You're never too old to...

ellen2

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:

  • According to average mortality rates, I’ve probably lived half my life.
  • A good weekend for me these days includes a trip to the garden centre.
  • I use Facebook to share pictures of my latest lemon drizzle cake.
  • I don’t know the words to a single record in the Top 40. Actually, do they still do the Top 40?
  • I know what a floppy disk is.
  • The first broadcast of Friends was more than half my life ago.
  • Flossing went out of fashion just as I learned how to do it.
  • I'm obsessed with turning lights off.
  • My children’s teachers look like they’ve just stepped out of college.
  • No bacon sarnie or can of coke can put a dent in my hangovers these days.
  • I suffix my sentences with "these days".

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.

The Birthday Bucket List

I am not the only one celebrating a big birthday in the next 12 months.

Abi turns 30.

Abi GAGEN

And Chelsea turns 21. I’m old enough to be her mother!

IMG 6136

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.

Written by original ellen4

Share this article:share on twitter share on facebook