2025 Year in Review

It’s time for a round-up of my moments of 2025. As always, most of these relate to my life, most of these are positive, joyous, fun moments – but a few are darker too. Starting with… 25. Millwall Away I hadn’t been to a Hull game all season, we seem to be in a groove where we are never playing at home when I visit Hull, even on Boxing Day. Then my sister suggested that we go to Millwall away, and go around the Millwall pubs with a friend of hers. Millwall? Anyway, he was a proper Millwall geezer, supporting …

Gosh not another holiday. But also, gosh not another post to write that nobody will read anyway – this is about my little adventure to Santorini. Well, it was more my sister’s adventure for her birthday, and I tagged along. Santorini is not cheap. Which isn’t what my bank balance needed two weeks after going to Helsinki and Stockholm. But it is sunny. Quite hot and sunny. Which is what I needed after a mostly cloudy and cool holiday – though of course it was also very warm in the UK the weekend I flew out. Why Santorini? I guess …

Too many holidays. This isn’t even a first world problem, is it? It’s something I would have loved to have been able to worry about during the pandemic, or all of those years doing brainless repetitive jobs whilst I worked out what to do with my life. Yet it is something I’ve just experienced. I actually feel done with holidays…granted this feeling won’t last too long. What Happened So I had a great time. 3 great times. Firstly was my holiday to Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm at the end of August. Then in the middle of September I went to …

Stockholm was the final part of my road trip without using roads (except Bolts) via Tallinn and then Helsinki. It’s another city that I didn’t do justice to in the two nights that I stayed there, though we had a little more time there in total than we had in Helsinki. Yet unlike Helsinki, I feel like I may need to go back here – there was far too much to cover in just a day and a half. Plus it was coming to the end of an expensive trip, and Sweden is hardly know for being affordable, so I …

So Helsinki was the next stop on the trip after falling in love with Tallinn. We caught the ferry across which took 2.5 hours and was actually rather fun – it had a very 80’s old people kind of vibe, shit decor, country and western bands, loads of pensioners. I was quite amused, especially by being able to watch the sea whilst I pee’d. Though upon arrival at our Airbnb, when we eventually found out which door it was, they had only made one bed out of 3 beds, one bed was also broken – which he told me that …

I’m tallinn you, I had a good time in Tallinn. It was the first stop on my next three city/country tour of Europe, Estonia was a completely new country to me – having never visited a Baltic country. Plus I had an accomplice this time too. I had a feeling that Tallinn would be my favourite city of the trip – spoiler (because nobody is going to read all 3 reviews anyway), it was my favourite city of the trip. I loved how Tallinn mixed modernity, art deco cool with medieval history too. Just how stunning is this building? Yet …

I’ve now had three multi-city holidays. First up was Basel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Strasbourg and Metz. This year I did one trip to Trieste and Ljubljana, and I’ve just come back from a trip to Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm – still to write about any of those. I still feel like I’m perfecting the art of the multi-city trip – I haven’t come back completely satisfied once yet. Don’t Travel Back On A Sunday 10 days after my flight back from Stockholm, I’m still knackered. Yes, holidays are supposed to be for relaxing and recovering from a busy life. I’m not …

So one of the reasons why I’m still single at 45 years old is that I’ve never really been able to deal with rejection. Probably part of the reason I’m still at M&S after 6+ years, is that I don’t feel like handling the rejection of not being successful in an interview. Also why unemployment was utterly miserable – the constant rejection and all those times I (allegedly) finished runner-up in the interview process. And, of course, all that swiping for nothing other than the pleasure of seeing pictures of occasionally hot women. Enter my new teeth. Having Another Go …

Yeah I went to a lake. This post shouldn’t take long, but Lake Bled was the original inspiration for my Trieste to Ljubljana trip – in fact I think I was mesmerised by a Windows ’97 photograph of Lake Bled. OK, perhaps not Windows ’97, but it first came to my attention via one of the photos that loads up on my PC quite some years ago. I’d already clocked that Slovenia was stunning, from my first night in Ljubljana. Lake Bled didn’t disappoint. Basically a lake in the more mountainous regions, with a castle on one side, and a …

After Trieste, it was time to head to the lovely jubbly Ljubljana. Though pronounced like: Originally I planned to get the train from Trieste to Ljubljana, because I like trains and dislike buses. However, there are only 3 a day. Only one of these I could buy a ticket for in advance, others I had to buy on the train which I felt sceptical about. Then you have to change at Villa Opicina, apparently. Because the train cannot go over the nearby mountain, it actually has to go back up the coast, before turning around and going around the mountain …

I read about Trieste a while back, I think in The Economist, and it intrigued me enough to have it on my “maybe visit” list. Ljubljana was on my “definitely visit” list, and I realised that I could combine the two – fly to Trieste and then either get the train or a bus to Ljubljana. And with Ryanair having some seriously cheap flights there, it was game on. Trieste is definitely less Italian than other places in Italy that I’ve been, for multiple reasons. It only became part of Italy after World War 1, prior to that it was …

Yeah I’m running out of European countries to visit, and Sarajevo was on my list of places to visit – the capital of Bosnia. There is more to it than a weird 1st world addiction to ticking off countries, as I’m quite fascinated by geopolitics, and Bosnia is somewhere I’ve seen history happen in my lifetime. Plus I rather like this area of the world, having visited Belgrade, Zadar, Skopje and Split – the scenery can be stunning, especially the Croatian coast. Bosnia was on my to-do list for more than the purpose of ticking off another country. The Challenges …

I guess I really do need to do a post about the teeth. Why, how, how bloody much and how fucking painful. So this is why I needed to: That was my smile last September – well, I say “smile” as I’d trained myself not to smile as my teeth were shit. Surprising how many people said things like “they’re fine as they are” but I guess they were just being very British. Since I was 18, my teeth had very slowly been falling apart – mostly the top. You know how I like to criticise Brexit voters for ignoring …

Time for a little list of my favourite things of 2024. Favourite Restaurant Meal I had a few really stand-out meals in 2024 – Brat for my birthday, Tayyabs to celebrate the end of detox, Slowburn with the folks. But the one that stood out the most was Quo Vadis in Soho, with some rather excellent guests. This rabbit, mushroom and bacon dish was quite possibly the most gorgeous thing I ate all year. Favourite Restaurant Meal on Holiday I spend far too much time researching where to eat on holiday, and whether it is worth the effort is very …

I thought I’d do a little post on my music tastes in 2025, where I’m at musically. There isn’t much significant change, house music remains a primary listening concern, minimal plays a huge role – if perhaps less so, techno is a rarer beast for my ears, and I have a bit less excitement over the offbeat techno sounds than I did. Let’s break it down and start with house music. Because house music will always be there for me – it is central to my soul, central to how I behave as a human being. It does become harder …

Time to outline what my 2025 goals are, in terms of health, learning, enjoying life and getting out of this ridiculously cloudy country – amongst various other categories. I do seem to be adding more goals every year, so the list might be getting slightly out of control, but hey – there’s lots I want to do to improve my life, and enjoy my life even more. It actually seems to work for me…I’m doing alright in life, right? Get Fit, Feel Fab Lose 11kg. I think an ideal weight for me to be is 85kg, and I started 2025 …

Well, I’ve made it to one year of living in Croydon. Well, a little bit more. I’m not in Croydon through choice. Living in London on a fairly decent wage, but having no wealth, means you have a choice for your first home – a scuzzy flat in a half-decent area or a good flat in a more questionable area. That choice is assuming you want to own outright, as I did – there are government schemes also. But I saw enough of Croydon to think I could make a decent go of it here. OK, I appreciated the transport …

It’s time to do a review of 2024 goals, to see how much I achieved in the year. And did I really set 40 goals? Yikes. Must set less goals in 2025 (so probably will set 45). Being Healthy Do 3 forms of exercise that are not walking. The only thing I did was ballroom dancing (with a man…lol) at a dance class the night before a wedding. 33% achieved. Get some data on my health. Well I did some health survey thing, and nothing negative came back from it – and my cholesterol is now normal, or at least …