Thoughts on my birthday eve

I watched a programme a few years back about ageing and the positive effects on someone’s life – which was quite refreshing seeing that you normally just hear the downsides.  This programme affected me quite a bit especially seeing someone skydiving in their 90s! Much respect to them.

That with my recent encounter in China with a lady running the Great Wall marathon – she was 73 and running the FULL marathon.  She had only started running 10 years prior to that to raise money for cancer research.  We were all in awe of her.  In fact, it was by meeting her that I knew I wouldn’t be scared of falling doing the 8.5k hike on the Wall this year – still recovering mentally and physically with my broken ankle.

Another plus side to ageing is all the benefits of self-doubts falling away with the years when you really don’t ‘give a monkeys’ about anyone else’s opinion if it’s not in line with your own visions and dreams – this may sound harsh and arrogant even, but for me, its come with age.  Life’s too short to have to explain yourself to anyone or waste time with energy vampires.  I’ve found myself becoming more of this mindset over the last year while writing this series.  No matter what happens, I know that inside it fills me with pride. I can’t help but feel that it glitters some gold.

As my 46 year beckons, I will look back at the last 45 with pride… all those experiences – highs and lows have got me to this point. Returning to Hong Kong will be very much a high point this coming year – I left in 1996 and can’t wait to see how much it’s changed.

Tonight I will be celebrating my birthday eve with a Chinese and MONKEY, my staple 1970’s evening from way back – there are some things you don’t want to shut the door on after all.