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:
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Life Vs Film 