Turning 40

OK, so I’ve been a little guilty of covering up the fact that I’ve just had a birthday. It wasn’t deliberate. We’ve just had so many big family events lately that I was a bit over it all. Shame. A 40^th is actually a great excuse for a party, therefore I am now planning a belated one for next week (hey, we still have a lot of wedding wine left over!).

When I was little, I had this vision of what life would be like when I was 40. I would have a 5 bedroomed house in the suburbs of London, 3 teenage children, a husband who worked long hours earning mega bucks in the City and I would be a meteorologist.

I would spend my weekends playing the piano and playing tennis. And I would have my hair cut short – because my mother always told me that once you turn 40 you have to have your hair cut short.

I can now confirm that my visions were all wrong. Life couldn’t be more different! Not only have I lived in some fairly extreme and crazy locations around the world, but I have now made my home on the other side of the world.

Five bedrooms is beyond reality, but we are now home owners and landlords. I have two young children (no where near teenage-hood yet), my husband unfortunately does not earn mega bucks in the City (but he is very lovely and has a much more interesting job), and I am not a meteorologist. I don’t play the piano as often as I’d like to, but I do often watch people at the tennis club outside my kitchen window (if that counts?).

For months now, people have been asking me if I’ve written a bucket list. Or if I have written a list of “40 things to do before I’m 40”.

So, last weekend we tried to write me one of those lists, but we couldn’t think of more than 9 things to go on it. The task was too hard and eventually we abandoned it to a bottle of bubbly. And in truth, I’m more than happy not to have another list (I have too many lists already – shopping lists, work lists, buy bread, invoice clients, etc, etc).

I have done so very much in these last 40 years (and even more in the last 10!) that it was always going to be very difficult to write such a list. Ten years ago I couldn’t have possibly imagined all the things I was going to go on to achieve. So in actual fact, I am now simply content to dream and wonder and hope about what new adventures the next 40 years hold. Anyway, I’m far too busy doing life to write a list about it!