The year that was: 2025

What happened:
A mixed year, one leaning towards the bad (and sad) side of life. But I made it to Thailand, Germany, the US twice (Philly work trips but spent a weekend in NYC before one of them), Oman, South Korea and St Lucia for Christmas. (Qatar and Finland as well, technically, as we were there for layovers.) Plus seaside trips to St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, Rye, Wells-next-the-Sea and Hunstanton.

Music-wise, saw the Pet Shop Boys who were supported by Scissor Sisters at Sandringham. Which was good fun, and one I was pleased to finally tick off. Oasis, supported by Cast and Richard Ashcroft at Wembley. PHENOMENAL. Definite highlight of the year. And then, more locally, we went to the Park Rock tribute festival in Richmond (it threw it down so we did not last long) and the Hans Zimmer Candlelight Experience by Lumos in Kingston (made me wish we'd got tickets to see Han Zimmer, though we have seen him before).

At the theatre watched Much Ado About Nothing (Tom Hiddleston was fab), Dear Evan Hansen (the final cancelled 2020 COVID show I needed to see), Death Becomes Her (on Broadway; probably my favourite show of the year), Mean Girls, Clueless, Inter Alia (Rosamund Pike was excellent), Hercules, Operation Mincemeat (superb acting), Fawlty Towers - The Play and Here & Now - The Steps Musical.

Discovered the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, which I highly recommend. Finally got to hike the Seven Sisters, which I've wanted to do for YEARS. Did wine tasting at Chapel Down. And went to the Design Museum, Moco Museum, Lightroom, the V&A, Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. But like I said at the start, it was definitely a mixed year. We had job redundancies (both of us) and serious illnesses (family members, and I also had to have surgery in September). Definitely glad to see the back of 2025.

What I ate:
Fave meals had at Kapara and Claro (London), The French Table and Kebir (Surbiton), The House of Smooth Curry (Bangkok), Chom Chada (Koh Samui), bagel.market (NYC), Talula's Garden (Philadelphia), Ba Ban (Muscat), Jungsik and One Degree North (Seoul), Daehwa Sanjang (Gyeongju) and Kobe Gyukatsu (Busan).

(Messed up though and for the first time since 2016 did not go to Blacklock for a Sunday roast, so 2025 would have been ten years in a row of frequenting there; wildly disappointed with myself as it's still my favourite London roast!)

What I watched:
Favourite new shows watched in 2025 were Rivals and High Potential. And, as ever, loved the new seasons of The White Lotus, Severance and Slow Horses. We also made it to the cinema a fair few times this year as got the Odeon Limitless pass (but we're not the levels of cinema going we were when we had the Cineworld equivalent!).  

What I read: 
I read 137 books and the only books I gave five star ratings to were Clown Town by Mick Herron and Recursion by Blake Crouch. Books I rated four stars here, which are also worth a read (it's very hard to get a five or four star rating from me!). 

Hope your 2025 was better than mine. Here's to a much better 2026! x