I’ll remember this year for a lot of reasons, so I wanted to go into some of them here while I shout into the void.

Resolutions 🎊

My resolution for 2025 was to leave the house more. Specifically, every day I was not ill. As I’m nearly always working from home, I’ve found it kind of easy to go into ‘goblin mode’ since 2020.

This is actually the year of my life I’ve been the most unwell by a very significant margin. This meant I had more of an excuse to not act on this resolution, but I think generally I stuck to it.

This did mean I made many, many trips to Sainsbury’s, which I now kind of love because you can get the self-scanner and basically play laser tag with fresh produce.

I need to keep this up this year because, unsurprisingly, seeing the light of day and not just of my laptop screen felt pretty beneficial for my health.

Random stuff ❔

I did some really fun stuff this year too. I:

  • went to Crete and saw loads of turtles
  • went to Paris and ate all the pastries
  • watched my amazing husband run his first marathon with some pretty cool Pokemon posters to support
  • watched one of my oldest, closest friends get married
  • went to a poetry slam for the first time since university and read a poem I’d written about a good friend’s fight with his sister over who got to play The Sims
  • knitted some stuff even when it was hard
  • thoroughly enjoyed when education colleagues made a reference to my favourite video game of the year from the names I’d used in a prototype
  • learned a lot more about how to interact with Githubby stuff to make my work better
  • ran a 5k!

Running 🏃

I spent a lot of time running angrily listening to The Mountain Goats. I pretty much alternated between that and ‘Golden’ by Huntrix, depending on how pissed off I was that day.

If you know me at all, you’ll be well aware that I am not an exercise person. In 2017 I did a pretty pathetic half-walking 5 kilometres to raise money for my school’s new playground. I had not prepared at all, got lost mid-route and felt like a limp blobfish afterwards.

In early 2025, I successfully ran 5 kilometres with NO BREAKS. I actually got up to around 7 kilometres before having to stop for health reasons. I got back into it again, before, y’know, health again. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it once I’d gotten into it. I’m pretty sure to enjoy exercise I need to not be surrounded awkwardly by people either in a gym or, even worse, a PE lesson. I also tried my first gym class where I was absolutely awful and realised that was not going to work for me. But I TRIED it!

Recommendations ✔️

I thought I’d write some of my recommendations from 2025. They didn’t necessarily come out this year, but whatever, it’s mainly for my reference.

Video games 🎮

I feel like not many games come out anymore, and I was pretty disappointed by the new story-based games this year, but I liked:

  • Clair Obscur, which deserved all the awards
  • Pentiment, which was oddly moving, novel and well stylised
  • Dispatch was really well done, but I felt like too typical in some parts, particularly in how it treated women
  • Blue Prince, which I kinda loved but also kind of hated, but it left its mark

Movies 📽️

I barely watched any films like most years, but I did like:

  • Didi, which despite never being a boy still made me feel thoroughly nostalgic and wistful
  • Kpop Demon Hunters, and I’ll take down anyone that disagrees
  • The Wild Robot, I cried a lot

TV 📺

I watched a lot of K-Dramas this year which a good friend of mine is solely responsible for, but overall I enjoyed:

  • Pluribus, which is kinda slow, but whatever
  • The Righteous Gemstones, which I totally didn’t think I’d like but I did
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty, which I’m not proud of but at least now you know I’m being honest

Books 📖

I read so much at the start of this year and have been awful with it the last few months, but I still really liked:

  • The Safekeep, which was so multi-faceted and beautiful
  • Sharkheart, which was weird and wonderful
  • Butter, which had food and feminism so was pretty fantastic for me

Recipes 🍕

I cooked a lot this year. I used tofu! And enjoyed it! I made bagels, pizza, pies and macarons. I made a lot of 3 tier cakes from recipes from my favourite bakery, which looked a bit lopsided in comparison but were still pretty new achievements for me. I also put chicken nuggets and fries on a pizza, which I hope my italian ancestors will forgive me for. I also got really into eggs and soldiers which my grandmother always used to make for my breakfast.

I feel like I make a lot of nice stuff and then forget about it, so I might use this website to make notes of what I cook each week. Or I’ll forget and get complacent. We’ll see!

Recovery 💙

This year was a tough one. I learned a lot, and am still learning, about pregnancy, the risks, and loss. It’s tricky stuff to be open about, but we really need to be, given around 1 in 5 pregnancies end in loss. There are many people that have been through even trickier times with it than what I experienced this year.

I wish I’d been more aware before, but I wasn’t. I wonder about all the stupid things I’ve said in the past. But my ignorance genuinely made me sicker for longer, and I think it’s so important to be more open so women can get the help they need.

I’m so grateful for the support I did have, particularly from my husband, who was the best. But also from my work - no other job I’ve had would have been so understanding and flexible. It made things a lot easier.

I don’t know what the next few weeks will bring, let alone the year. But either way, I know I will get through it. Tomorrow comes. We made it through this year!