I am a 50+ mum, wife, teacher and aspiring writer. I’d like to believe that the + stands for ‘plus wisdom’, ‘plus experience’, ‘plus confidence’, ‘plus courage’ rather than ‘plus grey hair’, ‘plus weight’, ‘plus wrinkles’ or ‘plus age spots’.

My waking thought on the morning of my fiftieth birthday was, ‘Well, I’ve had more than I have left’! (It is, after all, most unlikely that I will live to be 100.) It was a sobering thought!

I was given two books  for my birthday: ‘Fifty and Fabulous’, by Life Coach Jaki Scarcello and ‘Things To Do Now That You’re … 50’, by Robert Allen, writer and puzzle maker. Reading both books made me realise, much as Tennyson’s Ulysses realised, that ‘some work of noble note, may yet be done’.

The first was written as a result of the author interviewing women between the ages of 45 and 102 in five different countries. She wrote her findings to show and to reassure us that ‘being over and female at this time in history is an opportunity richer and more ripe with potential than ever before.’

The second is a glorified bucket list which takes the premise that people in their fifties have the experience and wisdom to accomplish anything they set their minds to. Some of the items in the list are light-hearted and highly improbable such as ‘become a space tourist’ but most of them are achievable.

So, inspired by the two authors, Jaki Scarcello and Robert Allen, this blog will become a record of all the things I’ve always wanted to do but never got on with doing. By sharing it, I will hopefully prove that Tennyson’s Ulysses was quite right.

Katie Wong (as opposed to Katie White, who is of course, my mother!)

 

NOTE TO READER: I would be mortified if I allowed any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes to remain on this blog, so please feel free to tell me if you spot any!