General…

This month Min celebrated their 50th birthday, it wasn’t the main event, but it was a celebration. They love a turkey dinner and they won’t be having one over Christmas this year so I opted to cook my first turkey dinner for their birthday which turned out really quite delicious! I expected it to be a lot harder to make, but once I’d got a cooking itinerary complete it was all rather simple.

My daughter has had a lucky stint lately and was selected to be one of ten girls from their school that got to go to Williams F1 to see the museum, use their esport simulators, and a few other things, it looked amazing and I’m very jealous of it. Shortly after they were invited to go to the SeaCity Titanic exhibition, one of fourty eight in their year.

The photography course I signed up to has actually started with the first module, having some clear direction is making the whole process a lot more enjoyable for me. You can read more in my photography section.

Throughout December all three of us were hit with a really nasty cold/flu which we suspect may have been the new covid variant, but it could have also have been this ‘super flu’ which I picked up first (probably from London last month), then Min, and then my child. Whatever it was, it was rather nasty and left me stuck in bed for a few days, and to top that off I had a roughly 3 day migraine — on Christmas Eve!

So my plans for Christmas this year did not go to plan as you’d expect. I spent Christmas Eve fighting a migraine, although I have been prescribed migraine medication which helped quite a bit, but wasn’t the miracle cure I hoped it would be. Christmas day I was home alone with a slightly milder migraine, and Boxing day it had eased into a regular headache with tension. This month has been a terrible month for my health!

Fortunately the illnesses didn’t impact our Yule which is actually the holiday we celebrate in this house. It started on the 20th when the three of us got together and spent the day doing a murder mystery case which was so much fun! My child really got into it and managed the whole about 3 three hours without losing interest, offering their own theories into what happened throughout. I feel it may be a new tradition. Then there was the main event, an early start with lots of presents to open, then a slow cooked joint of pork with all the trimmings. It was a very chill and relaxing Yule.

This month I’ve been debating leaving Squarespace and moving over to Wordpress for their feed/reader options, it offers better customisation, and I thought was considerably cheaper. However after spending more time comparing the two I decided to stick with Squarespace as it’s not that much more and offers me a lot more space to use. However while going through this I stumbled upon the Newsletter side of Squarespace and have been trying to wrap my head around it. The idea of using a newsletter really appeals to me as I really want to move away from social media with all the advertising, spam, etc. and generally, I don’t like them having all my content. So starting next year I’ll give the newsletter option a try to post when I do my monthly update with links to everything, I guess it could potentially replace the monthly blog entry. If you’d like to sign up to it and be a guinea pig then chuck your e-mail in below.

The more I fiddle with Squarespace the more I learn about the features. Before I found that my photos looked too small when set up like they are below, but I’ve discovered the lightbox option in the gallery which now allows you to click on the images to make it full screen; I feel this makes the page a lot tidier!

I started using the Street Art app last month and exploring a little with it, I also signed up to be a hunter, this month my application was accepted and I became a Street Art Hunter for Portsmouth. Considering the amount of street art there is in Portsmouth the team is very small and including myself, only has two activate participants, so I’m very eager to get out and start filling in the gaps.

For New Years Eve we stayed in and kept it quiet. We did our annual protection spell on the door, scattering thyme, rosemary, and salt over the threshold. We wrote down one thing we wanted to leave in 2025 before burning it in the garden, then had a drink while setting an an intention for 2026 - call it a resolution if you will.

Next Month…

It’s 2026!

This year the idea is to keep January nice and quiet; however Min and I do have our 7 year anniversary!

F1 photos taken by my child. | Christmas photos taken by Min.

Gaming…

Warhammer 40k: Darktide has come back on my rader with the introduction of the Hive Scum class which I’m really enjoying playing, it’s very different to playing my big Ogryn, running around the place with guns akimbo. They’ve also added some new game maps/campaigns which has freshened it up a bit as running the same maps over and over again was rather boring!

Back in 2017 I pledged to a game called Ashes of Creation on Kickstarter, however I’d been burnt by another game I pledged to so discounted the game and ignored it. Recently I had an update in my e-mail about linking my Steam account as they were going Early Access, I was rather surprised, happily, so did this and started playing a bit of it. It’s in a buggy launch state, but I’m rather enjoying it, and it’s been a long time since I stuck my teeth into a proper MMO.

My child wanted to play a game together and spotted something on Tiktok called Peak, which they bought so I bought a copy for myself too and we began playing it together. It’s so much fun, so silly, and really pushes the coop which is nice as my child is rather competitive. We are still learning what all the gear does but we’re having a lot of laughs together, and that’s what matters.

I picked up Dispatch in the Steam Winter sales which I’m really enjoying, it’s my casual escape from more active games, a deep story full of flawed superheroes. It’s enjoyable and engaging, although not exactly what I was expecting and I don’t see much replay value in it.

Movies & Shows…

The Real Housewives of London, Season 1 - My (not so) guilty pleasure is the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills so when London aired I had to watch it, and I fell straight into the hole, binging the season. It started off quite stiff and felt heavily scripted but as the season went on I fell for some of the women; they are a completely different class of woman compared to Beverly Hills, they are (well some) ladies, their style and fashion is beyond any other, I adore their clothes. Juliet Mayhew and Nessie Welschinger stole the show for me they seem like wonderful people. On the flipside, Amanda Cronin is completely unhinged and for somebody who attempts to portray this woman of elegance, she’s given off essex girl vibes falling out of a club and laying into whoever she can, while telling people she’s the bee’s knees - psycho!

Six Feet Under, Season 1 - What a show, it doesn’t shy away from the dark side of life and is filled with dark humour, but covers serious topics. I am really enjoying watching this, however watching Michael Hall (fantastic actor) perform is making me want to re-watch Dexter - and I can see why he got the role of Dexter after watching him in this!

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 15; Episode 1 / Episode 2 / Episode 3

The Morning Show, Season 1 - Star filled show with some superb acting, so much emotion in some of the scenes and they nail it each time. The season didn’t hold back from being dark, gritty, authentic and really hit home the topics. The ‘rape scene’ episode was so cringe and uncomfotable to watch, but they did it so bloody well. Fantastic show!

The Morning Show, Season 2 - Continuing with the topics of last season and throwing in more this season with race and LGBTQIA+ topics. The acting in this show continues to amaze and the fact they don’t shy from topics instead go full throttle into them really appeals to me.

The Morning Show, Season 3 - This was filled with twists and plots upon plots and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. My only gripe was that I don’t think Paul would have been so ‘cool’ at the end of the season.

Twisted Metal, Season 2 - I’d forgotten how good Season 1 was until I started watching Season 2, then it all came flooding back. So much carnage, mayhem, and fun! I loved all the characters and seeing them develop (and die)! Looking forward to more (hopefully!)

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - This franchise never fails to amaze and leave you in a state of confusion until that last point where everything makes sense! Fantastic performance from everyone. Hoping for more movies!

Preaching To The Perverted - A tongue in cheek BDSM/Fetish movie that I watched long ago and is still a great movie, so underrated, but a fantastic film, and very hard to come by these days.

Podcasts & Books…

Harleen by Stjepan Sejic - This was a fantastic graphic novel showing the origin story of Harleen Quinn; it was well written and showed her psychological trauma and the art was to be expected, absolutely fantastic!

Fine Print, Vol 2 by Stjepan Sejic - I really enjoyed Volume 1 of Fine Print, it was different, wild, and exciting. Volume 2 hasn’t disappointed and has upped the ante! I’m very keen to know more and looking forward to volume 3. As usual the artwork is superb and the story is going from strength to strength.

Music…

I discovered Ryan Cassata this month and fell in love with his Daughter song; it gave me a lot of feels. It’s a fantastic transition song and kind of hit home.

I bought myself a record player for my study this month as part of making the study my ‘sanctuary’ and have been going through my vinyl collection, it’s been really nice having that access in a space that I’m frequently in, and doing the morning admin has been much more enjoyable.

I was bought the Linkin Park Hybrid Theory vinyl by my child for Christmas, and also treated myself to Avril Lavigne’s Greatest Hits to add to my collection. I’m loving listening to all my old favourite songs from my teen years, and doubly so listening to them on vinyl. I also discovered Michelle Branch while watching Twisted Metal, who I initially thought was Avril, but turns out her song Everywhere made me think of My Happy Ending.

Photography…

This month I actually started Module 1 of Level 2 Photography, which I basically blitzed through to the point that I was finished with it before the winter holiday started. On a plus it meant I didn’t need to go out and do any photos for the module, although this month I haven’t done a lot of photography at all due to illness and being busy. However having complete the written side of the module I started adding to it as you can see in the gallery below; I added some depth of field demonstrations utilising the christmas tree, a gingerbread man, and a festive dinosaur.

December 2025