The List: 2025

Looking back on the year that was

As every New Year approaches, I like to write a list looking back on the year before. It’s essentially my own, personalised Wrapped, for everything from trips and cultural touchstones, to moments that made me smile.

So here is this year’s offering, in no particular order.

1. Coffee at the temple of Philae
2. Boat trips down The Nile
3. Perfecting my home-made martini
4. Frozen coke in Perth
5. Cigars in the Dominican Republic – special mention to the Oettinger Davidoff Year of the Horse limited edition
6. The Italian F1 Grand Prix at Monza
7. Pumpkin recipes – soups and cake mix for the winter
8. Country weddings
9. Excellent hats – from cowboys at the aforementioned wedding, to well-deployed beanies and caps
10. Mirror selfies – my only real contribution to ShortManStyle this year
11. Getting a library card for the first time in ages, and using it
12. The Residence 📺
13. Snoopy Cartoons – reading old cartoons on Instagram has been one of my key uses for the platform this year
14. Scooby-Doo re-runs
15. Tiny Chef
16. Home-made margharitas – from experimenting with tequilas, to adapting Matthew McConaughey’s recipe
17. Evolving style – a move from skinny & the arrival of zip tops and combats
18. Garden building
19. Moving raspberries
20. The summer of Orange
21. Derpy Tiger
22. Celeb-spotting at work events
23. A treehouse escape
24. Folktales by firelight
25. Discovering new tequilas