Turning 40

On the 25th of Jan I turned 40. A traditional milestone but not one I'd given a huge amount of thought.

It is a time for reflection though. Leaving my 30's behind I can't help but look back on what was a pretty good 10 years for me.

Started off by getting married.

Shortly after which I ran my first marathon in Copenhagen.

Later that year ran my second marathon in Berlin, followed by a magical trip to Greece.

The next year involved a little bit of travel, Portugal for my 31st birthday, Paris to run a marathon with my dad.

Marathon number 4 in Nottingham

And then Baby #1.

don't I look young and slim. Oh yeah, and there's Theo :)

At some point along the way we finished walking the Thames Path which was a really special adventure for me and Jackie. (Note we've not yet finished blogging about the Thames path but will hopefully get that don'e at some point)

We really packed a lot in to 2010 and 2011!

With Theo the types of adventures we had were different. I started a blog about coffee shops in SW London, it gained a bit of traffic and was good fun.

We went to the 2012 London Olympics, I blogged about it quite a bit.

In 2013 I was offered a job back in NZ.We did one final European trip to Croatia, our first Europe trip with Theo.

We moved back to NZ, leaving on Theo's birthday, and the day after Jackie had submitted her UK citizenship application.

We bought a house before Christmas that year.

We had fund exploring NZ again, Waikato region, Coromandel, and Bay of Plenty locations mainly.

2015 bought baby #2, just as life was getting easier :) SO it was another couple of years of hard graft. Claudia was lovely but babies aren't easy.

Some great family holidays with extended family in Nelson, Mt Maunganui, Ohiwa, Otautu Bay, Rotorua, Taupo, Gisborne, Patumahoe and Waiu Pa.

Also great connecting with friends again around NZ.

A couple more years of hard graft, some decent job progress, another marathon and then an offer of a job in Newcastle, Australia in 2018. We were ready for another move so off we went.

Newcastle has been great, the kids have mainly loved it, it's been awesome to be living close to the beach, there's a bit more going on here, life is easy and Jackie has been able to get her art career underway with some great success. The job has been good too.

2019 brought another couple of marathons, one at Noosa where good friends from NZ joined us. We had a nice mini holiday there.

Noosa Marathon recovery

Second marathon was on Gold Coast. I drove there with both kids, it was about 8 hour drive, it was great to go on that road trip with them, just the three of us. Hard work though, Theo had a cold and it was a long way but helped develop me as a parent! My mum joined us on the GC which was awesome, we had a great support crew rewarded with a trip to Sea World after the marathon.

GC Marathon with support crew

Recently most of the highlights come from the family. Theo is enjoying and succeeding at school. Theo is so good at giving things a go, tennis, golf, nippers, drum corp, swimming. It is a shame his school doesn't have a proper playing field, that's one thing he definitely misses. We're pretty happy with the way Theo is turning out, so far.

Claudia is such a joy, loves kindy, has so much energy and emotion (mostly positive), is so thoughtful kind and caring.

The kids are at a great age, it might never be this good again.

It's not always this good.

With the kids going well, Jackie and I have more time together and also more time to ourselves which is healthy.

It makes me reflect that I really need to appreciate the role my parents had in making the person I am today. It wasn't always easy but in the end I'm happy with the person I've become and have my family to thank for giving me the opportunities I've had.

Thanks Mum and Dad.

So as I head in to my 40's I do wonder what the next 10 years might hold. I'd be very happy if it wasn't as eventful as my 30's but then I didn't set out to do all the stuff above in my 30's so I'm not going to rule anything out.

If I was to set myself a few goals for my 40's I've thought of a few, but then I'd like to think there are some things that'll I'll do in my 40's that I hadn't even thought of or considered.

Anyway, so possible goals for my 40's:

- end my 40's with a wife and 2 kids - the same ones I have now :)
- complete a master's degree
- have run 30 marathons (23 more than what I finished my 30's with)
- have a go at starting a company

What's interesting about a lot of what I remember about my 30's and what I want to achieve in my 40's is that work and my job really aren't at the centre of it. I enjoy my job, I'm quite good at it which helps but it really is just an enabler to me spending quality time with my family. I think I'm very luck to be in that position nd suspect at some point I won't always be so fortunate, but in the meantime I'm happy to make hay while the sun shines.