Several Years Past Due Date Generation?

So the BBC's Today Programme is the same age as me. It'll be 50 on 28 October 2007. So will I.

I wonder how many of the original Today team are still with the programme, though? Unlike them, at least I have been true to my original calling. I'm still me...

Anyway, those very nice people at the Beeb want me, along with a whole bunch of other people born on the same day, to keep a blog about their lives. They call it the "Today Generation". Not the "Yesterday Generation", mind you, or the "Several Years Past Due Date Generation".

Tony Blair (born 1953) and Gordon Brown (1951) are both older than me, but David Cameron (1966), likely to be our next Prime Minister, is a mere whippersnapper. When he gets to power, I really will be past due date.

How do I get into things like this?

Voluntary Service Overseas is also 50 this year, and they got in touch with me and asked me if I'd like to participate. I was a volunteer in Egypt for two years (1978-80) and again in Indonesia (1980-83). My stints with VSO gave me a fantastic start in my career, and like many former volunteers, I still work in international development.

I now live in Germany - my wife is from here. I haven't lived in the UK since I was 20: after leaving university I went to Egypt and Indonesia (where I stayed for 6 years in all and met my wife). Then we went to the USA to study, then got a job with a non-government organization in the Philippines. For the last 11 years we've been living in Germany, doing international consulting work. That means a lots of travel - I was in 19 countries last year - but it's work we enjoy and feel is worthwhile.