• Eins, Zwei, Drei - LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER

  “So sick of doing the whole 9 to 5 I pay my dues, I’m just stayin’ alive And I’m so bored of it, bored of it Oh, what’s the point of it, point of it? (Oh ja, ja, ja) A paracetamol to quench the pain The office cubicle has trapped me again Am I a mouse in a cage, am I D-d-d-demotivational?” Lyrics cutting a little close to home! I’ve watched Sam for YEARS and to see that he is very randomly now also going to be our Eurovision entry is somewhat baffling. He’s one of our country’s best technology educators, one of our best technology preservationists, and a great composer/performer - what a great choice.

• Gainesville Rock City - Less Than Jake

  Wish I’d seen them in this higher energy era. Still - they brought the horns and more energy to The Barrowlands than their middle-age would imply.

• Super Rad! - The Aquabats!

  Obligatory Travis Barker clip is worth a look too - never not giving 100%.

• Friday, I’m in Love (Cure cover) - Peter Capaldi

  Reviews make it sound like the gig was a hoot but the band were underrehearsed. Still, I’d have loved to have been there but it sold out way before I got wind of it. Loving the Sinatra nod at the end.

• Thinkin Bout You - Flea

  Jazzy.

• Your Favourite Toy - Foo Fighters

  Not an amazing song but it definitely kicks live.

• Ruins Of The Future - Jelle Dittmar

  The video is entitled “Double Bass String in Drainage Pipe” and that doesn’t describe the wonderful complex sound that Jelle has created - soundtrack music in the best way. Genius.

• you and forever - Bleachers

  Something of a grower.

• Fade Into You (Mazzy Star cover) - O’Keefe Music Foundation

  Kids these days, eh?

• My Electric Guitar Is A Toy Piano (WIP) - Simon The Magpie

  As as been said before, I’m a huge fan of seeing work in progress and it’s great to hear Simon The Magpie show not only how he creates a track but also how he creates an instrument and works the track around the sounds he can make.

• Access Point - Audiomachine

  I’ve been trying so hard to move the needle on what I can do at the gym, to do more than 1k on the Nordic ski machine, to be able to lift some weights, to be able to run 5k in under 30 mins. I listen to a lot of podcasts normally but to up the energy I tried a lot of techno and metal before spending this month with a warrior playlist. It does have such gems as Sunshine by John Murphy and The Kraken by Hans Zimmer

• Such Great Heights - CHVRCHES

  One of my favourite bands covering one of my favourite songs - perfection. And if the new CHVRCHES album is coming our way this year then woohoo to that. Also, I’d love to be at the CHVRCHES + Robert Smith Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall this month. Also also, don’t forget Ben Folds’ cover.

• Minnesota Nazis - NOFX

  Old punks, new music.

• Views - Marika Takeuchi

  Glorious new piano music.

• When You Said Goodbye - The Cords

  Crap video audio but check them on Bandcamp. A dreamy 90s sound.

• Killing in the Name (Rage Against The Machine SKA-CORE COVER) - Ska Tune Network

  The revolution will be soundtracked with amazing covers.

• Still Waiting - STVW

  Punk-Rave covers? Here for it! Dear Maria, Count Me In also bangs.

• Free - Florence + The Machine

  This hits pretty hard. And Bill Nighy as anxiety personified is on point.

• Requiems - Joe Hearty

  This song’s a bop - sounds like Mika visiting a country house with The Divine Comedy.

• House featuring John Cale - Charli xcx

  Bleak.

• Cenotaph - Ghost

  Already mentioned in my end of year writeup for 2025 but really I’ve only given this album justice this January. Amazing.

• New York, New York - Lawrence

  Oh to have this much talent and to be having that much fun on stage.

• Giant - Abnorm

  Scottish, female-led rock - always here for it.

• Torn - Ednaswap

  The guitars are way heavier than the best-known version (and even this is a cover of another version!)

• Through The Trees - Low Shoulder

  This song hit hard back when Jennifer’s Body came out. Very Fall Out Boy.

• Pink Pony Club (Chappell Roan cover) - GWAR

  Here for this kind of chaos/talent.

• Float - Alma

  Folksy in a way that sounds Scottish, Appalachian and Southern at the same time.

• Ramblin’ Down The Road - Sadie Sink

  See also my old blog post list of actors who can sing

• Closer (NIN cover) - Allie Goertz

  Hits hard for something so gentle. Great work from the video production team too.

• The Man Comes Around - Pulp

  Classic song… another future standard?

• Cursive (feat. Manchester Orchestra) - Matt Maeson

  A heavy song with some great instrumentation

• Cobra - Geese

  Van Morrison, is that you?

• Constellations - Suzzallo

  Constellations, The Destroyer, River - all amazing tracks. The songwriting emotional rawness of Frightened Rabbit with the sounds of the Stereophonics, Radiohead and a little Blink.

• The Doll People - Sofia Isella

  Weird and weirdly captivating.

• Screwball Scramble - Dictator

  Locals. Sounds like it could come from a late 90s teen movie.

• 9 Bar

• Almond

• Aniseed

• Apple Mint

• Apple Pie

• Bakewell Tart

• Banana

• Banana bread

• Battenburg Cake

• Black Mint

• Bramble

• Brownie

• Butterbeer

• Butterscotch

• Caramelised Macadamia

• Cardamon

• Carmel Shortbread

• Carob

• Caroway

• Cheesecake

• Cherry Coconut Macaroon

• Chilli

• Chocolate

• Chocolate Croissant

• Chocolate Limes

• Chocolate Maple Fudge

• Christmas Cake

• Churros

• Cinnamon & Browned Butter

• Coco Oops

• Coconut

• Coconut Ice

• Coffee

• Cola

• Condensed Milk

• Cookies & Cream

• Crème Brûlée

• Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes

• Custard

• Date

• Dirty Pirate - brown sugar, coffee and vanilla essence, mixed with flat Coke, added to vodka and Southern comfort

• Dr Pepper

• Ferrero Rocher

• Fig

• Frosties

• Fruit Cake

• Fruit Loops

• Fry's Mint

• Fry's Orange

• Fry's Original

• Gingerbread

• Gingerbread

• Glace Cherry

• Golden Grahams

• Golden Syrup

• Green Tea

• Heather

• Honey

• Irn Bru

• Jam

• Jelly Baby

• Juniper

• Lemon Meringue Pie

• Lime, Coconut, Marshmallow

• Liquorous All-Sorts

• Maple Syrup

• Marmalade

• Mars Bar

• Marshmallow

• Marzipan

• Milk

• Milk & Vanilla

• Neapolitan ice cream

• Nutella

• Oreo

• Pancake

• Peanut Butter Jelly

• Pear & Ginger

• Pecan Pie

• Poppy (Polish Makowiec Filling)

• Purple Quality Street

• Raisin

• Rhubarb

• Rice pudding

• Rose

• Rum

• Rum & Raisin

• Salt Caramel Peanut

• Scone & Jam

• Smoked

• Snickers

• Soreen

• Speculaas

• Sponge Cake

• Sticky Toffee Pudding

• Strawberries & Cream

• Sugar Puffs

• Tablet

• Tea

• Tiramisu

• Toffee

• Toffee Popcorn

• Treacle

• Treacle Tart

• Tunnocks Caramel Wafer

• Tunnocks Teacake

• Turkish Rose

• Vanilla

• Vimto

• Wham

• Whisky (by region)

Then of course I was going to research each and make a website that you could find the stout by the "colour" (either of the beer itself or, failing that, a colour from the label). Nice idea but since it's the start of a new year and I'm realistically never going to do this project it's a good time to spring clean so here's the research that I had...

Flavour	Image	Beer Name	Brewery	Shade	Untappd
Milk and vanilla		10 Apple Stout	To Øl, Põhjala	#D5F6E3	Untappd
Almond		Almond Pop	Equilibrium Brewery	#e8c370	Untappd
Tunnocks teacake		Biscuit Tin: Chocolate Mallow Stout	Drygate	#482f1e	Untappd
Churros		Double Deep Fried Churros Imperial Stout	Vault City	#643a17	Untappd
Speculaas		Masterpiece 2022 Filled Speculaas Pastry Stout 33cl	Jopen	#572a1f	Untappd
Whisky		Panacea Whisky Cask Aged Stout	Alechemy	#494E3F	Untappd
Sticky toffee pudding		Pardus Sticky Toffee Pudding, 8% Imperial Stout	Thornbridge	#d9a85f	Untappd
Gingerbread		Snickers Stout	Blue Canoe Brewery (Pennsylvania)	#663300	Untappd
Cardamon		Sultan’s Curse	Mikkeller	#636a87	Untappd
Tiramisu		Tiramisu	Yonder	#954327	Untappd
Treacle Tart		Treacle & Chili	Mouthful Of Hops Brewery	#efdccf
Vimto		Vimto Stout	TicketyBrew	#94004a

You get the idea. An interesting thought but not one that needs to be taken any further. It's nice to revisit a project and give it a formal burial! Thank you kind brewers of the world for making so many magnificently flavoured beers.

Meet Bobbin’, a wooden robin made from some woodscraps as a gift. The spring is from my Papa’s toolbox of random bits and bobs, the base wood came from Bowhill Estate from when mum worked there about 20 years ago, the body is an offcut from the desk I built in our spare room and the tail is from a carrycase of some fancy oil and vinegar bottles we were given for Christmas a few years back.

Action Thriller/Spy/Cold War

1. Hackers

2. Bond (GoldenEye, The Living Daylights & Casino Royale)

3. The Hunt For Red October

4. Die Hard & Die Hard 2

5. Pulp Fiction (and also Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, The Hateful Eight)

6. Indiana Jones (Original 3)

7. The Bourne Identity

8. Where Eagles Dare

9. Zero Dark Thirty

10. Anna (Luc Besson)

11. Bullet Train

12. Atomic Blonde

13. Inception

14. Hard Rain

Murder/Mystery

1. Clue

2. Sleuth (1972)

3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

4. Ex Machina

5. The Menu

6. The Game

7. Knives Out

Space Sci-fi

1. Moon (and Mute)

2. Alien & Aliens

3. Sputnik

4. Interstellar

5. The Martian

6. The Fifth Element

7. Arrival

Zombie & Monster Sci-fi

1. Nope

2. Shaun Of The Dead (and Hot Fuzz)

3. Ghostbusters (Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon), Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis)

4. Zombieland & Zombieland 2: Double Tap

5. Cloverfield

6. Monsters (2010)

7. It Follows

8. Edge Of Tomorrow (Live Die Repeat)

9. Chappie

Superhero

1. Iron Man, Avengers: Endgame, Deadpool 1 & 2, Guardians of the Galaxy

2. Split, Glass & Unbreakable

3. The Dark Knight & Rises

Artsy

1. Parasite

2. The Peanut Butter Falcon

3. Drive

4. The Grand Budapest Hotel

5. Whiplash

6. Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet

7. Jo Jo Rabbit

8. Searching For Sugar Man

9. Three Thousand Years of Longing

10. Amsterdam (2022)

11. Triangle of Sadness

12. Everything Everywhere All At Once

13. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
14. The Big Lebowski
15. Withnail & I

Teen & Fun

1. Empire Records

2. The last 5 Harry Potter movies

3. Muppet Christmas Carol

4. Wayne’s World

5. Big Hero Six

6. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

7. Elf

8. Spontaneous

9. Turning Red

10. Nerve

11. Hunt For The Wilderpeople

12. In Your Eyes

Musical

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show

2. Hamilton

3. God Help The Girl

I’ll add others here when I remember them! And if you’re looking for a single most important movie to me? Empire Records. It was the movie that soundtracked the end of high-school and it’s aged surprisingly well.

Welcome! Here’s the annual round-up of my year in music, films and books that surely you’ve been waiting for. As always, let me know of your recommendations. The year’s been something - ups and downs but some fantastic memories in there, especially fantastic times travelling here and there with the family. You can meander through my past here: 2009 // 2012 // 2013 // 2014 // 2017 // 2018 // 2019 // 2020 // 2021 // 2022 // 2023 // 2024 // 2025 (and we’ll never know what happened in the gaps in between).

Music

This year again I’ve put out a post every month about the tunes I’ve been listening to:
J F M A M J J A S O N D

To sum the year up, here are my most loved new albums/tracks/artists:

• BRUIT ≤ - The Intoxication Of Power from The Age Of Ephemerality
  Album of the year. 

• Nine Inch Nails - As Alive As You Need Me To Be
  So on one hand it seemed Tron 2 sucked and the rest of the album was decent but not stunning… and on the other hand AAAYNMTB is one of NIN’s best ever tracks. 

• Witch Bolt & Mountain Realm
  #dungeonsynth - 2025’s work soundtrack.

• Big Thief
  Best new album of the year contender. Songwriting fire.

• Colin Stetson - The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man
  A lush and unusual sound.

• HAIM - I quit
  Listened to this album a lot over the summer.

• Hayley Williams - Love Me Different
  Runner-up for my new album of the year. Love that it’s like an early Gwen sound.

• Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On
  Brilliant album - Julie is the standout track.

• Pacifica - In Your Face!
  Love this album a lot. So much energy!

• Ghost - Cenotaph
  Guitar solo of the year!

• Hamish Hawk - If It Makes You Happy
  Another brilliant little covers EP.

• Low Tide, Former Champ and Pedalo
  Joint slot for these Scottish bands - I wish them all the best and hope that we get to hear some new material (and maybe even make it to a gig) in 2026.

• Sir Chloe
  Forgiving and Michelle are fab tracks.

• Sunn O))) - Frost (C)
  Massive sounds to work to.

And old stuff I’ve kept on with:

• Radiohead
  I listened to a lot of rarities and b-sides and lost treasurers (thanks to my old uni hard drive and the Internet Archive).

• Bleachers
  Mostly the live album from Radio City.

• Queens of the Stone Age
  Craving that desert sound.

• Boards of Canada
  Geogaddi is perfect to work to. 

• LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER
  Sam’s a national treasure (and I don’t say such things lightly).

• Vince Guaraldi Trio
  The Charlie Brown Christmas becoming a jazz standard is a thing of wonder. 

• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
  The sound to scream into the void with.

• And… shared music with the kid - Lucy Dacus, boygenius, Muna, Phoebe Bridgers, Katie Gavin, etc.
• And… Lawrence, Muse, Jurassic 5, blink-182, Jon Hopkins, Ludovico Einaudi, Green Day, John Coltrane (Blue Train), Oscar Peterson (Night Train).

Podcasts

• Let’s just say that listening to the whole of The Rewatcher podcasting their rewatch of Buffy The Vampire Slayer has taken up most of my podcast listening time this year. It’s a weird thing to listen to people giving their insights, dissection, context, history and lore to a show that you’ve been watching. Nerdy? Yes. But also funny with an awful lot of real human stories and personality.

• The Mystery Quest crew did an amazing job documenting their Discworld and Alien campaigns - winning with puns was a hoot.

• Ill Advised by Bill Nighy - a legend. He’s smart, funny, and droll. A great presenter.

• 99% Invisible - snackable.

• Other than the old regulars, I also dropped in to listen to a bit of Making It with Jimmy Diresta and a few episodes of Cortex where they talked workflow and tools with Hank Green and Simone Giertz. I always love hearing about the tools and practices people have in their work. And it’s interesting to hear just how many barriers internet celebrities put between themselves and social media - something I can definitely learn from.

Top TV

• Ludwig
  David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin smashed it out of the park. This was a really great watch - thrilling, funny, tense, silly and smart.

• The Residence
  We were on a detective spree - this required even more disbelief suspension than Ludwig but was still a lot of fun.

• Pottery Throwdown
  Not everything needs to be a competition and I’d honestly be here for a pottery show that wasn’t, but the cast, crew and contestants really made this click.

• Buffy The Vampire Slayer
  This was more than half of my watching this year as I started season 1 in December 2024 and was ready to shed a tear when I finished season 7 in August. Beloved characters, amazing actors, something that was unique at the time, and something that obviously had a lot of love from the cast. It’s aged badly in some places but it was still a good watch.

• Wednesday
  Season 2 Part 1 wasn’t great and honestly I wonder what’s going on in the script room but Part 2 was decent. And they included a body swap episode which is always fun.

• Alien Earth
  How this fits in with an Earth that didn’t know about the aliens in Alien just 2 years later is a mystery still but it was a good watch and a few moments were super powerful.

• Derry Girls
  Rewatched with the family (when they weren’t sneaking in episodes without me!) and was reminded how truly amazing this show was - funny, silly, bleak, powerful, honest… love it.

• Celebrity Traitors
  I was not anticipating this being my TV highlight of the year but there we go. BBC entertainment at its best.

• Race Across The World Celebrity
  Nowhere near as “celebrity” as Traitors but that was never the point - this format works so well and it’s always a thrill to see just how close teams can be after days of travel in isolation.

I also watched this year’s Bake Off (not amazing), Stranger Things final season part 1 (passable), and Only Murders In The Building (I wanted so much to love this and yet…).

Top New Movies

What was once the biggest section of my end-year blog is disappointingly empty this year. It was a busy year in so many ways (good and bad) which meant the old cinema trips haven’t happened… and so many great series’ filling up my viewing.

• Wake Up Dead Man
  Film of the year. Twisty, political and smart… but it’s the camera shots that get me most - loved this.

• Freakier Friday
  The A9 was closed for another crash - which is awful. We managed to pull into Inverness cinema and grab a screening. The kid and I watched Freakier Friday and it was class.  

• Sisu
  Was exactly as described. And relentless at it.

• The Phoenician Scheme
  A few scenes stood out but overall the script let this one down.

• Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical
  A family watch - we all got sucked in and loved seeing how they’d managed to turn the movie into a stage show.

• Back In Action
  Yeah it was cheesy but I think it hit a lot of good notes for a cheesy teen action spy movie.

Top Movie Rewatches

• Paddington 2
  Hugh Grant’s best work.

• Shock Treatment
  I was in a better place watching it this time and thought it was worthy of a 7/10 after only giving it a 1 or a 2 last time.

• Moulin Rouge
  Not sure our rating system got this quite right in retrospect - a few strands of really dark plot are less “fun” than they were in 2001. 

• Alien and Aliens
  Rewatched to coincide with Alien Earth and loved as always.

• The Muppet Christmas Carol
  … with a full orchestra! 

• The Grinch
  The animated version. Cumberbatch’s best work. The world is so amazing - I swear there’s a PHD paper on the transportation and architecture of the town. Triple-decker bus with no internal stairs but 3 storey bus stops with no railings? Yes please! Also that rotating shopfront in the first scene gets me thinking every time. 

• Elf
  It’s becoming an annual thing, which is weird given it’s full of nostalgia for a time and place that aren’t mine. 

• Arthur Christmas
  Christmas Eve evening tradition. Best Christmas movie.

Worst Movies

I’ve been more discerning this year so this isn’t a long list (thankfully):

• Scream VI
  I know I’m not this franchise’s target audience but I’d have thought that the movie making any kind of sense might still have been in their sights. Still - 5/10 ish.

• Rock And Rule
  A “cult” 80s animation Ben Elton in no way watched before writing We Will Rock You. Stunned that they managed to get Cheap Trick, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop on board for this. Loved the concept but the actual watch was about a 4/10.

• Citizen Kane
  I know, I know. I’m sorry that I don’t love this. Pace is okay, a few scenes are very memorable, I just don’t think that the characters chimed well. 5/10

• Thursday Murder Club
  As someone who was a huge Pierce Brosnan fan I think his casting in this sucked. Even given that I love the stories and was excited to see them on screen, I gave this a 3/10. Gutted for the IP of this story to have been given such poor treatment and fully expect the sequels to be canned.

• Thunderbolts
  Take some quality actors and a crappy script and you get 3/10.

• Argylle
  To be fair I knew going in to this that it was a “suspend belief”+ situation but it missed being goofy enough. 2/10.

YouTubers

Dave Fogler is my new must watch recommendation. The man puts his Industrial Light & Magic skills to use in his home and studio.  

I’ve continued to love Colin Furze, Jonny Smith’s The Late Brake Show, Look Mum No Computer, Grind Hard Plumbing, Beau Miles, Adam Savage, Simone Giertz.

And added in Felix Schelhasse and Evan Monsma. 

I noted last year that the long-term projects (or at least multi-video pieces) seem to suit a lot of creative YouTubers better than trying to come up with the next big bang 20 mins on a similar topic every Sunday at 4pm… so I guess it’s interesting that I’ve been watching an underground garage build, a Summer “camp”/cabin restoration, a monster trike build, the building of a museum, the restoration of The Big Bogey Mini, an Austin Allegro Sleeper conversion, a 2 CV restoration… and it’s also notable that the parasocial nature of spending time with YouTubers in a way that’s way more natural than set TV pieces seem, means that road-tripping with Grind Hard or Look Mum No Computer also captures a take on places that’s really unlike anything on TV.

Books

In order that I read them, they’re all 10 out of 10:

• Fern Brady - Strong Female Character
  Absolutely loved listening to the audiobook of this. Fern’s a great storyteller. Overlapped time-wise with her in Edinburgh (but living a different life). Funny, harrowing, dark… and the most honest discussion of mental health I’ve heard in a while.

• Richard Osman - The Last Devil To Die
  The Saga saga continues with a particularly heavy topic covered in a sensitive way.

• Terry Pratchett - A Blink Of The Screen
  Some great stories but also a wonderful reminder that good writers only get to being good writers. 

• Kat Dunn - Hungerstone
  My book of the year. Dark, weird, sexy… a wonderful homage. 

• Owen D. Pomery - The Hard Switch
  Graphic novel of the year. A world that is so interesting and expansive that it deserves continuation. And I really want the L-shaped tablet to exist in real life!

• Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum
  A Classic.

• Edgar Camacho - Onion Skin
  A magic-infused food-truck romantic crime caper. Loved it!

• Kristen Kiesling/Rye Hickman - The Harrowing
  Somehow equally readable and offputting - an odd mix that nails the topic and vibe of pre-crime cognition.

• Tony Cliff - Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
  A present bought 8 years ago and not given. Not perfect but a fun read.

• Uketsu - Strange Houses
  A few hours reading together is one of my favourite Christmas Eve traditions… this book might not quite have been the right tone but it was a great one to romp through.

Read but wouldn’t recommend: Broken Homes (Ben Aaronovitch - drifting), Cabin (Will Jones - dull), Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Satoshi Yagisawa - duller), and Thrilling Cities (Ian Flemming - dated).

Games

Last year I wrote: “Arkham Horror - so many fab evenings spent with Kev and Dan this year. After 2 years of playing not quite monthly I feel like we’re beginning to get the grip of the game! The game is all-consuming, and we’re here for it.” so you can probably just change the 2 to a 3 and we’re good. We’ve also dipped into a couple of other games including Barbecubes but really it’s all about Arkham for me. TableTop Scotland was great fun again too.

Websites, Newsletters & Apps

I can’t even put these in to any kind of order so here’s a braindump: 

• The Edinburgh Minute

• Minute Cryptic app (a daily intellectual wakeup call)

• Storythings newsletter (writing, creativity, social media and formats)

• Robin’s newsletter (Cybersecurity)

• Undermanager/Russell Davies (interesting thoughts)

• Kiosk/Owen D. Pomfrey (interesting arty thoughts)

• kottke.org (regularly curated internet)

• Things magazine (bursts of curated internet)

• FlightRadar/airplanes.live and Marine Traffic (because knowing what planes and boats are is fun)

• Inoreader (algorithm free internet from the old RSS)

• Screwfix (top 2 of all shops I’ve been in this year… by frequency and, honestly, customer service)

• Voi (for the riding of the bikes - not perfect but a welcome public transport infrastructure addition)

• Google Sheets x Perplexity (building little tools into bigger tools)

• The streaming apps (who cares which ones you have, it’s inevitable if you’re whimsical and trying to beat the algoslop that you’ll end up not having the one you need)

• Todoist (aforementioned and essential)

Gigs

Not even a patch on the list of gigs I’d like to have made it to, but still some real quality here:

• Lawrence
  The level of performance from this band is off the scale - loved finally being able to see them live.

• Kae Tempest
  Ooft! One of the most powerful gigs I’ve ever been to.

• Katie Gregson-MacLeod
  A wonderful gig with the kid. The whole audience sitting down cross-legged in between support and main was a wholesome moment. 

• Yama Warashi at The Hug and Pint
  100% a friend night.

• Spaelimenninir
  A random addition to the year: some Faroese folk. 

• Stereolab
  Hanging with friends is always a win.

New Places

You can look back at past posts for my go-to places but we’ve added some gems to our travels this year and I deeply wanted to stay longer and explore these places more - in no order:

• Jodrell Bank

• La Piscine gallery in Lille

• The views from the castle in Namur

• The Paolozzi sculpture in Köln

• Atomium in Brussels

• The Sea stacks on the north east coast

• The Burrell Collection

• The natural arch beach at the end of the Melvaig road

• Ancient Robot Games

• Zip World Llechwedd

Creative hobbies

Improving the house took the front seat this year… which wasn’t fun but it was a cost saving and a time to learn new skills. So close to finishing it and yet it’s rolling into 2026. Gah! And of course the Corr Cabin #cabin turned out to have yet more fundamental build issues which required more time and money to remediate. Double Gah! I had a fun few days helping my parents build out a logshed that I originally helped my Papa build when I was about 14 years old. I don’t know how much help I was then but it was nice to know that I was 100% able to do it myself now. Then there were fun times socialising, travelling, repairing axes rescued from the dump, making impractical arty lamps, painting a halloween suit, working on a couple of board game ideas (I made a Stars Hollow Gilmore Girls game prototype as a gift and I’m working on a whisky game), and writing. I’ve progressed two main bits of writing this year - a cosy murder mystery and my movie merch book. Neither are even close to completion. And I’ve tried to stay healthy with regular gym trips. It’s a struggle!

End

Thank you for your time and the time I spent with you.

• FLUGEL (a live album) - Andris Mattson

  Listen of the month - the pedals working on the brass sounds so lush! Pre-saved the album for 2nd Jan but honestly the videos showing the performance add to it.

• A Charlie Brown Christmas Live at The Jazz Estate - The Commercialists

  This has so much heart - a lovely thing to have been able to listen to. Made my Christmas listening. Thanks

• THUM - Violet Grohl

  Violet has done a great thing - I’d describe it as sounding like Courtney Love singing over Dave Grohl on instruments and Butch Vig on production…

• In the beginning, there was Trance - Switch Angel

  The audio describing the music as the music is genius.

• Solar Invocation - Zé Burnay

  Some experimental drone stuff to work to.

• On The Radio - Regina Spektor

  Heard this (unironically) on the radio for the first time in ages and it took me back to

• Wound Up Here (By Holdin On) - Wednesday

  Strong vocals against fuzzy guitars.