Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention. I am 40.

First of all, I am camera shy. I just have a way of covering that up but it leaks a lot if you look closely. Nakuanga na smile ingine non-stick or sometimes in my mind I have smiled yangu yote lakini uso inakaa mugshot. I thought I was camera shy because of people around me watching me, but I realised it isn’t because of what happened today.

I decided to do my own photoshoot. I bought a small log to sit on, set up my camera and using my phone to track, I took photos…. My word… Hizo photo zilikuwa wierd. I was not able to pose at all. Do you know ilibidi niwashe YouTube, put on some loud Taurus Riley, and take a few sips of gin to get everyone in the room at ease and feeling comfortable… And by everyone I mean me… It worked… And these photos are the result. My first self portraits.

I feel like I have been born afresh, except this time, I am a fully grown, well experienced baby. Nimemaliza syllabus ya character development. Now life is about to begin. I ran away from home when I was around 19 yrs old, for like a month. I wanted to go to Australia . Ata sijui how I was going to pull that off with no money at all, but I was so determined ata nilibeba birth cirtificate. I have been married, divorced, auctioned, had a lot money, lost a lot of money, started businesses; failed, succeeded, invested in businesses made money, lost money. Been in love, been heartbroken. Travelled a bit, but a bit too little actually.

Now we start afresh, clean slate. I have a list of #40things to achieve. I’ll be sharing them as we go along. I have already achieved some of them.

I have received more love on this birthday than any other birthday, from more people, some of whom, one year ago we had not even met. I appreciate so so much ata I can’t express.

Cheers to the new life, to a new beginning and to lots of laughter.

#Iam40 #GratitudeIsAMust

#40Things Number 6 – Photoshoot.