When I was 51...

... I hefted a golden eagle!Every year, soon after my birthday, I like to take a look back at stuff I've done for the first time EVER, in order to ensure that I'm not too deep into my middle-aged rut.

Here goes with this year just past ... when I was 51:

For the very first time IN MY LIFE:

I drove a BMW Z4 convertible sports car I got a photographic driver's license instead of the tatty old paper thing I'd had since a teenagerI acquired a smartphone!And bought a blu-ray player (not yet plugged in, I admit)We moved into a house that's actually big enough to hold all our books. (This is it, Peak House ... next stop is a nursing home)

I thus became the owner of some chandeliers. Still getting rid of them...I stained my deck. It took 4 days and lasted less than 4 months, so I'm pretty pissed off about that, believe meI used a supermarket scan-as-you-shop handheld device. It's like Star Trek, I tell you!

I ate a fortune cookieI visited Uzebkistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. I attended our local Parish Council meeting ( which was one of the most horrifically poisonous, bitter, unpleasant public exchanges I've ever seen. Jesus Christ on a bike...)I visited Intensive Care in a hospital ... in fact I spent a lot of time hospital visiting