I’m writing this blog lying on a lounger next to the largest infinity pool in Europe. Not that I’ve got in it yet. Just dipping my toe in left it tingling. It is freezing. But I’m building myself up to it. I want to add it to my 60 for 60.

I’m in Tenerife with my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. I thought I’d better bring him along. I booked it up before the sudden death of my father-in-law. A week after his funeral it is exactly what we need. A few days relaxing, eating our weight in food and drowning in rum, beer and wine. Unusually for me I haven’t brought my trainers with me and I won’t be stepping in the gym. Although I’m sure it is very nice.

The extent of my exertion is moving from the sun-bed to the bar/restaurant and back again. My beach body in non existent. I had such plans for it after Christmas but life got in the way. But it is a weigh and measure when I get back and four weeks to my 60th birthday. I’m a whisker from my strength targets. Well apart from the pull up. That will have to wait a bit longer.

At this precise moment in time I’m just being kind to myself. I’m doing what I can to curb my feelings of anxiety. Undertaking a Professional Coaching qualification has helped me call it out and park it but at the same time added to the pressures in my life. Hopefully I will find out in the next couple of days that I have passed the final assessment and can call myself a ICF Approved Coach. It has, possibly, been the most demanding course I have ever done. And I do have a collection of letters after my name so I’m not alien to hard work. But to be a good coach you need to know yourself but be able to leave yourself behind when coaching. There have been tears but I am amazed at how powerful the whole process can be. Now to work out how it will become my encore career.

As I approach my 60th birthday, sitting in the sun off the coast of Africa, I’m so grateful for what I have and can experience. I am thinking of my best friend who wasn’t so lucky. The last few weeks have been hard but that is life. And at least there is life. Sometimes to be endured but often to be relished.

Now to get my knees wet.