7 min read

Highlights from 2025

Highlights from 2025
A Delorean DMC-12 in Hay-on-Wye, for some reason

Hey-ohhh! I did this exercise in 2024 and, in a rare example of healthy habit-forming, kept it up in 2025. Hurrah. Read last year's post for more context, etc, but in a nutshell: it's an attempt to capture and reflect on the good things in life.

An important caveat to remember here is that this does not mean non-good things didn't happen. They most certainly did, and I could write at length about them and the difficulties they brought.

Indeed there were days and weeks where The Non-Good comprehensively outweighed the good. But that would be rather a drag to read (and write). Just know this isn't a reflection of a person's whole life.

I suppose I've come to think of this exercise as documenting one third of life: The Good. The other two thirds, The Non-Good and The Middling, will for the moment go undocumented.

I didn't manage to make as many entries in 2025 (115) as I did in 2024 (140). I seem to have missed out October entirely... But pulling everything together for this post reminds me how phenomenally lucky I am, and that I should appreciate The Good more.

Pretty sure I said the same last year, which suggests that's something I could do better at. But how do you know if you're appreciating life the right amount in the moment?

Anyway, here's the list broken out by categories I made up in the moment.

  • Travels:
    • Cornwall in the early summer. Polzeath, Penzance, Cardinham Woods. A precious solo jaunt to Port Isaac
    • Denmark in the late summer. I still have a post in drafts about this, which I suppose will never see the light of day now. Legoland, Copenhagen, Tivoli, a fjord near Fredericia. We packed a lot in
    • Malta in the spring. Funny old place. Bits of it reminded me of Wood Green (not a good thing), but I enjoyed learning about its history. And at the Malta at War Museum I had possibly the best tour guide experience I've ever had. It was from a very intense Italian called Umberto, who took us around air raid shelters from WWII and did not shirk grim details. My kinda guy!
    • A night in Margate
    • A night in Bournemouth - a silent disco and cocktails on the beach
    • Hay-on-Wye for a long weekend
    • A couple of trips to Wales
    • A day trip to Hastings
  • TV:
    • The LA fires (sorry, I tend to become compelled by natural disasters)
    • Hurricane Melissa (see?)
    • Severance
    • The Traitors & Celebrity Traitors
    • How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge)
    • The Bear
    • Gladiators
    • Scott McTominay. First winning the Serie A with Napoli, then helping Scotland qualify for the World Cup; and scoring a bicycle kick in each decisive match. I happened to watch each live on TV and it was pure peak football
    • Manhunt: Chasing The Fox
    • Nobody Wants This
    • I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
    • AKA Charlie Sheen
    • Katrina: Come Hell & High Water
    • Last One Laughing
    • The White Lotus
    • More peak football: Manchester United v. Lyon in the Europa League. A ridiculous 5-4 second-leg victory including three goals in the final six minutes of extra time and a last-minute Harry Maguire goal. This followed United doing their level best to throw away a 2-0 lead and finding themselves 4-2 down with 10 minutes to go. Bonkers (also loved the Shepmates commentary lip sync)
    • The Great British Bake-off
    • Rivals
    • Beatles '64
    • Alone: Africa
    • 99
  • YouTube
  • Nature
  • Laughs:
    • My son suddenly educating us about Guru Nanak at the dinner table
    • A delightful trip to a pharmacist in Malta. I had a swollen eye so went to get some ointment. The customer before me was a young woman who discreetly showed the lady behind the counter her phone to let her know what she needed. The lady responded loudly: "ENEMA? SUPPOSITORIES?" The poor girl virtually sprinted out of there...
    • Also in Malta, we were sat outside a restaurant while a saxophonist played covers of popular hits nearby. My son followed every song with a heartfelt compliment, telling this guy his playing was "Magnificent", "Fantastic", "Amazing" and "Beautiful"
    • I finally saw a Three Bean Salad show live, which didn't disappoint
    • Amazon's Last One Laughing was very enjoyable
    • Viper at the Gladiators Live Tour throwing a contender's shoe away. Twice
    • I started a sentence with "I was listening to an interesting" and my son, correctly, ended it with "podcast?"
    • Christmas, at my parents' dining room table. As Sarah and I set up Ker-plunk, my Dad, from the other end of the table, looked up from his Daily Express. "What's lah-bia reduction?" he enquired, innocently. We laughed, we cried, we dug a hole in the carpet
  • Kindnesses
    • The sheer volume of free lollipops my son elicits from shopkeepers, waitresses, etc
  • Podcasts
    • Three Bean Salad
    • Elis James and John Robins
    • Talk of the Devils & The Devils' Advocate
    • Real Survival Stories
    • Lives Less Ordinary
    • Blamo!
    • Hollywood Handbook
    • With Gourley And Rust
    • Off Menu
    • The Rest is Politics
  • Culture (live)
    • Medieval Women and Unearthed exhibitions at the British Library
    • SOIL exhibition at Somerset House
    • Zines Forever! exhibition at Wellcome Collection
    • Michelangelo Imperfect exhibition at SMK, Copenhagen
    • Retrograde at the Apollo Theatre
    • Weer by Natalie Palamides at the newly-opened (and very lovely) Soho Theatre Walthamstow. This is a wild show you should try and catch if you can (unrelated: contains nudity)
    • Resistance exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate
    • Stereophonic at Duke of York's Theatre
    • Nye at the National Theatre
    • At the cinema I saw:
      • Mickey 17
      • One Thing After Another
      • Caught Stealing
      • A PAW Patrol Christmas🙃
An owl in Cornwall
  • Libraries visited, aside from my regulars:
    • Hove
    • Shepherd's Bush
    • York
    • Copenhagen
    • Hay-on-Wye
  • Child-friendly experiences
    • Trampoline parks in Enfield and Bridgend
    • Level Water swimming lessons
    • London Zoo
    • Rainforest Cafe, Malta
    • Bike-riding lesson... for a kid who won't sit on a bike
    • Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition at ExCeL
    • Moonwalkers at Lightroom
    • A sunny day at ELHAP
    • Hidden Valley Puzzle Park and the Minack Theatre in Cornwall
    • Queenswood Country Park and Arboretum, Herefordshire
    • LEGOLAND Billund, Tivoli, Copenhagen Library
    • Recording stories at bedtime and adding them to a Yoto card
    • Gladiators Live Tour at London O2
    • Sleeping Beauty panto in Porthcawl
  • Food & drink
    • Bread efforts: I had periods of making baguettes and 'no knead' Italian loaves (verdict: they're better if you knead)
    • Now feeling relatively confident in my vegan taco repertoire
    • Mildred's! I think I went three times...
    • It was the summer of homemade frozen daiquiris
    • I managed to grow some tomatoes and some basil
    • I had an Argentinian treat called a Vauquita duche de leche bar... it was very good
    • Plants of Rosalyn in London Bridge: a great vegan Thai place
    • I made a great batch of gingerbread at Christmas, from the Guardian's recipe
  • Vibes
    • I grew my first-ever moustache in Q1. It was an interesting pilot project but after evaluation it was not extended to Q2
    • I went to a new sauna in Walthamstow
    • I started sketching. Look, here's a packet of paracetamol:
  • Music
    • Discovered Freddy King
  • Child quotes:
    • On having shampoo washed out of hair: "This is so stressful!"
    • On being asked for the highlight of his day: "Your fancy, fancy jumper."
    • On being naked: "I'm a nudie nutter!"
    • At bedtime, accompanied with an elaborate bow: "I will pray for you, Lord."
    • Reading a Dogman book: "I'm so laughing because his head came off and went in the bin!"
    • At Easter: "Daaad, did you know, Jesus died on the cross and had no hot cross buns."
    • As we sat at the dinner table in a heatwave with damp cloths on our head: "We look like Mary, Jesus's mum."
    • At bedtime: "I'll tuck myself in because I'm six years old and can you leave me alone please because I need to go to S-L-E-E-P."
    • He said he didn't do PE in school because he was 'too far away'. He said he was in church seeing the Prime Minister. When I asked what the Prime Minister said, he told me he said: "Hm! Why does this mean boy keep slapping me in the face??"
    • A teacher apparently said: "My tulips have run out of battery so I need some seagulls for my plate."
    • On Christmas morning: "I can't believe we're opening Christmas presents! What a treat!"
  • Books read - recommended reads have an asterisk*:
    • The Appeal by Janice Hallett
    • Strange Houses by Uketsu
    • The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (did not finish)
    • The Wager by David Grann*
    • The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale*
    • Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk
    • You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) by Andrew Hankinson*
    • Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe*
    • Annihilation by Jeff VanDerMeer
    • Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll*
    • The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson (did not finish)
    • The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (did not finish)
    • White by Bret Easton Ellis
    • Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom by Adam Hurrey (not finished yet but it's still by my bedside)

Published by:

Stuart Waterman