Oh 25
I've never written an annual review before. Mainly because I have zero memory and everything passes by in a blur. But this year I'm going to give it a go. Mainly because I have zero memory and everything passes by in a blur.
Let's start with the basics. This year has been a lot. I turned fifty-one (the first time I've thought "oh, people will think I'm old"), I became a granddad ("oh, people will think I'm old") and I lost my dad (sort of, it would be much easier if he had died).
Music
This one is easy.
K-Pop Demon Hunters.
I don't think I've listened to an album on repeat like this since I was a teenager.
One evening, I had the house to myself, and I noticed a number of people on Mastodon mentioning it. So I started watching the film and wasn't convinced for the first few minutes. Then came the Saja Boys and the little shoulder dance and I was totally hooked. Even better, later that evening, my daughter came round (she has similar taste in music to me) and I played her "Golden" and "Soda Pop" - and she started the shoulder dance herself.
Apart from the animated, I've been listening to a lot of Poppy, Electric Callboy, Babymetal and Bloodywood on the metal side of things. And Jade Thirlwell, Sabrina Carpenter, Lisa, Sophie Powers and Lady Gaga on the pop side.
Gigs
Best Gig: Babymetal (with Bambi Thug and Poppy) - this wasn't a gig, it was a show. And the O2 is a great venue.
Also good:
- Alt Blk Era - so good I actually moshed for the first time in over 30 years
- Scene Queen - very funny, especially as she tried to explain sororities to a load of emo, non-binary, Brits
- Slipknot - doing the 25th anniversary tour, like Babymetal, an amazing show
Biggest Disappointment: Electric Callboy - I think Alexandra Palace is a crappy venue.
Family
As I mentioned, I became a granddad in May. I've heard a few people say it's not like having kids, and for me, it really isn't. It's pure joy with (almost) none of the terror. He's also the happiest little baby i've ever met and his mum is doing an amazing job.
I also lost my dad - mentally if not physically. I was having lunch with Jeremy from Brightbox when I got a call from my mum. Dad had collapsed and wasn't moving. He had had a massive stroke and has lost movement in one side, is unable to speak and unable to keep his attention on anything for more than a few seconds. My mum is now living alone for the first time in her life and my dad is in a home with round the clock nursing care. My dad never got to meet his great-grandson until yesterday (he enjoyed it but I"m not sure he knew who the baby or its mother were).
Films
One word, Sinners.
It's like "From Dusk till Dawn" (which I love) but also about the blues and racism. I also love the fact that the vampires (represented by an Irishman) have music too, but the KKK-types do not.
Finally, it's great to see Buddy Guy appear in the film too - my dad took me to see him and Eric Clapton when I was younger and they were both amazing.
I also liked Better Man (but then I love Robbie and almost everything he touches), Predator: Killer of Killers and Wake up Dead Man, as well as the aforementioned K-Pop Demon Hunters. I didn't see One Battle after Another, which a lot of people seemed to like.
TV
Andor. There was a lot I've liked this year - it's been pretty good all round - but Andor was perfect for me. Especially episode 10 where Kleya has to deal with Luthen.
Pluribus was good (it's nice to have a post-apocalyptic show where the message isn't "who are the real monsters?" - although Carol is a bit of a monster).
Slow Horses is still great, Dept Q was a good copy, The Diplomat is still ridiculous (and fun) and Alien Earth was good because it was an Alien thing that wasn't awful (Aliens is one of my all-time favourite films and everything else disappoints). Ignoring the subject matter, I love a single shot tracking scene so was mesmerised by Adolescence (although the hand-wringing reaction was a bit much - where have people been for the last ten years?).
Finally a mention for Big Boys (because no-one else seems to include it) - a sitcom that, on the surface, is about a young man coming to terms with his homosexuality - but actually it's much more about the struggles of his heterosexual "one of the lads" best friends and his difficulties fitting in to the modern world (so I guess a similar theme to Adolescence, just put together in a gentler way).
Work
I rediscovered "Outside In Development" - writing specifications in English, then implementing them by starting at the user-interface, drilling in to the database and then returning the results to the UI. And I've missed it so much - the code I write is simpler, the UI is simpler, everything is just simpler.
I've been using a lot of Claude Code. It blew me away at the start of the year - "now I understand how AI could actually be useful" - and I'm using it more and more. Code Review (which I hate), refactoring, bug fixing, adding in tests which I've forgotten - it saves me a lot of time.
I've also started to move away from Ruby on Rails - for the first time in 20 years of professional development. I'm playing around with some toy projects using Javascript, CapacitorJS, Lit.dev and PouchDB (so an offline-first, sync-capable, mobile application or PWA). Lit is fantastic - it's something I've really missed over the last 20 years of web development - writing a component that can actually interact with the user (and having all the code for that interaction in one place). And PouchDB/CouchDB having automatic syncing is fantastic - the quote is "CouchDB is a database that's shit at everything, except syncing. But syncing is so important you'll love it anyway". This is true.
Football
Nuno Nuno Nuno, we're on the piss with Nuno.
What a fucking season. Yes, we tailed off towards the end, because our squad wasn't big enough and the injuries started to hit. But seventh in the Premier League. Europe again, Ole, Ole.
And this season - what an absolute shitshow.
I knew we would struggle in the league - Chris Wood had totally overachieved and we were no longer the surprise package. But fuck me.
I don't know what happened with Nuno but i wish it hadn't. The Australian was just the wrong choice (never mind his merits as a manager, Forest are a defensive-minded counter-attacking club and have been for 50 years, the A's style just wasn't a good fit). And I'm not 100% convinced by Dyche, although he was exactly what we needed to steady the ship. I still hold out for Glasner; when Nuno left there was a chance of that, but the owner doesn't like to hire managers who are already in a job - and now Glasner will be in high demand.
Still, my initial prediction - stay up and win the Europa League - that would be an incredible result for this season.
Cars
I started the year with my Subaru BRZ. I don't think there's much better - certainly not for sensible amounts of money. It feels analogue, the controls are super-responsive and while you're driving, the car constantly talks to you and tells you what it's feeling. The only things that could make it better were if it delivered power earlier (it's very flat till you get to 3000 revs) and if you could take the roof off (I love a convertible).
However, because of the baby, a 2+2 wasn't really big enough (we couldn't even fit the car seat in the back). So I got an Alfa Giulia Veloce.
I've always complained about modern cars, saying they have no personality. In the olden days of carburettors, you had to learn what your car liked and treat it correctly. As I've said, the BRZ felt analogue - it didn't have a personality as such, but it was expressive and chatty.
Whereas the Alfa is a diva. It definitely has a personality - that personality is total spoilt brat.
- Reversing into a parking space? Stop making me do these menial tasks.
- Driving at 20mph in a residential zone? You're so fucking boring
- Taking corners at 50mph? Just let me run free
- Holding at 70mph on the motorway? You little bitch, you know you want to go faster
And on to the next one
So that was 2025.
Let's hope 2026 goes a bit better.
