This is a purely personal take on 2025. I cannot bear to bring to mind, let alone attempt to write about, what this year has been in terms of world events and politics at home. This is cowardly, I know, but there are better minds than mine grappling with the state of things, and all I could do would be to repeat uselessly how absolutely bloody awful everything is, and how hard it is to see any glimpses of hope, as the handcart in which we are going to hell appears to gather speed.

My year in live music - opera, jazz, chamber music, indie, folk, all sorts - and forays into the CD/vinyl collections. Four years of listening to music without M, and I still feel it's somehow a shared thing. I don't spookily 'sense his presence' but what I listen to and how I listen to it is still - and probably always -connected to the way we listened together.

Film None of the films below were seen at the cinema. This is not normal, and I need to do something about it. Apart from anything else, I should be getting more value from my Showroom membership than I have for the last six months! I like the whole experience of going to the cinema - it's so easy to put on a film on Netflix or whatever and half-watch it whilst scrolling on the phone, pausing to go and make a coffee or take a phone call, etc.