On Tuesday this week, I had my 60th birthday. It’s very strange because I don’t feel any older than I did when I was in my late 20s. It is a milestone birthday, though, and it does make you look back.

I’ve always been a risk taker so I don’t have many regrets for chances not taken. Like most people, there are things I wish I hadn’t done especially when it’s hurt somebody else. I’ve never done it deliberately but sometimes it’s happened.

I wish I had never started smoking because I’m finding it impossible to give up. My brother-in-law recommended some pills called Champix (I guess that’s how it’s spelled) but the nurse at my doctor’s practice said they might not be suitable because I’m subject to depression and that can be a side effect of this drug.

I had a great birthday. My sister made a cake and put two candles on it – she thought 60 candles might be a fire hazard! I got £60 (British pounds) from my brother on a store voucher, £80 from my mother (she’s 86 in January), earrings, shoes, toiletries and various other gifts. People have been very kind. I had lots of cards including two that made me laugh out loud.

I bought Rydian’s debut CD with some of my birthday money. He’s the singer who should have won The X Factor last year – there was such an outcry when he didn’t win. Simon Cowell appeared as shocked as anybody and signed him up to a record deal regardless. Rydian is so popular that I had to go to several stores to buy the CD one day after it was released and his first big tour of the UK is a sell-out already even though tickets have only been on sale for about a week. I managed to get two tickets for his Bournemouth show at the end of May. It’s in the last week of the tour. I’ll go with my best friend.

So even though I’m now 60 years old, I’m still happy and glad to have made it this far.