They say life begins at 40, and many people toast their birthday milestone with big celebrations.
But instead of partying in Vegas or skydiving, one politician is marking the occasion in a manner fit for an election anorak.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole is to visit 40 polling stations across Northern Ireland on Thursday for his 40th birthday.
Read more: Northern Ireland council election: Key battlegrounds as parties compete for votes
The party's Stormont leader turns 40 on the same day that voters head to the polls for the local government election.
The South Belfast MLA said supporting his party's candidates on polling day "might even cheer me up about becoming middle-aged".
Mr O'Toole said: "The SDLP as a movement has an ambitious mission to end division on this island, but even we can't stop the passage of time.
"Once they moved the date of the election to May 18, I knew my 40th birthday would be an unusual one.
"Like lots of people who turn 40, there's a desire to find an activity to distract from becoming middle-aged.
"In this instance, rather than going to a festival or skydiving, I'm travelling round 40 polling stations to support as many of our amazing local government election candidates as possible and help them get out as much support as possible on polling day.
"Our candidates have run the most amazing, hopeful campaigns, and seeing some of them along the way might even cheer me up about becoming middle-aged."
Mr O'Toole said he will begin his polling station birthday tour in South Belfast and then drive through Co Down towards Newry.
He will then head though part of Co Armagh and stop at various locations along the A1 before returning to Belfast to cover polling stations in the west, north and east of the city.
Mr O'Toole hopes to complete his trip by lunchtime.
There are hundreds of premises used for voting across Northern Ireland. For instance, Belfast City Council has 104 which cater for 254 ballot boxes.
A total of 807 candidates are contesting the 462 seats across the 11 councils in Northern Ireland.
The election was pushed back by two weeks to avoid the counting of votes clashing with the coronation of King Charles III earlier this month.
It is the first electoral test for Northern Ireland's political parties since last May's Stormont Assembly election.
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