When I was 49...

That's it, I've officially Brexited my Forties. It's the Big One!
Since every year I take a look back at what I've managed for the first time since my last birthday, here's how I kept things fresh when I was 49:

For the Very First Time:

• I bought an exercise DVD. (I nearly killed myself for about 3 weeks, then gave up)
• I obtained a PAC code to move my phone number: TECH-WIZARD AWARD TO ME!
• I scaled a climbing wall:

"Okay, that was fun, never again"

• I visited Brittany and the standing stones of Carnac

Merlin's Tomb. For sure.

• I fell in love with the amazing Machines de l'Ile 
• I visited Sicily and the Tombs of the Capuchins and walked on an active volcano - in a blizzard!
• I played Sardines and used a Ouija board, thus completing my 1920s credentials
• I got my car stranded in the snow (and was rescued by a guy in a Land Rover and a kilt!!!)

I discovered tea with whiskey in it, possibly the greatest medicinal breakthrough of our time:

It's the only thing keeping me alive right now

• I started using a chainsaw again, after a break of several years :-) 

• I gave a workshop at Smut By the Sea 2016
• I watched a movie on IMAX (yes, seriously)
• I shot an airsoft gun
• I finally got to see Newgrange in Ireland:

• I voluntarily held both a chihuahua and a baby (but not at the same time). I was quite taken by the chihuahua, tbh.
• I visited the John Rylands Library in Manchester for a witchcraft and demonology exhibition
• I went to the once-in-a-lifetime Hieronymus Bosch 500 Exhibition in the Netherlands
• I discovered on the same weekend that the wrong sort of smoke makes me paranoid - and I don't mean a bit edgy: I mean "Oh my god I'm having a psychotic break, what if this never stops?!"- rpt ad nauseum for several hours paranoid. Not nice at all.
• I was contacted by a film-maker interested in adapting one of my books!

What am I looking forward to as I turn 50? The publication of In Bonds of the Earth and The Prison of the Angels, of course! And, most of all, getting rid of this damn cold...