fibre optic broadband package - the intention being to use the news channels to help me learn Portuguese, but obviously I ended up not doing that but instead bought a smart T.V. and ended up binge watching shit on Netflix, in English!

June 2022

June I just carried on with various land chores and most interestingly I recommitted to being fully retired by the age of 52, which is in 2025... I need around $50K in the bank by that point to be able to do so!

I only set myself a target of having $5K saved towards that by the end of 2023, so that's an easy start - the goal accelerates after that of course.

July

I'd made good progress on the house throughout spring and June and by July I was painting the house, meaning it was finished by now, not too bad considering the state it was in when I'd bought the land 15 months earlier!

Also by early July I was already thinking through returning to the U.K. so clearly it was over early Summer that I'd just had enough of what I now recognise as an insurmountable language barrier.

Mid July saw a proper heatwave in Portugal and this is what prompted me to head back to the U.K. for a short visit - happily I met my now current girlfriend in a pub on my second day back, a most fortunate meeting which helped with the coming decision to leave Portugal for good!

August

I spent most of August hanging around in Medway with my new GF and her friends, and carrying on working online.

One of my main writing themes over summer, something to which I must return, was to compare some of the yields on stable coins on various protocols (mainly BSC/ Polygon/ Avalanche and Fantom) and by now I'd concluded that the yields simply weren't worth the risk of holding and staking stables on ANY platform, except for HBDs with the 20% return, which itself is a fantasy return only sustainable even in the medium term at the expense of the Hive price I think.

After about FIVE weeks of being back in the U.K. I decided to drive back to Portugal for a week to extract my stuff and then return back permanently to the U.K.

I stupidly opted to do a two stage drive back which was exhausting...

September 2022

I was back in England by early September and wrote this reflective post on leaving Portugal - basically it's got a lot going for it for those seeking an off-grid lifestyle, but it really was just the language that I couldn't learn and the fact that I just feel more at home in the U.K. For better or for worse it really is my country!

Mid September was dominated by HiveFest - 3 and a half days of nonstop talking and drinking in the evening - educational and a lot of fun as usual, defo the right decision to go to Amsterdam for this event!

It was fitting that this was also the month I became a T200 Hive Power holder again after consistent hard powering up - I'm currently 190 - it's slow going climbing further once you get this high up!

I also moved into my new rented flat in Ramsgate, with my house in Hereford still rented.

I'm not gonna beat myself up over this, but by late September I was thinking about cutting down on ending party mode, which I'd been in for two months straight by this point, but I didn't I carried in on until, well, yesterday basically!

October

October was the month I settled back into something like a proper routine in the U.K. with half the week at my place in Ramsgate and half in Medway with the GF - and also a new work timetable.

This was also the month I decided to push myself to get back into running, and I remember some nice runs along the coast in Ramsgate, running really is a great activity to help structure and balance my weeks!

I'm a bit slower than I was a couple of years back, but that's O.K. I can build it back up or just keep plodding, I'm feeling much less fussed about being competitive than I used too, I may even switch to a more circuits based workout routine, we shall see!

Hive had a very successful hardfork 26 this month, which split RCs from HP and raised the HBD debt ratio from 10% to 30% - gradual yet significant changes which add more functionality to Hive I think.

November

November was bonfire month and I was in reflective mood following one party with a 6.00 a.m. finish

I think in the medium to long term I want to do a van conversion and get back to off-grid living, it's just a matter of the tricky matter of finding the damned money!

On the money front it's worth mentioning that since I hooked up with an ad company called Ezoic, I'm actually earning enough to live comfortably in the U.K. - if I can get my head around spending a little more sensibly (it's been a bit of a hedonistic three months) I could actually save some!

December 2022

I had a nice end to last year - December started off with snow which is worth commenting on if yer British and in Britain when this happens, especially in the South!

Defo overspent on Christmas food and booze...

Christmas and New Years were just full of people people people and pubs and parties, it was a bit full-on and a bit too mental TBH - we didn't finish until literally 4 hours ago at time of posting this - with friends round yesterday, up til 2.30 and then brunch with them this morning.

It's nice to be social but my social battery is well and truly spent!

But it's nice to have a social life again.

2022 final thoughts and into 2023...

Obviously the main change is that I've gone from being mostly alone in Portugal to being partnered up and much more social in the U.K.

That's the massive upside, the downside is that I've gone from a VERY low cost lifestyle to a much higher cost lifestyle, something I will need to address into 2023.

ATM I'm not even really sure what I want to achieve in 2023, I'm gonna have to sit down and or go for a few walks to have a little think about it, I've got a few ideas but they need to manifest into operationalised goals.

For now, Happy New Year and have a great 2023!