50 Things to do before I’m 60 :: The Final Countdown

Hi there everyone 😀

If you’ve been following my blog for a while you will know that when I hit 50 I set myself a goal of ‘50 Things’ I wanted to do before my 60th birthday. 

Well … having made my 60th birthday milestone in November of last year … it’s now time to look at how things ended up.

I’m not going to do a huge review … as I did that at the beginning of last year … but I will let you know how I got on with my final push.

In March last year I determined the final ‘6 Things’ that I wanted to achieve would be …

9 - Explore more new places and experiences in North Wales
14 - Find a sustainable regular exercise programme and build it into my daily routine
42 - Visit at least five new places on days out from home
45 - Continue learning to speak Welsh
48 - Fix the leaky roof
49 - Declutter the whole house, including garden sheds

Whilst I don’t think I can say it’s been a roaring success there has been progress on all starting with …

9 - Explore more new places and experiences in North Wales
I think this one is definitely a win. There is a long list of new places that we managed to visit and things that we’ve managed to see last year including …

>> Tan y Bwlch station …

>> Snow capped mountains …

>> Low tide, but not quite low enough, at Penmon …

>> Dorothea Quarry …

>> Church Island, Menai Bridge …

>> Caernarfon airport cafe …

>> Treborth Botanical Gardens …

>> Penmaenmawr …

>> The Ynsypandy slate mill …

>> Powys Castle …

>> Plas Newydd … Llangollen …

>> Criccieth lifeboat launch …

>> Criccieth Castle …

>> Llandanwg …

>> Harlech …

>> The Great Orme …

>> Hafan Y Mor beach …

>> Dinorwic Quarry Hospital …

>> Dinorwic Quarry Viewpoint …

>> Moelfre …

>> Croesor Waterfalls …

14 … Find a sustainable regular exercise programme and build it into my daily routine

This one has definitely been a fail and … whilst it didn’t really come as a surprise … I am a bit disappointed with myself.

I have come into 2025 still wanting to try and find something that works for me … and I’m currently using a daily indoor walking app which is going quite well.

42 … Visit at least five new places on days out from home
Whilst this is another fail there was some progress. We had a lovely day out with Bobby at the Staffordshire Regimental Museum at Whittington Barracks …

… and a birthday trip out to Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire …

45 - Continue learning to speak Welsh

I think I can definitely say that I have continued with this goal with a streak of over 500 running in Duolingo …

I just need to practice using what I’ve learnt more when out and about on our visits to North Wales. 

48 - Fix the leaky roof
Is this one done? Maybe … I don’t know. What I can say is that, after having a chimney specialist come and have a look, we ended up getting a third lot of roofers out to look at the problem.

They did seem confident in identifying a problem with the flaunching round the chimney and this has now all been stripped off and replaced.

We now really need to give it a good few months before we will feel confident enough to say the problem is resolved but I am hopeful

And finally …

49 … Declutter the whole house, including garden sheds
There was definitely some early progress on this one but it all ground to a halt after giving the airing cupboard a good clear out back in September. 

We still have a long way to go but it’s something that I do intend to keep chipping away at … the sheds especially are a priority for this year

So … that’s it then. My 50 Things before I’m 60 series of posts is done and dusted. Don’t think I will be doing 60 Things before I’m 70 but I’m sure there will be more trips, goals and projects along the way. 

I think, for 2025, we are going to take things on a month by month basis and hopefully start chipping away at some of the big jobs that need doing around the house … but we shall see. I’m sure I will keep you posted. 

For now … thanks for following these posts for the last 10 years. Time will tell if I feel rudderless … or liberated going forward 😀

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My Decluttering Journey #3 :: The TV Cabinet

Hi there everyone 😀

I’ve completed another step on my decluttering journey and … to be honest … I thought it was going to be harder than it was.

We tend to pull out the furniture in the lounge a couple of times a year just to generally dust and vacuum behind but we worked out today that the TV cabinet hasn’t been pulled out for about four years 🙈

There are reasons for this … feeble as they may seem. The bottom cupboard is full of a lifetime of photos … so it’s pretty heavy. There is also a rats’ nest of cables behind … all dusty and tangled, so it really isn’t a quick and easy job.

With the good weather we’d had at the weekend we’d kept putting off doing any housework at all, in favour of working in the garden. We decided that today would finally be the day for cleaning and we’d start with a good deep clean in the lounge, including tackling the TV cabinet.

I have to say I surprised myself. I’ve always taken lots of photos and back in the 80s I used to put them all in albums … nicely labelled.

I decided I would empty the albums … as they take up so much space … and also have a serious slim down of the photos that I would actually keep … some were very faded, lots were pretty much duplicated and some were just rubbish photos. 

Once I got started it was actually really easy and, whilst it was nice to look back through the memories, I didn’t feel sad dumping two bin fulls at all … in fact it felt quite liberating …

What I decided to keep fit easily into the three boxes that I have and I tried to make sure to write on the back the dates that they were taken.

All the albums were totally emptied and all of those are definitely going in the bin …

We then had a good sort out of the cables at the back of the TV … just keeping those that are currently in use … and gave the corner of the room a good dust and de-cobweb …

Once the cabinet was back in place Martin insisted he wanted to keep his PS3 and all the accompanying paraphernalia … even though he has not used it for goodness knows how long. That fits nicely on the middle shelf and the photos all fit easily in the bottom. There is even plenty of room for other bits if we feel the need …

One other thing that used to be in the cupboard is an old notebook computer, which we no longer use and was never much good anyway … I think we’ve agreed that can definitely go too.

So quite a successful decluttering session this time … with lots of stuff let go and a bit more space created.

Can I say the lounge is completely clutter free? Probably not quite. The bookcase is ok and I did go through the candle and vase cupboard not too long ago … but there is a big basket and bag full of wool … I think that will be harder to let go of than the photos … it’s just so pretty 🙈🙈🙈

I could always just move it out of the lounge and say have a room that is fully completed … though I guess that is kind of cheating 😜

Time for a break now before we crack on with finishing cleaning the rest of the room. 

🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏🧶🐏

My Decluttering Journey #2 :: The Walk-in Wardrobe

Hi there everyone 😀

I know you may have been expecting my next decluttering update to show me finishing off the kitchen cupboards but today I’ve hit the walk in wardrobe. 

I know it may seem a bit of a random way to go about things but the cupboard was overdue a spring clean so it seemed to make sense to have a good sort through at the same time.

To be fair I did do a big clothes declutter a couple of years ago and I have been pretty good at keeping on top of things with a bit of a ‘one in one out’ mantra.

However, I was still surprised to find that the only thing that ended up leaving the house on this session was an empty cardboard box … which basically just had the spare coat hangers it had contained being moved into one of the suitcases.

I did completely empty the cupboard of clothes …

Suitcases …

… and two boxes of craft stuff and fabric …

I washed all of the walls down, cleaned the skirting boards and vacuumed the carpet before basically putting everything back in 🙈

Clothes wise this cupboard holds winter coats, dresses and tops for special occasions (which very rarely see the light of day), my one and only skirt (which hasn’t actually been worn for a number of years so is on its last chance), a bag of very summery and, possibly, just a little bit tight tops that I can’t bear to part with just yet and cut offs, shorts, leggings and trousers …

I have turned the coat hangers around the wrong way so I can keep track of what I wear this year and I am promising to myself that I will look at this cupboard again in the autumn when I’m sure there will be a few bits that hit the charity shop pile if they haven’t seen the light of day …

The suitcases were sorted through … they just really hold bags and rucksacks that do all get used on different occasions so there was nothing to go from there … other than the cardboard box. 

I wasn’t up for decluttering craft stuff or fabric today as that will be a job all of its own as I have craft stuff and fabric squirrelled away all over the place, including in some of the wardrobes at mum’s, so I think that will all need getting out in one go … I will certainly need to build myself up for that one.

I know it’s only a small step towards my overall goal but in the words of that big supermarket … Every Little Helps 😜

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50 Things to do before I'm 60 :: 2022 Update

Hi there everyone 😀

I can't quite believe I'm saying this but next year I will be 60 😱

Of course what this means is ... I don't really have that long left to achieve the list of the '50 Things' I want to do before I'm 60.

You can see details of the 38 'Things' that I'd achieved as of the beginning of 2022 here.

When I shared my 2022 update I did promise to come back very soon and let you know what I was planning to do with the 11 goals where there had either been little or no progress and what my last 2 goals might be. I'm afraid that I never actually got round to doing that so ... let's start off with the 11 ...

6 - Complete my on line photography course

As you will probably be aware I got my first iPhone about 12 months ago and since then I haven't lifted either my compact or my DSLR camera. I am just so happy with the photos that the iPhone takes that I have decided to replace this goal with ... Become competent with using my iPhone camera. I'm really happy with how I'm getting on with it. Here are just a few of my favourites so far ...

9 - Holiday in all of the National Parks of the UK

There are 15 National Parks in the UK. I have yet to holiday in The Brecon Beacons, The Broads, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs and The South Downs. Whilst I would still love to holiday in all ... I think the reality is that I won't be achieving this goal by the time I am 60. 

14 - Finish off the Explorer 232 Series

For one reason or another Martin and I seem to have fallen out of love with Geocaching. We still do a bit from time to time, but I think creaking knees and general poor levels of fitness have meant that we are nowhere near as enthusiastic about this hobby as we used to be. I can't see me completing this goal, but I have decided to change it to incorporate one of my resolutions for this year, which is to ... Go swimming once a week, which is going well so far ...

17 - Lose weight, go down four dress sizes

Mmmmm ... what can I say? Definitely not achieved this one, though I have set myself the goal of being able to ... wear a nice dress for Rachel & Tom's wedding in August.

I am trying to lose weight, I know it will be good for me, but I'm not signing up to any fad diets anymore ... I am definitely over 'diet culture'. I am trying to eat a bit more healthily, a bit less of the stuff that I know is not good for me and to exercise a bit more. So far I have lost just short of a stone, so things are going in the right direction. Let's see what happens come August 😀

25 - Finish telling Will Sidney's story and decide what to do with his memorabilia

To be honest, whilst this does feel like a bit of a loose end, it doesn't really feel like a priority for me at the moment. I'm sure I will get round to it at some point but for now ... sorry Will I am going to have to remove you from my list ...

33 - Turn one of my photos into some form of art

Again ... whilst I'm sure I will do this at some point I have decided to replace this one with ... Display some of my own artwork. I do currently have bits and pieces dotted around the house. A mosaic heart in a frame ...

...Some watercolour paintings ...

... some fabric art ...

... and some free motion embroidery ...

42 - Cycle to Elford Walled Garden

This hasn't happened. We do still love Elford Walled Garden and do visit from time to time, but our bikes have not been out of the shed for about 18 months now. I don't think I want to ditch this one entirely but not sure we will make it to Elford ... but I would like to think that there might be some outings at some point before I hit 60.

43 - Visit Glamis Castle

This is another one we haven't managed to fit in. Our visit to Scotland was curtailed as a result of Covid and the property we were due to stay in was no longer available for letting. Whilst I would still like to explore Scotland more I am replacing this goal with ... Holiday in Kent and explore The Garden of England. This we managed to do in 2022. We spent a lovely week in an Oast House with mum and we visited so many of the National Trust properties, gardens and landmarks that I've wanted to visit for years ...

45 - Visit new places in The Peak District ... Padley Gorge, Cheedale Stepping Stones, Three Shires Head, New Mills

We only managed a single day out in The Peak District last year. It was a revisit to Thornbridge Hall to take mum, with a quick call in at The Magpie Mine on the way back ...

46 - Cycle round Carsington Water

Another cycling one that we didn't get to do. One thing we did do instead though is to ... Visit Bletchley Park ... something I've always wanted to do. I've seen the films and TV programmes and really wanted to see where it all happened. It did not disappoint. In fact we liked it so much that we revisited and took mum for afternoon tea ...

48 - Visit more Cotswold Gardens ... Sezincote, Bourton House, Batsford Arboretum, Cotswold Lavender and Cerney House

We didn't get back to The Cotswolds last year either so we still have Batsford Arboretum and Cerney House on the list of places that we'd like to get to see. Maybe this summer ... we shall see.

So of the 11 committed to but not completed as of last year this is where I am currently at ...

• 4 have been re-written and fully completed 
• 2 have been re-written and are in progress
• 4 have stayed the same and we will see what happens over the next 12 months
• 1 has been completely ditched and will need another to replace it  

By my reckoning that leaves me with 3 new ones to share with you ... I shall start by replacing goal number 25 ...

25 - Buy a Holiday Home
This is something that I've always wanted to do but was beginning to think it was something that would never happen. As you will know we are now owners of a lodge on a lovely holiday park on the Llyn Peninsular. It was a bit of a spur of the moment purchase I have to say but we bought it in May and managed to spend a fair amount of time there over the course of the year. The park is currently closed but opens again for the 2023 season on 1 March so it won't be long before we are back ...

My other two are very much home related ...

49 - Redecorate all of upstairs

We have got to the point where downstairs is looking fine but upstairs not so much. I started stripping wallpaper in the bathroom at the beginning of the first Covid lockdown and nothing has progressed whatsoever. One bedroom has a leak from the chimney, which is causing us real issues. I have lost count of the number of times the roofers have tried to fix it and the other bedroom is really ready for a refresh.

50 - Replace the windows on the front of the house

I have really been putting this job off for years. We have lovely looking hardwood Georgian windows which are really not in a good state of repair at all. I've been holding off because my head tells me I should replace them with UPVC, but that doesn't really sit that well with me at all. Also, when the windows are replaced I know it will create other jobs in having to have the render patched and maybe even having to do some redecoration inside.

Whatever I do over the course of the next couple of years will also have to be fitted in around our 'Lodge Life' so let's just see how we go 😀

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