Kit Grier Mulvenna: Life's now a beach as I try to enjoy where I'm at right now

I'm up at 6.30am so my wife and I have 30 precious, glorious minutes to get caffeinated and feel human before our daughter wakens up. Then it's breakfast, nappies (not mine) and nursery run before starting work at nine.

Matcha and avocado toast.

Leftovers. I have no idea why, but when you become a dad you become a sort of human bin, hoovering up leftovers, so it could be pasta, curry... who knows?

I cook a lot but I also married a cook – my wife, Danielle, owned Black Bear Cafe in Belfast years ago. She has changed career now, so sometimes I feel guilty I'm one of the only people experiencing her amazing food. If it's midweek, let's say a store-cupboard curry.

I used to. Probably somewhere between my third and fourth dose of Covid-19 I stopped caring – I think I decided that researching supplements wasn't going to make me live to 100. Now, in the words of Carrie Underwood, I let Jesus, Take The Wheel.

I've been vegan for a long time. I love it. It's a dream if you're indecisive like me because every menu in Ireland only has one thing to eat on it. No more poring over a menu for half an hour – find the little 'VG' and job done. And that's what dining out is all about – blistering efficiency.

Two McPlants, fries, and large Sprite. I'm not proud of it, but unfortunately the mad scientists over at McDonald's knocked it out of the park with the McPlant – it's absolutely insane.

I hate the gym so I need a hobby. For me, it's always been skateboarding. The only thing that's made me noticeably mentally fitter is laying off the drink – I don't have much IQ to spare, so while I still take a drink, I try not to go nuts.

Get yourself a nice, chunky, masochistic goal. I went from having never run before to running an ultramarathon, just to see if I could do it – and I could. It was absolutely punishing and I quit running immediately afterwards, but it kept me moving for a while.

I was thinking about this the other day – why was PE so mortifying? I have no idea, but we all hated it. I was always hopeless at football – if it had all been hipster sports like bouldering, I'd have been brilliant, and, presumably, popular to boot.

I take big breaks from drinking when I want to go into 'album mode', but I'm also a sucker for the Bourdain mindset – if I'm in a new place for one night only or if my friend has made a batch of Manhattans, who am I to say 'no'?

My wife doesn't do lifts, so we're a stairs family now.

I just finished We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole. It's great for lots of reasons, but I like that Fintan is roughly the same vintage as my parents, so it helped me understand the Ireland they lived in.

Neo Yokio. Hilarious animated absurdity from the mind of Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig.

I didn't know I was an 'outdoors' person until I was legally restricted from being one. Like most people now, my work is staring at a screen, so I need to touch grass as often as possible.

I perfected the vegan cheese toastie. It was essentially a depression meal that I made every morning during the pandemic. The health effects would probably have been negligible if I hadn't also taken up drinking three lagers a night for all of lockdown.

The beach. My family left London two years ago and I feel very grateful to be back living on the north coast. Getting to share that with my daughter is fantastic.

To take This Paranormal Life, my live podcast tour, to new places. Maybe Australia and New Zealand?

You know, before having children, everyone says, 'Sleep now, while you can', but I had no idea my daughter would fix my sleeping pattern. I always struggled with the discipline of sleeping well but now I don't have to – I'm so exhausted by 10-11pm that I can always sleep and whether I like it or not, she's a little alarm clock that you can't 'snooze', so honestly, I'm in the best routine of my life.

I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self, 'You don't have an anxiety disorder, junior, you are just drinking eight cups of coffee a day'.

The older you get, you become more time-conscious. Like lots of performers, I spent my whole twenties 'going going going', which I don't regret, but you do look back and realise how fast it went. So maybe I'm trying to enjoy where I'm at right now more.

Absolutely – Covid showed us you never know when it's all going to be a wrap. Of course you can't really live every day like it's your last, but I'm trying to be present for my family here and now, not in retirement or something.