When life gives you rain, go look at the waterfalls. That’s been a mantra I’ve been trying to cling to for the end of what has been a tumultuous year for many, many people. Always look on the bright side of life is amongst the most trite of aphorisms, and rarely does following its advice lead to actually fixing a situation, but it can at least improve your mood for the time being. Here are some examples of the gushing waterfall ramifications provided by rainy torrents experienced by me in 2025:
– In May we visited Norway for the first time, starting in Bergen then heading to Oslo. On the first day in a new city my favourite thing to do is go for a run and have a little explore, which is exactly what I did. Bergen is beautiful and very pedestrian friendly, and there were many people out and about enjoying the lovely weather and taking photos of the stunning scenery. On my run I made an effort to not obstruct one such photographer and, in doing so, managed to miss a curb and fell over in a manner described by passers-by as looking “Not good” and “Very bad”. I limped back to our AirBnB and spent the rest of the trip hobbling around (I still went for ill-advised daily walks and even a couple of hikes, because I am very bad at both keeping still and looking after myself, this should be a surprise to no-one at this point). A few weeks after we arrived home I eventually went to the doctor about it, had an x-ray, and discovered I’d fractured my ankle, had to undertake physiotherapy, and wouldn’t be able to run for at least a couple of months. Running is how I stay sane, so that wasn’t a great time for me mentally or physically, but it felt so good when I started running and building up my distances again. I’m still not where I was this time last year, and if I’m sat down too long I have a bit of a limp when I set off again, but I managed my traditional Christmas Day half marathon in under two hours in the crisp, chilly sunshine, and that was a wonderful way to spend a morning.

– Speaking of Norway, when we arrived in Oslo we wondered why it was quite so busy – sure, it was the start of wedding season and Oslo is a typical stag/hen destination, but the city was teeming with people! It turns out we’d booked to stay during Holmenkollstafetten, the world’s largest relay race with 70,000 participants across over 5,000 teams, all seemingly mocking my inability to run alongside them. Needless to say this made finding a restaurant that evening somewhat tricky, and we ended up going a little further afield. The burger place we headed to was overflowing, but the tapas restaurant next door (Castello) was miraculously devoid of a queue. We ducked inside and claimed the last available table – right before the place was swarmed with hungry runners – and I enjoyed easily the tastiest prawns I’ve ever had. I’m still thinking about them over seven months later. Delicious.

– Most of my weekends this past year have been spent doing home improvements to our new house, often involving arduously digging up the garden, much to the chagrin of my spine. The garden seems to be mostly comprised of roots, rocks, and random things thrown away by previous owners, including broken tools, random assorted animal bones, and over thirty whole glass bottles and jars. My favourite thing found in the ground? A big rock. Not just any rock, this is a rough stone cube, approximately 18″ / 45cm to a side. What is it for? Why was it buried in the ground? What will I do with it now? I have no idea to any of these (our best guess is it was used for tying up horses), but it’s my new favourite stone, and everyone should have one.

– One evening, after several delayed trains, I arrived at my weekday flat later than usual, so it was in fact early Tuesday morning rather than late Monday evening. I went to open the door, but the key wouldn’t turn, the lock was jammed. I tried everything I had in my backpack to open the door, from a DVD wallet to a laptop charger cable, a penknife and a small vial of bike grease, all to no avail. The flat’s owner was understandably asleep, and hundreds of miles away. Every 24-hour locksmith I called failed to live up to their claim (10am was the best offer I received, from one of the two who answered the phone, compared to the dozen who didn’t). All the nearby hotels were fully booked or closed for the season. I despaired. Then, I used my ingenuity, perseverance, can-do attitude and, crucially, a discarded metal garden border divider I found in the front garden, to successfully break into the flat without causing any extra damage to anything other than my knuckles, and was buoyed on a wave of pride and relief to the deepest sleep I’ve slept in some time. Apologies to my wife, who got to impotently participate in this hours-long saga at the other end of a phone, and my parents, whom I awoke at 2am to come help (they live 30 miles away), mere minutes before I figured out the solution myself.

– Finally, where the initial mantra stems from, we took our annual trip to Scotland in September, this time heading to the Isle of Mull, where we spent much of our time hunkered down during a particularly bad storm that caused a power cut and delayed our departure from the island for an extra day. That sucked, but when I went for a few little runs I did find some particularly engorged waterfalls that put the biggest smile on my face.

So those are some things that happened this year. Let’s have a look at how I fared with my resolutions from 2025:

Film: Review more:

I did this! I wrote a bunch of reviews on this site and over on Blueprint: Review.
Into the Deep
Deep Blue Sea limited edition 4K UHD
Dangerous Animals
A Mother’s Embrace
The Ballas of Wallis Island

Write every day:

Less successful. I wrote way more than in previous years, and had a strong start writing almost every day in January (it helped that my Review of the Year posts are so long) but that quickly tailed off when I ran out of recently watched films that needed reviewing soon. I ended up writing on 92 days in 2025. Still a big improvement, but there’s room to be better.

Fill in my Spielberg and Lynch blind spots:

I covered quite a few. Here are the ones I reviewed:
The Sugarland Express
1941
Empire of the Sun
Always
Hook
Amistad
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
I did also watch Munich, I just never got around to reviewing it and now it’s been too long. I liked it well enough, but wasn’t blown away. I did cross off some other blind spot films as well though, here they are ranked from most to least enjoyed:
Decision to Leave – Great, really really good. Choose Film 9/10
Piranha – Just a great Jaws-inspired film, but with more Joe Dante humour and budget fish puppets. Disappointed at the lack of summer camp carnage. Choose Film 8/10 Podcast link.
Alligator – Any film where a giant alligator trashes a fancy wedding will score highly with me. Choose Film 8/10 Podcast link.
The Loved Ones – Gnarly, but compelling. Choose Film 8/10
Jackie Brown – Definitely lower ranked Tarantino for me. Still quite good, just feels like a bit of a Pulp Fiction re-tread. Choose Film 8/10
In the Line of Fire – Love an early Malkovich bad guy role. Choose Film 7/10
Rosemary’s Baby – I get that it’s very well made, I just didn’t have any fun with it. Choose Film 7/10
The Florida Project – I don’t normally care for stories about kids, but this one was good. Choose Film 7/10
The Omen – I expected more. Some fun death sequences, but not much else for me. Choose Film 7/10
Batman Mask of the Phantasm – Good, but it was over-hyped so I was expecting more. Choose Film 6/10
Piranha II The Spawning – James Cameron has disowned it, but I had a good time. Choose Film 6/10 Podcast link.
Don’t Look Now – Left me cold. Didn’t help that I was all too aware of the final shot and spent the whole film expecting it to happen sooner. Choose Life 6/10
The Devil’s Candy – Didn’t sit as well with me as The Loved Ones. Ethan Embry and Pruitt Taylor Vince are both great, but this was an unsettling experience. Choose Life 6/10
Alligator II The Mutation – It’s extremely Jaws coded. Fun, though. Choose Life 4/10 Podcast link.

TV: Watch Twin Peaks:

If you’ve been following the site this year you’ll have seen that not only have I watched the entirety of Twin Peaks series one and two (and Fire Walk With Me, and The Missing Pieces), but I also wrote stream of consciousness reactions to each piece of the mostly unsolvable puzzle. For the most part I have been enjoying it (Fire Walk With Me can go right to hell), and I look forward to tackling The Return in 2026, probably mostly on train journeys like I did with the first two series..

Books: Read more books I enjoy:

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Feels very much like Weir was trying to reclaim some of that The Martian juice and, given I loved that book (and film) I was more than happy to experience that again. It’s very similar to The Martian in terms of the main characters having a real Mark Watney vibe and everyone on Earth being great at their jobs, lovably sarcastic and occasionally falling into some global stereotypes (those Russians sure do love their vodka, amiright?). If you liked The Martian, you’ll like this too. Looking forward to the upcoming film!

We Solve Murders – Richard Osman
Osman sets out with some new characters but in a similar format – there’s been a murder, our characters (celebrity bodyguard Amy and her father-in-law Steve, a retired, widowed policeman) are connected, so they set out to solve it whilst mildly irritating any and all officials – be they law-abiding or not – they encounter along the way. Fortunately I love that format, the new characters are likeable, the supporting cast are well drawn and interesting, and the story is fun. These are easy reads and I sometimes feel like I should be striving to read something more advanced, but sometimes, especially when I’m sat on a busy train for six hours, I just want something I can get lost in.

Death of a Bookseller – Alice Slater
Initially I hated the two main characters in this, the cloying, leechlike Roach and the snobbish overly manicured Laura, so much so that I almost abandoned the book altogether, but I stuck with it and it does pay off well. I think you’re supposed to dislike the characters – the story is told through their alternating perspectives, so we’re in their heads and hear them think and perceive their flaws without necessarily calling them out as character weaknesses, and It helps that within their lives there are worse people than they are. Ends relatively satisfyingly, too.

The Last Murder at the End of the World – Stuart Turton
I loved Turton’s other books, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water, so was looking forward to this one. It’s probably my least favourite of the three, and has more of a sci-fi genre, but with a mystery aspect that I figured out early on but had to wait a while for the pieces to fit together in the text.

The Long Walk – Stephen King
Read in anticipation of the film. The book is great, moves along at a good pace. Strong recommendation. The film is also very good.

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin
I’ve owned it for a while and heard it was good, but I think it was over-hyped. It’s not bad, just not as laugh-out-loud funny as I’d been led to believe.

The Graveyard Shift – Maria Lewis
I’d heard Maria Lewis on the Empire podcast a few years ago in which she declared her love for Deep Blue Sea, so I invited her on to be a guest on the podcast (she was brilliant) and read this book, in which Deep Blue Sea and it’s credits song Deepest Bluest are referenced heavily. It’s a fun whodunnit set around a serial killer killing people associated with a horror-themed radio show, with lots of movie references peppered throughout.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
Had no idea what this was, just read it based on the hype and it being on my wife’s to-read pile. It’s a drama following two friends across their lives and the video game business they form together. Not my usual kind of thing – it’s very much a character study drama, whereas I prefer plotty and genre fiction, but the fact that I stayed with it to the end shows it’s at least compelling.

How to Kill Your Family – Bella Mackie
A fun title to read in a public space. I tore through this one, enjoyed it a lot. The plot is basically Kind Hearts and Coronets for the 21st century. Good stuff.

The Great Train Robbery – Michael Crichton
Funnily enough, read almost entirely on a train. Took me a little while to get into, with too many vaguely described characters early on for me to get much of a handle on, but all the heist stuff was a lot of fun.

Murdle: The School of Mystery – G. T. Karber
A gift from my wife because I love puzzles and logic problems. These were mostly quite simple, apart from one chapter wherein one of the subjects per puzzle was always definitely lying, which frustrated me a little from a logical perspective.

The Final Girl Support Group – Grady Hendrix
I loved the premise – the final girl survivors of various famous horror movies are all in a support group, which becomes the target of a potential new serial killer – but was disappointed by the execution. The core concept was abandoned more than I would’ve liked, and the constant need to drop new revelations and twists felt unearned and often at odds with what had occurred already. Plus the eventual identity of the killer was seemingly a secret throughout, but is frustratingly revealed on the second page of the book if you’re paying even just a little bit of attention.

The Satsuma Complex – Bob Mortimer
I really enjoy Bob Mortimer as a comedian and have for many years, and I’ve owned this book for a while but never got around to reading it until recently. I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped and hasn’t really stuck with me much beyond the main character’s hatred of people wearing fun socks, of which I own many. I’ve got Mortimer’s follow up book, The Hotel Avocado, on my shelf and I’ll get to it soon, but I’m not buying The Long Shoe until I make my mind up about Avocado first.

The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
It’s Crichton, so I should’ve expected it to be as technical and data-driven as it is, but that still turned me off a bit. I’m now reading Stephen King’s The Stand, and reading these two back to back was definitely a mistake.

An Absolute Casserole: Ten Years of Taskmaster – Alex Horne & Jack Bernhardt
I make no secret of how much I love Taskmaster (I’ve been a fan since around series seven, way back in the days when it was shown on Dave). An Absolute Casserole is full of facts and history insights about the show but, if like me you already listen to both of the official Taskmaster podcasts, one of which is hosted by this books co-author Jack Bernhardt, then you’re probably more than aware of most of what’s covered in the book. Also many of the statistics are now out of date, given there have been three series, three New Years Treat episodes and one Champion of Champions released since it went to print. The most interesting stuff was about the history of the show and the original year-long Edinburgh version, so it was worth reading for that.

Merry Murdle – G. T. Karber
A Christmas-themed edition of the logic problems puzzle book. I treated it like a daily advent calendar, doing one puzzle a day, often before going to bed. I enjoyed that so much that doing a daily puzzle of some kind will probably feature in my resolutions later in this post.

Started, abandoned:

Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way – Bruce Campwell
I loved If Chins Could Kill when I read it twenty years ago and have had this sat on my shelf for almost as long. It’s a semi-factual account of famed B-Movie actor Bruce Campbell getting a gig on a real proper movie directed by Mike Nicholls, and how that might play out for him, but it all feels far too forced and farcical. His role is as a doorman, so he works for a day as a doorman at a prestigious hotel to delve into the role, only to be arrested for trying to tackle Colin Powell. Campbell creates a full backstory for his minor character (a supporting role that apparently every Hollywood A-Lister from John Malkovich to Johnny Depp was eagerly auditioning for, as if most of those guys even auditioned still in the mid-2000s), and creates copies for everyone before deploying a horrendously over the top untested southern accent at the table read, yet is surprised and dismayed when it goes over poorly. These felt like cringeworthy moments that Campbell would surely have known better than to enact, and crucially none of it was funny. Disappointing.

The Wager – David Grann
A mystery centred on a boat, the crew of whom were found washed up with differing tales of what happened sounded like an aquatic Rashomon, but I was turned off when I discovered this was a true story, and I was essentially settling down to read a 300-page Wikipedia entry. It might be great, it might be really interesting, but I couldn’t stay engaged with it so I’ll cross my fingers for an eventual movie.

House: Start planning:
We’re in the midst of our largest house project so far! This time last year we’d freshly moved into a new house some 200 miles north of the previous one. I knew my wife had plans for it, but I didn’t quite appreciate how much work was going to be involved, and suffice to say it wont be anywhere near completion for at least another year, as the plans involve a heck of a lot of renovating, much of it far beyond our capabilities (and requiring machinery we are not qualified to operate!). We are happily tackling what we can do, which last year involved a lot of landscaping – so much digging! – erecting and painting a shed, then adding guttering and a water butt that was somehow more elaborate than the shed itself, and a lot of demolition work internally, namely removing a lot of fitted cabinets and dodgy electrics. Major structural work is preventing us from doing much else for the time being, as there’s not a great deal of use in redecorating rooms that need rewiring/plumbing etc, which we’ll have done all over the house once the structural stuff is done, but there are still plenty of small jobs to do here and there.

Exercise: Yoga every day, run less often but further:
I didn’t do too badly with the yoga. I kept a spreadsheet (of course) and ended up tackling a yoga routine on 237 days last year, but I don’t really feel all that much better for doing it. I’m not very good, is part of the problem. I’m not flexible in the least, which is probably why I should keep at it! Running-wise 2025 was easily my worst year since records began (2019) mainly due to the aforementioned ankle fracture and subsequent months of no running. I ended the year having run 1,364km (847 miles), about 20% shy of my next worst year, but I’m still happy I got back out there running again after the injury. I therefore didn’t meet my target of running a marathon-long distance.

Sleep: On average at least 6 hours a night
I did it! For perhaps the first time in my thirty eight years alive I spent on average at least six hours a night asleep, coming in at 6.24 hours/night. That’s over twenty minutes a night more than 2024. I’m thrilled! I owe a lot of this to the first five months, when I had very little to do in my evenings, however that time did start to slip after that point as I’m now on a four-day work week, but the four days are longer and offer less sleep time. I make up for it more at weekends, but that inconsistent sleep cycle isn’t great. Something to work on next year.

Podcasts: Finish the Sharknado and Piranha franchises, listen to fewer:

The two franchises I’d planned to cover have been covered, and were more fun that I’d imagined. The problem with trying to listen to fewer podcasts, however, is that the ones I currently listen to kept on releasing shows, and then I went and found some more to listen to as well. Basically I did a bad job there. Here are some of my podcast appearances in 2025:
MovieRob Minute – Saving Private Ryan Minute 169, Die Hard 4.0 segment 1, 2, 3 / A Good Day to Die Hard segment 1, 2, 3, finale, The Taking of Pelham 123 Minute 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 105, Band of Brothers Minute segment 2
Out Now with Aaron & Abe – Paddington in Peru, Jurassic World Rebirth
It’s Time to Rewind – Red Dwarf: Pete, Happy Death Day
Lambcast – Final Destination Franchise, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Jurassic World Rebirth, Santa Jaws
Forgotten Filmcast – Prison
Flixwatcher – Jurassic Park, Love and Monsters
Movies, Films & Flix – Best screams in the Scream franchise

Resolutions for 2025

General:

Last year I planned to draw every day, but I gave up on that pretty quickly, roughly around the same time I also ran out of inspiration (alas, I lack an imagination), and I’d spent too many evenings hurriedly sketching the nearest thing to me just so I could tick it off and go to sleep. No more drawing things out of an obsessive compulsion, but I’m hoping to daw whenever the inspiration may take hold. Instead, I enjoyed doing the daily Merry Murdle book and I’ve got a drawer full of old partially completed puzzle books, so I’m going to try and do a puzzle every day. They vary in difficulty, so I can do harder ones when I’ve got, for instance, a 5-hour train journey, and smaller, easier ones when I’ve been at work and would like to go to bed now, thank you very much.

Food-wise I’m going to try and actually eat less dairy, not just continue to eat it whilst also taking an only partially effective Lactaid tablet. A good aim for 2026 would be to try and spend a little less time sat on the toilet! I’m also trying to move my diet in the direction that not every meal has to be something I enjoy, and that it’s possible to eat things other than what I think I’m currently craving. I can be hungry for things other than Red Leicester Mini Cheddars and Chewy Toffee Tim Tams, and thirsty for things other than my fourth Pepsi Max of the day. I think it would also be a good idea for me to maybe go to a dentist, as it’s been a few years. I don’t think I’ve got any problems with my teeth, but it’s probably a good idea to check. No idea what the non-private dentist availability is like in our new area, but I’ll find out soon!

Films:

Pretty easy goal here, I want to finish off the rest of David Lynch’s filmography, and the only Spielberg I’ve got left is his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, so I’ll aim for that too. Beyond that I’d like to watch the films covered in podcasts I’ve got queued up to listen to, so 2026 should see me watching the likes of this list:
Barry Lyndon
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Blow Out
Body Double
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie)
Carol
Christine
Creepshow
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Cujo
Frenzy
Hotel Transylvania
Inland Empire
Johnny Dangerously
Josie and the Pusycats
Lost Highway
Lust, Caution
Miami Vice
Monkey Shines
mother!
Pearl
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
Philadelphia
Ponyo
Prom Night
Raising Cain
Re-Animator
Running Scared
Sleeping with the Enemy
Spartacus
Stargate
Starman
The Burning
The Castle of Cagliostro
The Day of the Jackal
The Hand
The Heartbreak Kid
The Insider
The Killing
The Last of Sheila
The Last of the Mohicans
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Long Goodbye
The Man Who Would Be King
The Prowler
The Straight Story
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Thief
Three Days of the Condor
Torn Curtain
Used Cars
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
By complete accident there’s exactly 52 films on this list, so it seems silly to not at least try and watch one a week!

In terms of new releases, I imagine I’ll go to the cinema less this year, but here are some of the 2026 UK releases I’m most looking forward to:
No Other Choice
Is This Thing On?
Splitsville
Send Help
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Primate
The Rip
Bulk
Normal
Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die
Project Hail Mary
The Bride
Hoppers
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
The Mummy
The Mandalorian & Grogu
The Sheep Detectives
Disclosure Day
Supergirl
Toy Story 5
The Odyssey
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Coyote vs Acme
Cliffhanger
Resident Evil
Digger
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
Godzilla Minus Zero
Avengers: Doomsday
Jumanji 4
The Adventures of Cliff Booth
The Entertainment System is Down
And of course, for the podcast:
The Strangers Chapter 3
Deep Water
Shiver
Killer Whale
Whalefall
The Devil’s Mouth

TV:

My one main TV goal this year is to finish watching Twin Peaks. I’ve only got The Return to go, and I picked up the DVD boxset recently. Just need to actually watch it now! I imagine I’ll do my episode-by-episode stream of consciousness posts for that too.

Books:

I’m sticking with trying to read every day, even if it’s just a page. If it is just a page, then this time next year I’ll be about 60% of the way through Stephen King’s The Stand, so let’s hope I read a little faster than that, if only because it takes up so much room in my bag

House

Lots to do house-wise, far too much to get into here, but for now the main goal is to get some more quotes, get some dates and contractors booked in, and continue our work on the garden. Aisha has big plans for the garden in spring, so I imagine I’ll be spending a fair amount of time digging again. I also have a chainsaw now, so that’s fun. My tool library increased last year by that, a mattock, multitool, giant crowbar, and a few other bits and pieces too.

Health:

I suck at yoga, so I’m going to try and do better at it this year. Not sure how yet, as the 13-minute intermediate video I tried this morning left me frustrated at how little I could do (I also think the instructor could’ve explained themself a little better), but I shall persevere. Any advice is welcome. I’m also going to continue sleeping, hopefully at least 6 hours a night, although my current work/travel schedules are playing havoc with that. I’d really like to settle into a regular routine, but I get up at 5:30am Tuesday-Friday, and Friday night I don’t get home until 11:30pm at the earliest, so it might have to be a 6-day routine with a regularly anomalous Friday. Running-wise I’m still building back up since my ankle fracture, but this year I’m aiming to do an actual proper scheduled run. There’s a run on Easter weekend near our new home where you race a steam train out and back, and it sounds quite fun.

Podcasts

Over on Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast we’re dedicating 2026 to reptile movies, so look out for them there. I’d also love to reprise Lambpardy on the Lambcast, but it just cannot be a priority at the moment, I have so much else going on!

So that was my 2025. How did yours go? Any plans for 2026?