Been there? Done that?

You blink and you’re 40. You blink again and you’re 50. Then the years start racing past so fast there isn’t time to blink.

People offer you their seats on the bus and you realise – with horror – it’s because they think you are old.

You feel annoyed, even though you know they are just trying to be nice and polite. You want to yell at them: “I’m not that bloody old!”

But you smile and politely decline, because accepting would feel like conceding you are that bloody old.

I was at the gym last night doing a pump class, glanced at the mirrored wall and saw 55-year-old Alana staring back at me.

It still startles me slightly.

I thought to myself: “How the hell am I a woman in her mid-50s creaking around the gym already? That happened way too fast.”

And yet I am still young enough to have a daughter doing the HSC. Fortunately that pain will be over in a little over four months.

I am impatient to book lots of holidays post-HSC. You never know what life has in store for you, so I want to grab it with both hands before they seize up with arthritis.

I’ve been pestering DD to tell me his top five destinations. I’m trying to keep them achievable, for example I don’t think I can afford to go to Antarctica unless I win the lottery I’m not entered into.

But beautiful, remote stuff is top of my list.

We are very keen to get back to the South Island of New Zealand. We had a trip booked for April 2021 that bit the dust. I want to visit the sounds: Milford, Dusky and Doubtful.

We’re also pondering a few places we’ve been without each other that we’d like to experience together.

For DD they include cruising around Scotland (where he used to live, pictured below), going to Japan (which he loves and has visited many times for work), visiting his relatives in Newfoundland (pictured above) and going somewhere with icebergs (which he has never done, but reckons we should attempt while we are relatively young).

I would love to show him where I lived in New York. I am wondering if we could cruise from there to Newfoundland via Maine and Nova Scotia.

We’re also keen for a river cruise in Europe at some point. Although I am a bit worried that’s an even bigger sign that I’m old than getting offered a seat on the bus.

I am a bit obsesed with the idea of small ship cruising generally: hopping on board, unpacking and not having to worry about anything other than which kaftan to wear to dinner.

No hotels to book, no car to hire, no map to read, no restaurants to find.

We have lots of expedition cruises on our bucket list and I am wondering if anyone who reads the blog has cruised around these places:

The Tahitian islands (I went there briefly on a big ship many years ago, but am wondering about a more intimate, in depth exploration.)

Okinawa’s islands.

The islands off the coast of Western Australia, including the Montebellos and the Abrolhos.

Are they wonderful? Would you give them 11 out of 10?

What destinations are on your bucket list?

Song of the day: Peter Allan “I go to Rio”