Hello and welcome to 2026!
A Look-back at Notable Events from 2025:
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January: Went to North Macedonia for work. Sampled some great food, even better wine, and enjoyed the hospitality of my Macedonian colleagues. Also got a new badger tattoo!
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February: Finally took delivery of my new car - a 2025 Kia Sportage HEV - with every bell and whistle. It’s far and away the best purchase I’ve ever made.
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March: The FIRST of two stays in hospital. Stupid diabetic Ketosis caused by the medication going haywire. Was fairly close to going into a coma and dying. Thankfully, some adjustments - including a small dose of insulin daily have kept me healthy since then - as least as far as blood sugar levels go.
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April: Great little mini breaks up to Manchester, The Lake District, and the Peak District.
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Summer: Various MRIs, CT scans, and X-Rays to try and figure out why I was barely able to walk. Was even using a cane and taking extremely strong pain killers throughout the summer. Nothing definitive was ever found - but mid autumn, the problems seemed to mostly resolve themselves!
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June: Myself, the missus, and my youngest daughter Took a day trip to Cardiff and inadvertently stumbled into Cardiff Pride day parade. I always enjoy a good Pride event - and this one was no exception. Took the camera for some B&W shots.
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July: A very busy month!
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Got my expensive lens repaired after if took a fall and it costed a small fortune.
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Built a “thing” in front of my house that I’m still quite proud of:
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July and August: So many things! Went to Nashville Tennessee and went bar hopping on the Strip listening to live music and sampling good food. Visited the Grand Ole Opry. Went the Jack Daniel’s Distillery, then drove across Texas to spend a week with the family in Odessa.
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Autumn: A seemingly quiet period - but in the background, I was working on getting a new contract which kicked off in early November - requiring a day or two a week commuting to London. I also changed the way I worked at a technical level - FINALLY making the switch from using Vim as my editor of choice to using VSCode and all the AI goodness that comes with it. I’ll never look back!
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December:
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Christmas Party Time! Being much slimmer than I was a year ago now means I can finally look damn good in a suit! :-D.
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And we had a great family Christmas together too at home:
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But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my cousin-in-law / brother-in-law* passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. He was way too young. When I was a teenager he was the closest thing I ever had to an older brother. Rest in peace Mike.
* I’m adopted. It’s complicated.
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On my mom’s side of the family, her only cousin on my grandmother’s side also passed away before Christmas. Not quite as close a relation, but still sad to lose another family member so close to Christmas.
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Some Goals for 2026:
I’m not big on New Year’s “Resolutions”, but I do like to set some goals for the year. Here are a few things I’m aiming to accomplish in 2026:
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Go “Permanent” for a While - and Give The Company a Rest
Contracting is tough at the moment. The government / British establishment does it best to make contracting difficult with all the IR35 tax changes and regulations but I’ve successfully navigated them so far. However, the market is very quiet at the moment and I frankly need a break from worrying about contract renewals every 3 to 6 months. My current client feels like a good fit for a permanent role so we’re exploring that option and I should learn more in the next few weeks.
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Build Up My Personal Savings.
The way our family finances work is that I pay my wife a set amount each month as an employee of my business via a salary and company dividend. And I pay all the household bills from my salary and dividends. We split the shopping 50/50 by me paying for the first two weeks and she gets the other two weeks of the month. This ends up giving her capacity to save a lot of money which she uses to then pay for holidays - as well as have an emergency fund should anything happen to me or the children. But not much left for me. With my current contract pay being way higher than previous contracts - and the potential for a permanent role with a good salary - I want to build up my own personal savings this year.
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Get My Pensions in Order.
Over the years, I’ve had various pensions with different employers and personal pensions. I need to get them all consolidated into one or two pots that I can manage easily. I’ve only got like 16 years of work left so I’ll be seeking advice on this front as I’m not entirely sure of the best way to proceed.
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Get My Leg Strength Back to “Normal”.
After months of barely being able to walk, I want to get back to whatever normal is for a 52 year old. I don’t expect to be running marathons or anything - but I want to be able to walk long distances without pain or discomfort and be able to get up or down to the floor without needing to hold onto something. Not sure exactly how to achieve this yet - but I’ll figure it out.
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Cycle Across London Once More - and Cycle More.
I’d like to cycle from Paddington across London to the City proper and video it on my DJI Osmo 360 camera. Of course this depends on whether I’m still working there by Spring or Summer. Fingers crossed! Getting out and about on the Brompton might also help with the leg strength goal above.
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Lean into Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)
Over the last year, I’ve been increasingly involved in projects that intersect with machine learning and AI. I want to deepen my expertise in MLOps and explore how I can contribute to this exciting field.
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Be a Bit More Active in My Communities and Catchup with Old Workmates.
Whether it’s contributing to open source projects, participating in online forums, or attending local meetups, I want to be more engaged with the tech, photography, and druid communities I’m part of. Sharing knowledge and learning from others is something I value highly.
I also want to make an effort to reconnect with old workmates and friends I’ve lost touch with over the years. Life gets busy, but it’s always worth making time for lager and a chat.
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And Some Trivial Things.
- Get 1 or more tattoos.
- Finish replacing 1 or 2 internal doors in the house.
- Replace the ageing ceiling fan in the living room.
- Replace the shed on my allotment with a new one.
- Staying slim.
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And Most Importantly.
- Generally enjoy life - cause if this year’s proved anything - you never know when your time is up.
As always, you can add my RSS feed to your reader of choice and if you made it this far thanks for reading!
Chris