Ok. Let’s at least start the year by trying for a blog entry, however short, every week. Even if this impetus only lasts, I don’t know, a week…?

I did plan on starting this off with a standard ‘2025 Year in Review’ type blog post, but for various reasons last year wasn’t particularly one to dwell on.

Professional life came with an unexpected change of role, which surprisingly turned out to be just what I needed, even if I didn’t know that myself at the time.

Health-wise, I finally managed to drop some weight, losing about 2 1/2 stone over the summer. About a stone of that has gone back on over the winter, but the gym habit that helped drop the weight has stuck, so I feel fitter and healthier than I have in years.  The new year will hopefully see a little of that regained weight drop off gain, now the mince pie stockpile has been seen off.

Last year, I had plans to try and read more, and watch more films than I had previously.  Neither of these plans quite panned out.  

My film watching dropped off with a return to shift work cut down the number of free evenings, and simply there just weren’t that any films released that I had an urge to watch.

 Similarly I just didn’t find the time to read as much as I wanted to, other than a concentrated burst on holiday.  I regret this one a little more though, so the plan to try and read a book every fortnight will roll over to 2026.

It’s been a slow start to the year, rolling back into work after some time off, the nights still long, and the weather this week  turning sub-zero at night.

Found some time to catch up with the final season of Stranger Things, which although not nailing everything, still pretty much manage to stick the landing.

On the music front, it’s been a bit of a resurgence from some old hip-hop heads, with some long anticipated new releases over December. Firstly, De La Souls first proper album, Cabin in the Sky, since 2016, and their first since group member Dave passed.  Secondly, almost 30 years in the asking, Nas & DJ Premier came out with their collaboration LP, Light-Years.  

Both were albums I almost didn’t want to listen to, in case they weren’t what I hoped. Happily, neither disappointed, and will be in regular rotation.

That’s it. Accidentally did a Year in Review after all…