How to live your life like it is rented

As I write this, I have one eye on the clock because it is mid-week and we have a big meeting with all the colleagues at the office at 8 am and I am yet to shower and get dressed. No breakfast, I'm afraid.

Women are always living life in fast forward, or in the future, or vicariously, or for the 'vroom' of folks like Chris Froome; that is why they like to say that most annoying phrase – 'when I grow up.' I mean, like, when exactly will that be? If you are 40 ...

Let me just stop there, press the pause button. Let's pretend we are in a fantasy and indulge everyone.

If I had my way, right now I would be on the 7 Islands' resort in Watamu, sipping a 7 am Jamaican sunrise, because daiquiris are for the ladies. I would have a book of poetry in one hand, watching the waves roll out of Crystal Bay as I thanked the good Lord for this moment in time.

Art is long, but life is short.

And the most important thing to hold dear is not some possession like your car or furniture or plot somewhere, but friends and family. That wife/husband, partner, fiancée, girlfriend or boyfriend, please appreciate them. We were speaking the other day with my editor about a man who had just run away from his wife and two kids, not giving a damn at all about them.

How can anyone do that?

Many of my happiest moments are with Chelsea – my girl, not the football team. (No one can have happy times with a team that connives to be knocked out of the Champions League and the Football Association Cup, all within the space of one week).

Whether watching the little lass, brow furrowed in concentration doing her homework on a Wednesday afternoon or running the circumference of a trampoline, trying not to fall (which is the whole point of a trampoline, isn't it?), our children is often why we work so hard, so they're happy.

Talking of work, if it is still early enough in your education or career, try to do the work you love.

Growing up, my dad always wanted me to be a lawyer, and that's what we went to college to do. But even as early as early Primary, I had always been drawn to conjuring up other worlds in my head during lessons, the classic day-dreamer, worlds that in time felt very real to me. As if a whole other universe was nudging the one we live in, threatening to crash through the ether and come right in.

I welcomed this world peppered with solid phantoms, and began writing tales at the back of my Kasuku exercise books, which got me into trouble, but it was impossible to stop.

My late mom realised we had a vivid imagination, shackled to words, and bought me exercise books to write 'my stories' in, which she then got typed and bound. I had my first 'publisher' at ten, and every time these days we occasionally win some literary award, silently I thank her in heaven (or wherever it is our dear departed go).

Living the life, especially during lent I think, involves sacrifice.

This is good because it enriches our spirit and enhances our discipline in everyday life.

You leave that car and walk. You give up lunch.

If you can, you go somewhere and reflect what you have accomplished within the first 100 days of your life. Happy Saturday from 7 Islands.

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