Today, I turn forty.
I mentioned this to an offhand comment to Jem a few months ago on my Mastodon account a few months ago in the paradox I have with blogging. In so much that generally I blog a lot better when I’m not in the best place mentally. The worse I am, the better this blog does and the happier I am with my writing. Trust me, I’ve currently 14 Drafts that were written at lower points in my life that are just sat there with emo titles that befit the elder millennial generation that I am a member of that I just didn’t post for one reason or another. That’s one for you hackers.
But really? Now? As I write this sentence on the 5th of February and short of the stress I’m putting myself for my 40th birthday party which would have happened by the time you read this (what happens if there’s a train strike? Or nobody turns up? Or just generally things go wrong? Or there’s 2 or 3 people that don’t get on? Or those people who are coming and don’t really know people there?), things are…you know…okay? The past year has flown by and it’s been largely okay? Unspectacular, but okay.
Travel wise there was not really a huge amount. I saw Berlin (again), Athens (again) – both of it were work related trips: WordCamp Europe for Athens, and Berlin to go a wee bit outside my comfort zone and go to a dev conference (WeAreDevelopers World Congress). Not really talked about that but was fascinating hearing Sir Tim Bernes-Lee speak. I suffered proper imposter syndrome at that conference but met some wonderful folks there. There was more internal travel within the UK. London, Blackpool, Huddersfield & my first ever trip to Cornwall were my biggish trips. I felt like I did a lot, and looking back I did.
The usual geeky haunts of Play Expo, Arcade Club for the Retro Asylum meetup were on the list, however I saw a lot of cricket. 4 times to Old Trafford (including one day for the Ashes, which I made the BBC coverage clapping Zak Crawley’s knock). That was the high standard stuff. Village wise although the summer was a bit poorer I did play a lot more games, so most weekends I was watching a game at the Earlestown Oval, sometimes even playing for Earlestown Cricket Club.
Work wise things have been a bit slow and steady, and only really picked up in the last quarter. Whisper it folks, but so far this year is looking good. The spare time has seen me work on my brand, write some blogs, and a couple of side projects – I stuck a proper shop on Retro Garden which is my basic “let’s get rid of a couple of duplicate games I’ve acquired over the years” along with trying some affiliate income. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of folks I know are building WooCommerce affiliate stores. I do wonder if that’s a trend.
I also launched All Rumble Stats which is a site dedicated to tracking every Royal Rumble over time. It’s basically been a spreadsheet I’ve kept offline and stuck online.
I’ve used KadenceWP for that which I’ve talked about here – a theme I also used on the brand new Earlestown Cricket Club website. I’ve really taken to use it in my setups.
Yes, I handle that and I am sponsorship secretary for the club as well 🙂.
Twitch Streaming has continued to be sparodic unfortunately. I’ve just struggled to find time to do it with any sort of consistency, but between Liverpool at Eurovision and a random day I met with a few of my streaming palls of Jess, Kittens, Rosie, Boo & Jans. That was a lovely couple of days that I treasured.
Moments I have treasured and will continue to treasure. Being one to try and experience more I’ve started my 50 before I’m 50 list. It’s currently 35 but hope to add more to it.
Overall, I’ve been relatively happy and in a good mood. I took 6 months (late 38-mid 39) for to look after myself, which is well worth doing. 10/10 would recommend. Between that and therapy (which is now down to a fortnightly session), my last year of my 30’s was pretty good, and been a happy time for me.
It just doesn’t make a good blog post. Soz.
And now the yearly comparison!
As you all love it so much. Here’s my updated comparison with you know who.
 Rhys (With a Spoon) |  Reese Witherspoon | |
| Age | Nearly 40 (Up 1) | Nearly 48 (Up 1) |
| Oscars (Nominated) | 0 – No Change (0 – No Change) | 0 – No Change (2 – No Change) |
| Books Written | 1 (No Change) | 4 (Up 1)* |
| Marriages | 0 (No Change) | 2 (No Change) |
| Children | 0 (No Change) | 3 (No Change) |
| WordPress Plugins Written & On the WordPress Repository | 11 (No Change) | 0 |
* I made a mistake, turns out Reese Witherspoon has been a lot more prolific than I’ve thought.
See y’all next year!
Happy birthday dude 🙂 I think you’re onto something with the blogging paradox thing (as I write this, I’m also halfway through a post of my own, haha)
I’m glad your work is picking up – hope that continues!
Looking forward to reading more blog posts as you tick off some of that 50 before 50 list – maybe that’s an excuse to blog while you’re doing well 😀
Happy birthday, and sounds like your year was pretty decent. One thing that’s changed as I’ve got older, and particularly since turning 40 is that I’ve valued OK times a lot more than I used to…
Hope the year continues to pick up for you!
Happy Birthday pal!
Can’t wait to move up to your neck of the woods and celebrate your 40th with you again. 🫶
Hippo Bathday, matey.
I found my 40th less stressful overall than my 30th. For my 30th there were so many expectations I’d had for myself about where I expected to be in life, and at that point things were wildly off-track on every possible front. Not that I was back on track by my 40th, but rather I think I’d pretty much accepted that my original plans were scrapped. 🙂
I’m six ahead of you, so I want to share what I’ve learned about my forties.
The worst thing: from now on, your body hates you. Whatever you eat, you will see it on you the next day. You will do something weird to your hip walking down your own stairs. One late work night with your team in London will leave you debilatated the next day. You will vaguely remember watching the sun come up as you stumbled out of a nightclub in the 1990s, as you twist your forty-something neck at freakish angles trying to crack it out.
The best thing: the skincare. From now on, you are a very special flower who deserves very special skincare specifically designed for your 40s. A small part of your daily skincare routine is handmade by elves in Welsh meadows who have squeezed the oils out of rosebuds kissed by the morning dew. The rest of your daily skincare routine is extortionate and is customised to your face and is shipped directly from a boutique in Paris because you are in your forties and you have been through some shit and damn right you are going to have extremely expensive skincare shipped directly from Paris.
YMMV.