Today's the day

So the big day has finally arrived.  3 September 2011, my 50th birthday!  And more importantly (well not quite but almost) I've completed my 50 day blog challenge!  Every day for the last 50 days I have posted a blog without fail.  Wow I'm so proud of myself.

Thank you to all those who have taken the trouble to read it and a bigger thank you to the few who have commented here and via Facebook.

Today is party day, and I have  brilliant weather for my barbecue.  Thank you universe!  September is so reliable, the best month and the best people (but I would say that, I’m bias).  If you are coming, I'm looking forward to seeing you later.  If not, I'll make sure I have a drink for you too. By the way here's the cake I made.

So what next? I think I will keep blogging regularly, I'll see how long I can keep up the daily posts; but at the very least, I will do my usual weekly one.  

To conclude, I've done one of those lists (sorry if you find them a bit twee, apparently they are the “in thing” in social media): 50 reasons is to love being 50 – enjoy.

1.      You’re alive yippee! You have passed the life expectancy of at least 13 countries 

2.      50 is the new 30 – not really but until Paul McCartney, Mike Jagger and Cliff Richard's retire (now in their late 60s) you can lay claim to this.

3.      Wisdom comes with age and you can definitely claim age, so wisdom can't be too far behind

4.      You have finished being 49 and dreading getting to 50. You have arrived. Settle in. You are now in your 50's. (In another 9 years you can have a fretful year on the run up to 60.)

5.      You can be a tiny bit more confident in your belief that you think you know it all 

6.      You can now focus on YOU without feeling selfish

7.      You can stop caring what people think – if you ever did before; now you can claim your place amongst the ranks of the old and cranky (only if you want it)

8.      You’ve still got 20 years before you have to retake your driving test

9.      You can sing along to modern songs to the amazement of today's generation, and then smugly tell them that you remember the song the first time round by someone else. 

10.  You now get mail from aging celebrities – albeit promos urging you to take out "no medical questions asked" insurance policies, but hey at least they write to you now. 

11.  If there is a man in your life, he has lived through his mid-life crisis. (Unless you have a toy boy, in which case it’s win-win)

12.  You have natural highlights (what's grey hair?)

13.  Hopefully your kids have all reached the age of self-sufficiency – if not, never mind they won’t expect much from you because you’re “old”

14.  If you look younger than the stereotypical 50-year-old you can brag about your age

15.  You might not be entitled to free travel yet, but as a senior member of the community, you can legitimately sit in the priority seats if you're feeling tired

16.  You don't have to feel guilty about wanting to be in bed at 10pm (because you're tired, not to do the energetic stuff)

17.  You can enjoy a quiet night in and really enjoy the “quiet” bit.

18.  If you don't want to read the small print you can claim you’ve forgotten your reading glasses

19.  You can remember the hit parade of 30 years ago today

20.  Since time is no longer on your side, it’s okay to go all the way on the first date (some of us still suffer from the guilt inflicted on us as teenagers)

21.  Nothing about sex surprises or embarrasses you anymore

22.  You always have the latest fashion – you just have to dig it out of the mothballs

23.  It’s much easier to become a supermodel in the over 50s age category

24.  You’ve only got 50 years to wait for your telegram from the monarch

25.  Despite what your children think, 50 isn’t that old in the scheme of things - you weren't around when the dinosaurs lived and no, you don't remember the war

26.  You finally realise that happiness is a choice not a set of circumstances and so you get to choose to be happy for the rest of your life

27.  Been there... done that... is a great conversation stopper if you get cornered at a social event

28.  If you decide to write an autobiography you've got a lot of material to put in it

29.  Open University programs have started to sound interesting

30.  You now qualify for the offers in SAGA

31.  You’re part of the generation in charge 

32.  When you were at school they were still teaching proper maths and so you can add up in your head

33. You can communicate well because you went to school when they taught children how to    write a complete sentence. You know…with nouns and verbs and capital letters and all that stuff. Remember those things? They're rare today.

34.  You can get cheaper car insurance

35.  Your little monthly visitor, if not already deceased is definitely terminal 

36.  Contraception is (or will soon be) a thing of the past

37.  Anti-ageing products have come a long way since cold cream

38.  You have survived three and a half recessions (the current one isn’t quite over), so you know how to stretch your resources.

39.  "Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" (Will Rogers). You've already been there and done that, so you have a head start on the younger generation 

40.  You have expertises that have taken a lifetime to develop. There are no shortcuts.

41.  You can think on your feet. How do you think you got to be this age anyway?

42.  Your body has calmed down from the crazy mid 40s years’ when it was doing its own thing and now you've got back control 

43.  You get a real boost from overzealous shop assistants who want to check your ID before selling you alcohol – really you think I’m under 21 – that's okay you keep the booze – YES!

44.  You don't have to attend or host anymore under 5’s birthday parties or under 6’s or under 7’s or under 8’s etc (now that’s got to be worth millions!)

45.  You can use your mobile phone with impunity because any damage it’s going to do in the next 20 years will be overtaken by the effects of ageing on your memory

46.  You keep finding uses for all that "irrelevant" information they made you learn in school – it's like you've started to live your education

47.  It’s easier to forget bad experiences because it's just easier to forget, period!

48.  You are now the youngest in your age cohort (i.e. 50 plus) as opposed to the oldest (i.e. under 50)

49.  You are young enough to understand how to use technology and old enough to deploy it effectively 

and most importantly ...

50.  You finally get that age is a mindset so the best thing about being 50 is that it makes no difference at all.