Much is taken, much abides: the 2025 meme
Dec. 31st, 2025 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12The last day of 2025 dawned clear, freezing, and frosty. I've spent the morning curled up in the living room, watching the sun rise, drinking Christmas spiced coffee, and reflecting on the year that was. I've been enjoying seeing everyone else's thoughts on their own 2025; mine are behind the cut.
Memorable dates:
The honour here definitely goes to my various trips — within the UK and internationally — about which more below. There are also some dates which remain etched in my mind for the wrong (terrible geopolitical) reasons, but I try not to focus on them.
New year:
I saw in the new year in customary fashion with Matthias: watching three thematically/directorially/etc linked films (last year it was three films directed by Luc Besson), grazing on salmon blinis, champagne, fruit and chocolate. This year will be more of the same, although the three films are going to be action movies starring Charlize Theron. We've been doing this since 2020, and I now cannot imagine ending the year in any other way.
Birthday:
This year I turned 41. As my birthday is very close to Christmas, and as I find birthday parties for myself excruciating, I had low-key and self-indulgent celebrations: I went into Cambridge for the day, had a massage, got my haircut, tried to avoid the city centre on the last Saturday before Christmas, and then met Matthias for dinner. It was lovely!
Christmas/Boxing Day:
This year we stayed home — a decision about which I'm feeling particularly smug since I saw the news yesterday that there were massive delays and cancellations on the Eurostar due to power failures. If we had been in Germany, yesterday would probably have been the day when we travelled back. Every year we don't travel, there seems to be some kind of Eurostar chaos (I believe two years ago the tunnels were flooded and trains couldn't get through).
Because we stayed home, we've been able to arrange things exactly as we pleased. I worked right up to midday on Christmas Eve, then caught the train home and met Matthias for food truck market lunch and drinks, before heading home for our seafood dinner. On Christmas Day, I made a roast, and we've been eating the leftovers for the past week (which at least two or three meals still remaining). On Boxing Day we went for a long walk in the fens.
Both our workplaces are closed until 5 January, so because we didn't travel, we've been spending all our time hibernating and relaxing: cooking, eating, reading, watching TV, and, in my case, swimming and reading my way through Yuletide. I didn't realise how much I needed this until I woked up on 25th December feeling, for the first time in close to a year, completely rested. This year has been absolutely exhausting.
Work:
There were a lot of changes for the better at work: I was promoted in January, with added and interesting responsibilities. While this was extremely welcome, and while the changes meant that I continued to find my work meaningful and intellectually enriching, these changes are to a large extent responsible for the utter exhaustion I've felt throughout much of this year. I'm pretty sure this will taper off in 2026 as new colleagues grow into their roles, and I am fervently looking forward to that!
Travel:
This was a year of a lot of travel. Matthias and I elected to go to Shetland for our summer holiday, which was exactly as wonderful as I'd hoped. A few weeks later, Mum and I went to Copenhagen, which was again a fantastic choice. I'm very fortunate to be able to travel so freely and widely for pleasure.
Matthias and I also went back to Australia to visit my friends and family in November. It's the first time we've visited at that time of year, and I think it's probably optimum, although it did feel as if I was playing catch-up at work for the remainder of the year due to missing two weeks during the first university term.
We also made various trips within the UK, either for the day or the weekend, mainly to attend concerts, literary events, exhibitions and so on.
Our first international trip of 2025 was for a sad reason: to Matthias's home town in Germany for my mother-in-law's funeral. She had been incredibly ill, and it was clear she wasn't going to get better, but her death was still of course incredibly sad.
Relationship:
Matthias and I have been together for just over fifteen years now, which is a staggering amount of time if I stop to think about it. We were such different people when we met, and when we became a couple, and we've grown together and changed each other so much.
Health (including mental):
Looking back at last year's entry, I can see unfortunately that not much has changed, and copying what I wrote then, with the dates changed, is an accurate reflection:
Let's hope my prediction is more accurate this year! I can't go on being this tired.
Self-improvement:
It's been one step forward, two steps back in this regard. The small steps I'd been taking to try to build in-person social connections and put down roots were set back by our walking group being disbanded (due to ill health of the woman who organised everything) in the summer, and I feel at a bit of a loss in this area of my life. The exhaustion I've mentioned above in earlier responses is not helping: I feel that I give so much of my social energy at work that by the time it's the weekend, I have nothing left.
On the other hand, my efforts to manage the effects of doomscrolling, real-time social media, and rapid-fire real-time news reporting have been incredibly successful, even if I've had to deploy the nuclear option (a blanket, weeks-long ban on news websites, social media apps, etc every time I sensed the slightest hint that the global news cycle was going to focus on hysterical, drip-fed speculation on a topic that would likely set me off on a doom spiral) more often than I'd have liked.
Family:
I saw most of them while I was in Australia, although I missed Sister #2, one of my aunts, and all of my cousins this time. They're mostly doing well.
Births/deaths:
Two of my friends from the Philip Pullman fan forum had babies this year — including one who was just born over a week ago!
I've already mentioned the death of my mother-in-law, which was, so far, the only death of someone close to me.
Weddings/ceremonies attended:
This is I believe the first year since 2007 in which I have had no weddings to attend, which is an incredible run! I think I've now hit the point at which everyone I know who wants to get married has done so. One of my friends from the Philip Pullman forum did get (re)married this year, but it was a small family ceremony.
Finance:
As I renounced my citizenship last year, this was the last year I will ever have to grapple with US tax returns, for which I feel huge relief. As with everything American and bureaucratic, something which other countries manage with ease, such that if you're a regular employee with one job you almost have nothing to do taxwise is in its US form an expensive, complicated paperwork nightmare. The only other country in the world that taxes citizens based on nationality rather than residence (in the sense that I do not live, earn money, own property, or work in the United States and never have done, but still had to file a tax return every year) is Eritrea.
Our five-year mortgage runs out tomorrow, and the monthly repayments under the new mortgage will go up, but thankfully with my promotion this year and cost-of-living inflationary pay increases for both me and Matthias we should hopefully be cushioned to a certain extent.
Books:
I read 138 books this year, which is slightly down from last year's total, but still pretty respectable. This always includes a good scattering of rereads, although most were new to me. Highlights include Boudicca's Daughter (Elodie Harper), Strong Roots (Olia Hercules), In This House of Brede (Rumer Godden), and The Raven Scholar (Antonia Hodgson).
TV:
As always, I watched a lot of TV this year. Standouts were seasons 2 and 3 of Dark Winds (we just finished season 3 last night), Adolescence, season 3 of Blue Lights, and A Thousand Blows.
There's no film category for these questions, but Sinners was the best film of 2025, with no competition. What a movie!
Music:
I went to two concerts this year — Beyoncé with my sister when she was visiting me in the UK, and Manowar with Matthias. Neither were gigs I would have chosen to go to on my own, but I found both enjoyable enough, and very sociologically interesting!
I don't think I have any new musical discoveries to highlight — this seemed to be a year when my main soundtrack was hours-long melodic trance and progressive house live DJ sets and compilation playlists.
Best things bought:
My answer from last year remains true in 2025 as well:
Memorable dates:
The honour here definitely goes to my various trips — within the UK and internationally — about which more below. There are also some dates which remain etched in my mind for the wrong (terrible geopolitical) reasons, but I try not to focus on them.
New year:
I saw in the new year in customary fashion with Matthias: watching three thematically/directorially/etc linked films (last year it was three films directed by Luc Besson), grazing on salmon blinis, champagne, fruit and chocolate. This year will be more of the same, although the three films are going to be action movies starring Charlize Theron. We've been doing this since 2020, and I now cannot imagine ending the year in any other way.
Birthday:
This year I turned 41. As my birthday is very close to Christmas, and as I find birthday parties for myself excruciating, I had low-key and self-indulgent celebrations: I went into Cambridge for the day, had a massage, got my haircut, tried to avoid the city centre on the last Saturday before Christmas, and then met Matthias for dinner. It was lovely!
Christmas/Boxing Day:
This year we stayed home — a decision about which I'm feeling particularly smug since I saw the news yesterday that there were massive delays and cancellations on the Eurostar due to power failures. If we had been in Germany, yesterday would probably have been the day when we travelled back. Every year we don't travel, there seems to be some kind of Eurostar chaos (I believe two years ago the tunnels were flooded and trains couldn't get through).
Because we stayed home, we've been able to arrange things exactly as we pleased. I worked right up to midday on Christmas Eve, then caught the train home and met Matthias for food truck market lunch and drinks, before heading home for our seafood dinner. On Christmas Day, I made a roast, and we've been eating the leftovers for the past week (which at least two or three meals still remaining). On Boxing Day we went for a long walk in the fens.
Both our workplaces are closed until 5 January, so because we didn't travel, we've been spending all our time hibernating and relaxing: cooking, eating, reading, watching TV, and, in my case, swimming and reading my way through Yuletide. I didn't realise how much I needed this until I woked up on 25th December feeling, for the first time in close to a year, completely rested. This year has been absolutely exhausting.
Work:
There were a lot of changes for the better at work: I was promoted in January, with added and interesting responsibilities. While this was extremely welcome, and while the changes meant that I continued to find my work meaningful and intellectually enriching, these changes are to a large extent responsible for the utter exhaustion I've felt throughout much of this year. I'm pretty sure this will taper off in 2026 as new colleagues grow into their roles, and I am fervently looking forward to that!
Travel:
This was a year of a lot of travel. Matthias and I elected to go to Shetland for our summer holiday, which was exactly as wonderful as I'd hoped. A few weeks later, Mum and I went to Copenhagen, which was again a fantastic choice. I'm very fortunate to be able to travel so freely and widely for pleasure.
Matthias and I also went back to Australia to visit my friends and family in November. It's the first time we've visited at that time of year, and I think it's probably optimum, although it did feel as if I was playing catch-up at work for the remainder of the year due to missing two weeks during the first university term.
We also made various trips within the UK, either for the day or the weekend, mainly to attend concerts, literary events, exhibitions and so on.
Our first international trip of 2025 was for a sad reason: to Matthias's home town in Germany for my mother-in-law's funeral. She had been incredibly ill, and it was clear she wasn't going to get better, but her death was still of course incredibly sad.
Relationship:
Matthias and I have been together for just over fifteen years now, which is a staggering amount of time if I stop to think about it. We were such different people when we met, and when we became a couple, and we've grown together and changed each other so much.
Health (including mental):
Looking back at last year's entry, I can see unfortunately that not much has changed, and copying what I wrote then, with the dates changed, is an accurate reflection:
The best description of my health this year — physical and mental — would have to be tired. I didn't experience any major illnesses, but I spent the year with a constant, simmering sense of exhaustion that never really left me. Most of this is due to circumstances beyond my control, some of which are going to change in the first few months of20252026, but I found this year a real slog. I'm proud that I was able to maintain all the exercise habits I've built — swimming 1km four times a week, daily yoga (even if some days this was just 10 minutes), two hours of fitness classes weekly — because all this movement (especially the swimming) helps keep me on an even keel mentally.
Let's hope my prediction is more accurate this year! I can't go on being this tired.
Self-improvement:
It's been one step forward, two steps back in this regard. The small steps I'd been taking to try to build in-person social connections and put down roots were set back by our walking group being disbanded (due to ill health of the woman who organised everything) in the summer, and I feel at a bit of a loss in this area of my life. The exhaustion I've mentioned above in earlier responses is not helping: I feel that I give so much of my social energy at work that by the time it's the weekend, I have nothing left.
On the other hand, my efforts to manage the effects of doomscrolling, real-time social media, and rapid-fire real-time news reporting have been incredibly successful, even if I've had to deploy the nuclear option (a blanket, weeks-long ban on news websites, social media apps, etc every time I sensed the slightest hint that the global news cycle was going to focus on hysterical, drip-fed speculation on a topic that would likely set me off on a doom spiral) more often than I'd have liked.
Family:
I saw most of them while I was in Australia, although I missed Sister #2, one of my aunts, and all of my cousins this time. They're mostly doing well.
Births/deaths:
Two of my friends from the Philip Pullman fan forum had babies this year — including one who was just born over a week ago!
I've already mentioned the death of my mother-in-law, which was, so far, the only death of someone close to me.
Weddings/ceremonies attended:
This is I believe the first year since 2007 in which I have had no weddings to attend, which is an incredible run! I think I've now hit the point at which everyone I know who wants to get married has done so. One of my friends from the Philip Pullman forum did get (re)married this year, but it was a small family ceremony.
Finance:
As I renounced my citizenship last year, this was the last year I will ever have to grapple with US tax returns, for which I feel huge relief. As with everything American and bureaucratic, something which other countries manage with ease, such that if you're a regular employee with one job you almost have nothing to do taxwise is in its US form an expensive, complicated paperwork nightmare. The only other country in the world that taxes citizens based on nationality rather than residence (in the sense that I do not live, earn money, own property, or work in the United States and never have done, but still had to file a tax return every year) is Eritrea.
Our five-year mortgage runs out tomorrow, and the monthly repayments under the new mortgage will go up, but thankfully with my promotion this year and cost-of-living inflationary pay increases for both me and Matthias we should hopefully be cushioned to a certain extent.
Books:
I read 138 books this year, which is slightly down from last year's total, but still pretty respectable. This always includes a good scattering of rereads, although most were new to me. Highlights include Boudicca's Daughter (Elodie Harper), Strong Roots (Olia Hercules), In This House of Brede (Rumer Godden), and The Raven Scholar (Antonia Hodgson).
TV:
As always, I watched a lot of TV this year. Standouts were seasons 2 and 3 of Dark Winds (we just finished season 3 last night), Adolescence, season 3 of Blue Lights, and A Thousand Blows.
There's no film category for these questions, but Sinners was the best film of 2025, with no competition. What a movie!
Music:
I went to two concerts this year — Beyoncé with my sister when she was visiting me in the UK, and Manowar with Matthias. Neither were gigs I would have chosen to go to on my own, but I found both enjoyable enough, and very sociologically interesting!
I don't think I have any new musical discoveries to highlight — this seemed to be a year when my main soundtrack was hours-long melodic trance and progressive house live DJ sets and compilation playlists.
Best things bought:
My answer from last year remains true in 2025 as well:
In terms of its effect, all the various pieces of equipment and supplies to which my donations to the Ukrainian military contributed. In terms of my own personal happiness, travel tickets, hotel accommodation, lots of amazing food (both cooked at home by me, or eaten out everywhere from food trucks to high end restaurants), and small things to make the house cosy and pretty.
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Date: 2025-12-31 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-31 01:53 pm (UTC)