I’m writing this in February 2026. I just got too busy with work and travel and everything to write and send it before the end of 2025. So it’s a bit tardy. But one upside is that it allows me a bit of reflection. At first I thought what a higgledy piggledy year 2025 was. But when I thought a bit more, perhaps it was really a year of transition. Less drama and settling into my new normal life here. I guess time will tell. But for now I’m sticking with it.
Work. I started a new job in March 2025. My old boss from Revive Health, Brandon, had sold the company and left a couple of years later. He started a new one in 2023, called Unlock Health. On Jan 2 2025 he texted me and asked if I wanted a job. I wasn’t unhappy where I was but felt I could be doing more, and said “yes”. My role is to oversee the strategy and creative teams in the agency. For me it’s a fantastic role. I have been working much harder but I feel more satisfied with work. There’s a lot to do, and we are doing it.
Health. Amazingly, it was my fourth year of being cancer free! If we hadn’t been able to get rid of the cancer I might not be here now. But there are side effects of the cancer and its treatment that won’t ever go away and I just have to get used to. I had a corrective surgery in Feb 2025 to help with one of those! The surgery itself wasn’t difficult but the rehab was. I spent a lot of time in physical therapy and worrying about bicycle saddles!!!! My target was to do at least one four hour ride in 2025 and I did that towards the end of The Fall. I am looking forward to more cycling in 2026.
RIP. As if 2024 was bad enough, the unexpected deaths continued into 2025. Early in the year, Becky, Tiffany’s cycling pal, who she might see ten hours a week when out on her bike in the summer, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour and passed within weeks. Becky had been a successful triathlete, competing in multiple Ironmans and was very health conscious. It was as strange and unexpected as Rupert’s death last year. It happened so quickly. So sad, and too soon.
And in June, Clare Dodds passed. Within a year of Mike passing. I wrote about Mike in my 2024 post. That was surreal enough. But Clare as well! She was diagnosed with kidney cancer not long after Mike had passed. Tragic. She was very smart, a super sweet person and a rock for Mike and the kids. Of all the couples I know they were one of the most healthy, responsible and moderate. They were together from their late teens to when Mike passed. I still can’t really believe it.
There was a wonderful service and celebration for Clare, held at the same venue as for Mike, with many of the same people present, within a year of us last being there. Very surreal. Clare had been planning a big gathering a year after Mike’s passing. We were planning to go. Instead the trip was for her passing. Nuts.
All of these deaths are still kind of unbelievable. People who, without thinking, I assume, are getting on with the lives. It takes a while to sink in. Perhaps it won’t ever really.
We also lost Lucy the boxer dog. When Tiffany’s mum, Pat, moved to community living in Nashville, Tiffany took on Pat’s two dogs, Spanky and Lucy. Spanky passed in 2024 and Lucy in 2025. Spanky was sweet and smart. Lucy was our caricature supermodel; gorgeous looking, entitled (“you may hold my paw, if I offer it to you”), fussy, and galollopy – she ran with a lollop. We still have Leon, the beagle, who Tiffany reckons is about twenty years old and still going, and Lexi, the chihuahua, who has bladder cancer, congestive heart failure and colitis!
Boys. People always ask about boys. They are good. In May, Charlie became a London firefighter. Jill, Rosie and I attended his passing out ceremonial. Charlie, though the youngest trainee, did the speech on behalf of his training group to the commissioner, and there was a really impressive display as his training group did an exercise for all the admiring families and friends. Charlie is stationed in Kentish Town, and he loves it. Below is a great action shot taken by a national newspaper when Charlie’s watch fought a fire outside St. Pancras International. Look, in the middle of that shot…IT’S CHARLIE!
Ollie is making headway in his music career. Doing more mixing, mastering and engineering. It’s a slow burn but it’s happening. A highlight was being asked to Abbey Road studios to drum on a session. Ollie & co also use Ferntower to record jams with pals. It’s referred to as the Green Room. The full selection is on Ollie’s instagram page https://www.instagram.com/_olliebarnett/. Here is a little selection:
If anyone out there is interested in more, or can help Ollie, here’s his website https://olliebarnettmusic.com
Ollie came to stay for most of October, which was very cool. He kept his contacts in Nashville warm and made a few more. Charlie also came over and the two of them went on a road trip, from Nashville to Denver, via Santa Fe. Many many miles in a week and a cheap flight Denver to Nashville to finish it off.
George works as a developer in autonomous driving cars, for a subsidiary of Toyota. He got a promotion last year and got business trips to Tokyo and San Francisco, and smartly took some time to explore. The picture on the right below is George in Yosemite, and just over his right shoulder is the famous Half Dome. It’s an amazing place. George is living his best London life, multiple sports, gigs, and friends. So proud of them all.
And a lovely shot of all boys together. This was in Stoke Newington May 2025. I love boys.
Bees: After two years of no honey harvest and “robbed” hives – that’s when a hive gets stripped of all its honey and the queen gets killed, normally by other colony – I finally managed to harvest some honey and keep the colony alive too, into the winter. I harvested early, July 4th, with invaluable help from Donna and Michael, and though we only harvested 5 frames, we filled probably sixteen 16oz jars and then made some gift jars too.
House: A leak into the basement in the Spring triggered a big make over downstairs. Even though the area of flooring that was ruined was relatively small, perhaps 6′ x 4′, we couldn’t replace the flooring tiles as they were not made any more. This meant a complete reflooring, which insurance covered. Yippee. $30,000. That was handy. We had to get the pool table out to do the floor, and it never returned! Mixed emotions there. But we have a nicer “new” basement. It’s good. We also got the workshop extending and rebuilt. It is still a bit susceptible in very heavy rain to a bit of leaking – which we will have to solve – but it is so much better. We now have our bikes in there and all my beekeeping equipment. And Ollie discovered a new place to play pool too!
Other stuff: And to round us out, a collection of memorable moments, and people, during the year, roughly chronological but not always! Thanks to everyone for making 2025 special.
Have a great 2026 y’all.