So that’s 2024 done. It got a bit hectic at the end, but as a species we totally stuck the landing. Ha ha.

Actually, as years go 2024 was a net win:

  • Me and mine mostly got through it unscathed. There were new jobs and new schools and that all seems to have panned out.
  • Finished what ended up being an eighteen-month contract (by the time various change requests and additional features were added) and the resulting product is good, we got it in on time and the client/users really liked it. Not all gigs have a definitive win at the end, but this one did. That said, I’m 85% sure the client are going to kill said product later this year during the system rationalisation that always occurs following a merger. So it goes.
  • Saw a lot of really good gigs. St. Vincent (Albert Hall), Idles (Ally Pally) and Yard Act (I refuse to call it anything other than the Hammersmith Odeon) could all be contenders for the best one, but Living Colour at Rock City was just amazing.
  • Floated in the Med a few times.
  • I finally own an Ibanez Roadstar (eBay) and a Hello Kitty Strat (Fender re-issued it) which have been my most bucket listed guitars in recent years.
  • Got a gig as a bass player in a band after giving one of the kid’s mates a bass lesson. I was having a poke round Gumtree to see if I could find a decent short scale bass for him to start on and there was a “bass player wanted” ad. And seeing as I’d just been telling him that bass is one of the more fun jobs in a band I applied for the position on a whim, auditioned, and got it. Early days yet, but more on that in the near future.
  • Actually wrote quite a lot of music. (Maybe more on that in the future?)
  • Completely fell off the blogging wagon, after I’d been doing so well. And social media, actually.
  • Ran quite a lot (including coaxing my brother into his first 10km), but also put on quite a lot of weight. This often happens during the tail end of a big consultancy gig, because sticking the landing with a large backlog and a firm deadline requires biscuits. All of them, apparently.
  • Watched with a deep sense of unease as the world slid back into fascism and totalitarianism and whatever name history comes up with for the crypto-bros-vs-MAGA thing that America is about to install (spoiler, probably also “fascism”). But hey, at least the Tories are gone which is a solid win for Airstrip One.
  • I’ve nailed Yorkshire Puddings.

So… immediate jobs to do for 2025: find a new contract/project/job, eat fewer biscuits, play more music, maybe post the occasional thing on the interwebs and fight the fash at every available juncture.

Plan.