So wasn’t able to turn back the hands of time. It’s arrived, I am now officially in my mid thirties. Saying goodbye to 30 and on the fast train to 40. I look back on those days when I couldn’t wait to be 18, 21, 25 and 30 and laugh. My thoughts back then were I would be a woman, free to take my own decisions, I can drink legally, vote, be at the top of the career pyramid and on be married with a couple of kids. I sit here today, living at home with my mum (ok so it is my house but bless her still being treated like I was pre-18). The only thing that shows I have aged is the fact that my bones are aching and I think I am beginning to lose the feeling in my right arm.

I wanted it to be a quiet one today, sleep the whole day and watch movies on my laptop, eat, sleep some more, thank the well wishes on facebook and then sleep some more again until tomorrow. But I know she means well, but she has forced me to come and have a few minutes at my spot because she was up with the birds and so that means I too had to be up. She wants to make a lunch, invite a few people over so that means shopping, chopping, playing host, pouring drinks and washing up. So I have run out for a few hours, just to sit in peace. I don’t like a big fuss on my birthday. Just acknowledging and well wishing is enough for me. Having spent the last 10 years playing guidance counsellor to my parents and big sister to my siblings, the whole birthday fuss seems lost on me, I just don’t feel comfortable being the centre of attention especially when the following day I will fade back into the background so I usually chose to let it pass by.

Don’t get me wrong, I will be rather annoyed if I don’t get my birthday greeting from my best friend P when she gets up, but I don’t need the party and the showering of attention (although I wouldn’t mind the gifts) and people boozing on my ticket.

Yesterday I was out with my team, some kind of team get together, the Chilean boss wanted to thank us for all the hard work we had done throughout the year, a nice gesture would have liked to have done White Sands but the settings of Hillburi was nice enough still. One of the discussions we had was on destiny. Is our destiny already mapped out for us. Are some of us just not meant to be married, are some of us destined to be rich while others are poor. Or is our destiny mapped out as a result of the choices we make in life. I believe it is the latter. I think our destiny is mapped out for us, however we as humans may not necessarily walk the path that is chosen for us. We go astray and then as a result, the path to destiny distorts. Like if you are going from Madina to La Paz, you don’t know the route, so you may decide to take a route that you’re unfamiliar and get lost. Depending on your will to get to the destination, depends on whether you eventually get there.

So for some on the journey, they get there easily, others lose their way but find their destination a little bit later. While unfortunately for some, they don’t get there at all.

But that’s in it’s simplest form, life is a lot more complicated than that, we could have this discussion for ever, even at the table there were about 3 or 4 different opinions.

So now that I am at the mid-point I make my top 5 bucket list of things to do before I reach 40 (asides the find love, have kids and reach the pinnacle of my career).

1. Ride a tro-tro, in all the times I have been in Ghana I have never taken this mode of transport but how can I say I am living here and experiencing being a Ghanaian when I have never taken a tro-tro, so will do that.

2. Learn French fluently, the second most important international language in the world it seems.

3. Visit the places that in my head I said I would visit but never moved physically to them. Paris, New York and Cayman Islands

4. Start a small business

5. Go hiking in the hills. I live 20 minutes from the beautiful Aburi mountains but yet I have never walked the walk, usually it is in a car on my way to some place but the surroundings are beautiful.

That’s my top 5, if I can extend to 10 I will let you all know in due course.