In this busy world we live in, it is hard to imagine that actually 50 was once considered old. Life was hard and to die at 50 was likely a release from a life of challenges, poverty and hardship.

In 2016, I had routine surgery and by just bad luck barely made it out of theatre. Before I went into theatre, I sent my husband a photo, of my surgical stockings and said, “see you on the other side” and never for one moment did I think that it could be the last thing I said to him. My two hour surgery became seven hours. I spent time in the hospital afterwards and came away from that entire experience a different person and every 1st July, I give thanks to the surgeon who used his skill, experience and judgement to keep me here.

Sometime ago, likely around October of last year, I mentioned that I was going to attempt to achieve 50 things before I am 50 which happens towards the end of the year.

There is nothing particularly special about the list, it is simply a list of 50 things that I would like to achieve before I hit being half a century old. The list has been created randomly and covers an assortment of things, and to be honest these are typically things that I might want to do anyway. There is no parachuting, dying my hair green, abseiling or any such  other un-Julie like activity!

Each post will have the #50Before50 header and they will appear in a category with the same name. They might not be posted here in the month they are undertaken, just when I get round to it, so let’s get going!