Becoming 50 years of age..

Turning 50 seems to be a significant event as I have recently found out. It started a few months before the actual day with people asking how I was going to 'celebrate' this epic achievement of reaching my 50th year.

There are many preconceptions about being 50, the biggest is your sudden capacity to be incapable of most things because after all being 50 is so old apparently.
 The NHS make you feel older by sending you a bowel screening kit and appointments for various health tests, not a bad thing at all but rather a not so subtle reminder that now your 50 your internal organs are a lot more susceptible to all sorts of undesirable conditions.

Personally I don't feel any different, more an awareness of the age I now am, I did celebrate my birthday, it takes longer to recover admittedly but turning 50 has not reduced my capacity to party or the want of wanting to, but I'm not in that much of a hurry to do it again, I much prefer the feeling of sobriety, long gone are the days of turning up to work on a motor bike after a hectic weekend bike rally, or serious partying and planning for a 'hair of the dog' after work.

The general feedback I have had is that  do not look like I have turned 50 and it is said in absolute astonishment, yet again another preconceived notion, It seems that '50' suddenly turns you into a grey haired podgy human in need of a walking stick specs and hearing aid,! Ok I admit I have the specs, that probably is the oldest thing about me my eyes have not aged well, and now I have 2 pairs of specs, reading and distant vision.
 I am rarely with out a pair of specs on my head and yet I will still try and read something with out them as it is a mission to fish my glasses out of my bag or go upstairs and get them as I left them on the bedside table so I could read or watch tv in bed!

When I think of most of the people who I know that are 50+ none of us fit the 'old' idea of what a 50 year old looks like. We may have smattering of grey hair, the odd ache and twinge, sight and hearing not super sharp but we all still look pretty dam good. 
What I have seen of some of the younger generation some of them will be lucky to reach 50.

 I was born in 1963 Britain, clearly I don't remember it I was just born, but I do know that it was the year where Britain experienced one of the coldest winters ever on record, JFK was assassinated  The great train robbery took place, there was a political scandal called The Profumo affair, (i guess some things don't change)! and there was a band called  The Beatles that became very famous.

But for me life was a straight forward affair or so I was lead to believe, you went to school, then got a job, if you were privileged you went on to higher education, then work, if you were lucky you would get married have children, buy a home, enjoy a holiday once or twice a year, save for you 'old age' and live reasonably ever after and hopefully happy too.

Technology has had a massive impact on how we live our lives, and so much of it being invented in my adult years, it may have helped in a lot of ways but life is very complicated now. I have lived in Britain and overseas and it has got much harder to do both in my later trips than my earlier ones.
In many respects I have already been written off, I am currently unemployed despite my life experience and good skill set. There is much more hardship around than I have ever seen,and I do worry about my own future.

I am the youngest I will ever be and at my age I realise that being 'over the hill' is better than being under it, The best thing about turning 50 is it's a great excuse to do or not to do!  I can just say 'but I'm 50 now I can do that' or 'what do you expect at my age'!