Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian (Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian) You could call it the tamest of mid-life crises, but as I turned 40 last year, I decided to devote myself to a long-neglected ambition – learning the guitar. I dutifully set myself the task of practising for 30 minutes a day, with the aim of strumming my way through the Bob Dylan songbook by my 41st birthday. What stood in the way, of course, was life.