Now the Christmas food has settled…
It’s the end of one year and the start of another, it’s almost like a cycle thats been going on since the start of written history or something. 2025 has been one of my personal favorite years in recent memory. From health, wealth and a bunch of weird new knowledge - so I thought I’d brush over some of the things I’ve done, some of the things I’ve enjoyed and some of the stuff I’m looking forward to next year.
The Code
Codewise I’ve spent a lot of free time this year tinkering with projects, be them open source contributions to open source tools I use in my day job or outside of it - or simply spooling up multiple new repos to test out ideas. It’s been another year of learning and expanding upon what I already feel are solid skills. I feel a sense of excitement about the industry at the moment mostly because I feel companies are slowly starting to understand A.I only works, when paired with a competent programmer - not replacing them.
Of course, there is also the constant burnout of having new tech constantly bombarding our brains every other week - I took a new approach this year of simply learning things that would be useful, as opposed to things the cool kids use. As an example - this blog. I’d not heard of Hexo before but it’s turned out to be a great choice for a static blog generator, and I’m happy I chose it rather than say, relearning all that ‘lost’ Wordpress theme development knowledge!.
It seems I’ve spent a lot of time this year also making ‘off radar’ projects - by that I mean I’ve spent numerous weekends just toying around with new code ideas. Be it inspired from video game mechanics, or ideas I wanted to see if I could replicate as a user interface - things that don’t need a repo or a blog post, but help you learn a language deeper. I’m certainly going to continue these little experiments, because I often find them more fun than planning and shipping a finished product. Ultimately, 2026 needs more fun!
The day job has been very successful this year with lots of ‘wins’ across our dev team. Though, as always I cannot go into too much detail I will say I’m proud of what our team has done - and the user stats show our work is having a real impact on users. Hopefully in 2026 we can continue to build upon this years success and continue to deliver some quality work.
The health
I’ve talked multiple times about my weight loss journey over the past 8ish months and thought I’d give more of a ‘breakdown’ for anyone who cares. I started off at a SHOCKING weight of 138kg, and ended the year at 98kg. As someone who is 6’ 2 - I never really ‘felt’ my weight. When I started my weight loss is was simply because I wanted to live a healthier life and take better care of myself.
I set up a regular routine of indoor cycling, starting off at 20 minutes a night, and ending on 1 hour and 30 minutes toward the end of my weight loss. I limited my calories to 1,600 per day - I would have one ‘cheat meal’ on a Saturday - where I would not track my calories. I also still allowed myself to go out and be social. I could have lost far more if I gave up those social events, but felt that my mental health would have suffered - and likely being ‘stuck’ in the house bored would have just made me… eat.
Since mid-November, I’ve come off the diet and allowed myself to be ‘unstructured’ for a break - for no other reason than wanting to enjoy the festive season to it’s fullest. Come January I intended to get back on the diet, for a couple of months until I reach my target weight of 90kg.
The diet taught me a lot about myself - about how I perceive personal discipline and about how easily I can change my habits. It also taught me to value my mobility and the fact I’m in a position where I can make healthier choices. Going back to a vegetarian diet recently has been great for me - and the amount of ‘meat substitutes’ on offer in 2025 means that even the most die hard carnivore would find it shockingly easy to lead a meat free life ( if they wanted, again, I am not preaching! ).
I tried and failed multiple times in 2025 to finally kick the habit of smoking. I went for a period of two months without a smoke at one point - and then fell back on the habit, I’m not proud of it. I plan on going completely smoke free in 2026. I’m not happy about having to quit, I feel smoking is one vice that - as stupid as it sounds, I really enjoy. Yet there comes a point where you need to be kind to yourself and think about your future.
Music
Lots of new music was made this year - similar to the coding, lots of knew knowledge was gained too. It’s one of those hobbies where you don’t need to be releasing what you make, I find myself sometimes making synth sounds for hours on end, twisting knobs and playing songs that will never be heard again. It’s amazing. There’s a real creative outlet in music - be it playing guitar late into the evening, or composing a ‘song’ in Ableton and spending countless hours mixing and mastering it.
This coming year I want to focus more on releasing things, not for money or fame or any of that jazz - just as a show of what I can do, as a personal record of growth. I find myself playing a video game and being inspired by the world, and wanting to write music for that world. It’s something I can sink my teeth into for days.
Talking of Synths - I bought a DeepMind12 and it’s absolutely amazing. I’m in the process of starting up a rack system for the home studio - I plan on expanding the Neutron with more Eurorack style gear and want to flesh out the gear in my studio with more physical modules - as I’m enjoying spending less time at the computer.
The record collection has seen some serious growth this year - I finally got my hands on the Skyrim deluxe edition - and it’s everything I had hoped for. Some serious book reading took place whilst that played over December on these dark and cold nights, I would highly recommend!.
Gig of the year is a difficult one - it’s either Public Image Limited ( bucket list item! ) or Arab Strap’s amazing show they played. Arab Straps latest album was absolutely incredible and Public Image is …PUBLIC IMAGE!?.
Video games
Yes, I know, it seems ridiculous to have a ‘video games’ section - but I’m in the lucky position where gaming is a hobby I still enjoy and I want to go over some of my favorite memories!
- Cyberpunk 2077 absolutely blew me away this year, I played it and could not put it down. Every hour outside of work was spent exploring every inch of Night City. I love absolutely everything about this game.
- Replayed Final Fantasy X ( my actual ‘favorite game of all time’)
- Played Journey, loved it, wrote a blog post about it
- We made a new Regiment in the game ‘Foxhole’ with friends from all around the world playing virtual war!
- In old school runescape me and my friends continued to spend hours in discord, hanging out bossing, skilling and just having countless late night laughing sessions
The future soon
So yeah, 2025 has been amazing - and that’s not to mention all the new friends, new experiences ( new tattoos! ) and amazing memories that have all taken place over these 12 months. I’m in a very good place going into 2026 and I’m very excited for what the future holds.
In 2026 I have a few goals :
- I want to hit my target weight goal, and also give up smoking
- I intend to get back to my roots of solo traveling, I want to visit Norway, maybe Ireland/Iceland and tick off a couple Eastern European countries.
- I intend to buy my first property - it’s looking likely I will stay settled here in Newcastle, as I’m simply loving the city so much!
- Continue making music, with a goal of releasing some form of short EP or something at some point
- I intend to get more tattoos, more records and more music gear!
- Continue to be open minded and continue to be kind even in the face of a world that seems to be continually on fire…
Wishing everyone, the world over a very happy new year when it arrives and I hope you find peace and joy in the coming year.
- Your Friend Allan