
Despite my youthful appearance (ahem) today is my 40th birthday.
I’ve never been that bothered about an extra candle on my birthday cake. In fact, I would say I’ve always been a prime candidate for growing old disgracefully.
But I have approached November 21st this year with some trepidation.
When you’re in your 20s, you get so used to people telling you how young you are that you kind of wish for 30 so you’ll be taken a little more seriously. But 40 is fully fledged adulthood.
I know this for a number of reasons:
I could curl up in a corner with my mug of Horlicks and bawl my wrinkly old eyes out.
But instead, I’ve decided to take a long hard look at all I’ve achieved in my 40 years – three gorgeous children, a fabulous career, a bunch of brilliant friends and a family I adore – and be grateful.
One day I will be 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 (if I'm lucky) so if I worry over being old now, I have a lot of decades of even more intense worrying ahead of me.
I’m not old but one day I will be, so I’ve got a lot of living to do before then.
And with that in mind – let me introduce you to a very special challenge.
I am not the only one celebrating a big birthday in the next 12 months.
Abi turns 30.
And Chelsea turns 21. I’m old enough to be her mother!
So the three of us have agreed to complete a bucket list of challenges – one for every year of our lives – over the next year.
We’ve started to build a list – learn the Thriller dance, solve a Rubik’s Cube, go paddle boarding, give blood – but we need help.
Before you bombard us with suggestions, let me lay a few ground rules.
We do not have the money to fly to California and bomb it down Route 66. We do not have the time (bear in mind 40 challenges for me is around one a week) to go swim with dolphins or take up violin and make it to Grade 5. And none of us are willing to jump out of a plane.
We want simple and we want cheap.
Share your ideas with our hashtag #PromBdayBucketList across our social media challenges.
We will keep you updated with our progress with regular blog and vlog updates.