Big year for me, this. Why? For no other reason than I had a milestone birthday. I really wish I had something more than that to offer you. Other people have big years. But they get married, start families, graduate from university (one out of three so far for me, and certainly not this year. I'll let you guess over time...). But me, I just hit the big four-o. No real panic, no crisis. I definitely have a happy reflection on the life CV to date, and have seen a bit of the world. But, nonetheless, forty years have passed since I entered this world, and I thought I would use this landmark occasion as a catalyst to get round to a few things. Forty things to be exact. Yep, you guessed it, I resorted to cliche. I have elected to do forty things now I'm forty.
Now, surprisingly this idea was met with considerable support from all my friends and family (especially the apple of my eye) so I have pursued it, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully to date. Now, I have been lucky in that I have done a few things over the years worthy of a story or two or that can grace the pages of the odd photo album, so finding forty new things has not actually been that easy. In fact, I think I barely have twenty out of The Forty in the List of Forty Things so far.
One thing that has made the cut though is this blog. This is a personal experiment to see whether I can sustain an ongoing dialogue with a virtual audience, and to drag my level of internet-savvy up from its current turgid depths. Down with the kids? Hell no. But it would be nice to be able to navigate past the Google home page without descending into a litany of Sopranos-inspired expletives. My girlfriend doesn't roll her eyes physically in these sorry instances, but I am sure I can hear the pity in her voice as she relieves me of the keyboard and sorts out the problem. It doesn't take Einstein to work out who explained the basics of Blogspot to me... To be fair, I'm not IT illiterate. Far from it, in fact. But I seem to have a neurological block when it comes to the internet. Sure, I can book a flight, check a blog and download the West Wing. But that's all achievable through a series of clicks telegraphed by alluring pictures and icons. But Heaven forbid, if I have to do actual research or reading, and sift through 150,000 hits on 'blogging', sensory shut down will rapidly ensue. In short, it bores the living crap out of me.
The blog therefore serves a dual purpose. It gets me a tick on the List, and expands my internet horizons. There is a third dimension, however. Having not even managed to think of forty things to do to commemorate this hallowed occasion, I need help. And what better place to request it than from an eager and diverse cyber audience with an unparalleled imagination? So please send over any ideas and suggestions you may have, and if at all possible, I'll add them to the list. Similarly, if there's anything on here that appeals to you and is something you feel inspired to try, then please do say. Alternatively, just drop in and say hello - life after all is not only about ticking boxes!
