On this day 50 years ago

I came into the world in a Liverpool hospital, born to a danish mother and an english father.

Among the many lovely things I've received this morning is this photograph, taken about 35 years ago of me (on the right) with two of my danish cousins.

What can I capture in a short blog entry to give a flavour of all that's happened in those 50 years? I thought about setting myself the challenge of summarising 50 years in 50 words, but it would probably have been meaningless to anyone else.

What are the things that have mattered to me most over those years? Family and friends, special places and special people. As you get older your life is increasingly punctuated by significant events - weddings, funerals, births, journeys, some shocks and surprises.

Most painful among the memories is the loss of two special friends, each of whom committed suicide before reaching 40. While I was no longer particularly close to either of them when it happened, both had been very important to me at different times in my life - such a tragic end.

I could equally write about many happy times with many special people, but they know who they are and those stories won't mean much to you if you weren't there.

So, I'll finish by recalling some special places and special experiences, which you could choose to share if you haven't already...
- travelling along the Bosphorus by ferry from Istanbul
- walking in the Lakes and north Wales
- dawn on the Ganges at Varanassi
- evenings in downtown Havana
- trekking the Langtang valley in Nepal
- dinner at sunset in Gumusluk, with the sea lapping your feet
- a summer selling oriental rugs to tourists in Istanbul's grand bazaar
- cheering on Shankly's Liverpool from the Kop
- cycling in heavy snow through the mountains in Majorca
- close encounters with eagles and otters on the Isle of Mull
- dinner with Clint Eastwood
- strolling along the sand at Holkham
- the interior of Rustem Pasha
- camel trekking in the Sahara
- dusk in the Djemma el Fnaa
- watching whales and albatrosses off Monterey and Kaikoura
- the bar at the Infante Sagres hotel in Porto

I could go on...

I very much hope that by the time Daniel reaches the age of fifty he'll have experienced at least as rich a range of special places and special people. And that he will have his own family to share them with.