40 for 40
Tonight the early celebrations for my birthday began, which is actually next Friday, on the 19th, but my lovely friend Shaheen isn’t able to make it next week so instead we’re doing what we usually do, having a Chinese meal in Chinatown at our usual restaurant eating our usual meal, only this time it’s her treat. Two diet cokes (mine without ice) a bottle of Rose, Crispy Aromatic Duck and Pancakes with Hoi sin sauce for starter, then Chicken and Cashews in Yellow Bean sauce, Sweet and Sour King Prawn Hong Kong style, Special Fried Rice and Chicken Chow Mein. It’s exactly what we always order, and we do what we always do. Fill up on pancakes then hardly touch the main course, meaning one of us gets to take home a ‘doggy bag’. Tonight is actually Shaheen’s turn to take the remnants of our meal, but very graciously, as its sort of nearly-ish my birthday, she’s making me take the leftovers. I’m not arguing! Nom nom nom!
We have our usual catch up, gossip and news updates, having been friends for years, although we haven’t seen each other for months, we happily share our news. She’s a Mum, I’m not. She’s at home with her beautiful daughter, I’m at work, working too hard. We talk about boys, work, family, money, life, boys, problems, tax issues, boys… I love our nights out and wish they could happen more often but understand that life sometimes just gets in the way.
As we go through, our stories come to the point where we talk about our ‘Glum Hole’. And no that’s not a euphemism for something naughty. The Glum Hole is somewhere you go when you’re feeling glum, but not what a doctor would officially term as depressed. We’ve both had a rough couple of years for various reasons, and have both had a bit more time in the glum hole in recent months than we should have. Talking about this reminds Shaheen of another friend of hers that had decided to start one of her birthday years doing things she had never done before, and that’s where this latest chapter in the life of Blobby Jogger begins.
I’m about to turn 40. I don’t feel 40. I (hope I) don’t look 40. But I’m allowing and have allowed my life to turn my into 40. So, instead of becoming old before my time, I had a thought. Why don’t I do 40 things over the next year that I’ve never done before? 40 for 40. Here we were, in an albeit delicious Chinese rut, not letting ourselves live our lives to the fullest, when we really could… I earn good money (when I’m working), I am an independent, single, competent woman. Time to break out from behind the walls I’ve been layering up around me and do things that I’ve often thought I’d like to do. They don’t all have to be huge ground breaking things, some can be just for fun and take 10 minutes. Others can be big works of planning and preparation. But I must have never done them before. And I’ve got to do 40 of them on or by 18th November 2011.
So I decided, on the 73 bus journey home, that there should be categories of the 40 for 40 items. I wasn’t sure if there should be 12 of them, one category each month, or 4, one per quarter, or just a general round-up of things. I decided to go for the general round-up, after all this challenge is about breaking down the brick wall, not building another neat one alongside it.
So, drum roll please. The 40 for 40 Challenges are going to fall into the following categories:
Health
Love
Money
Food
Travel
Happiness
And whatever else I want to do. It’s my list, I can do what I want!
The list of challenges doesn’t have to be done in any particular order, and they can be repeated as many times as necessary to fully achieve them. If at first you don’t succeed etc etc… but I have to do them. No backing out. No changing the list – except in extreme circumstances.
I now have 7 days in which to come up with my 40 for 40 list. I’ll see you in a week…
xoxo
BlobbyJogger 