It’s time for a round-up of my moments of 2025. As always, most of these relate to my life, most of these are positive, joyous, fun moments – but a few are darker too.
Starting with…
25. Millwall Away
I hadn’t been to a Hull game all season, we seem to be in a groove where we are never playing at home when I visit Hull, even on Boxing Day.
Then my sister suggested that we go to Millwall away, and go around the Millwall pubs with a friend of hers. Millwall?
Anyway, he was a proper Millwall geezer, supporting them for 42 years now and goes to loads of games – proper fan of a proper club, and we met like dozens of his mates in the Millwall pubs he took us to (would you like a pint of Fosters or a pint of Carling) – he kept introducing us as Hull fans to which I tried to feint fright – but everyone was sound, and it was a really good day out.
And then we won 3-1. Not sure we would have been so welcome in the pubs after the game.
24. Tommy Robinson’s Fascist March
This is obviously one of those darker moments I mentioned.
I was aware of the Tommy Robinson’s cocaine habit fund march, it happens every year – but I had to go into London on the same day, and some of the people whose paths I crossed in London Victoria were fucking scary.
All of the nastiest-looking people that you’d normally swerve were out, drunk, high on cocaine and the mood was proper edgy.
I remain hopeful that we won’t go down such a path, but we are in increasingly dark times. Do we not have books on the 1930’s that we can learn from? Oh…nobody reads any more.
23. Last Day Survival
So last season for Hull City AFC was a bit painful. We started off with a German manager promising us “heart attack football” who just brought chaos as the team didn’t know what they were supposed to do, and random things would happen like centre backs and left wingers swapping places to confuse the opposition.
The opposition were clearly so confuddled in every game that we ended up in the relegation zone. Also he was over-training the players, who were knackered by Christmas. He duly left.
Ruben Selles came in, we won a few games, but by the end of the season it was like I was playing football – so tired and sluggish. And on the last day of the season, we had to better Luton’s result to stay up.
We went 1-0 up early on in the game, away at Portsmouth, and looked good for 20 minutes. But after that we were totally knackered. Portsmouth equalised in the second half, and then proceeded to toy with us all second half, rarely bothering to attempt to score – but it would have been 5-1 if they cared enough. Damn it was stressful.
Luton themselves, lost 5-1. We survived.
22. Bird strike
Leaving Portugal never seems to be easy – last time we spent like 1.5 hours in passport control and had to run for our plane.
This time, that part was smooth, and we took off only a little later than expected.
And then whilst up in the air, the pilot came on and said, “I’m afraid I have some bad news…”. Not what you want to hear when in an aeroplane. “We’ve hit a bird and will need to go back to Faro so the plane can be inspected”.
So we’d hit a stork, it left quite a chunky dint – Wizz Air put us up in a minus two star hotel in Faro, cancelled the replacement flight the next day, then put us on another flight which was delayed by 6 hours.
On the bright side, I wouldn’t have bought Techno Crab without it.
21. Closer To Customers (or maybe Closer To Quitting)
Working for M&S has become increasingly frustrating, yet it’s still good money and the job is pretty easy – at least it is easy for me with my reasonably high level of skills, excellent command of the code base, oh and my high level of Co-Pilot usage. Damn that new Claude Opus AI model is next-level for coding.
Plus I work with lovely people, even if I was the only one drinking at our Christmas meal…ooops.
However they make you work in the store 7 days a year. They call it Closer To Customers. We used to call it Closer To Covid. I feel like it’s Closer To Quitting.
I previously refused to do it…but then suddenly mortgage happened, and I decided maybe it was better to stack shelves than have the risk of losing my job or not getting my bonus (not that we’ll get one next year anyway…well…I’d be shocked).
Weirdly I didn’t hate it, the people were nice and the exercise was useful. But then I was shattered for a week afterwards.
20. Trump Tariffs
The world survived the first term of the man-child relatively unscathed, as a country and as a world, but this time seems different.
I could have picked many an occasion whether that be the disgraceful treatment of Zelensky, the DOGE data stealing, the new national security strategy which basically says Europe is the enemy and Russia is not to worry about, the shameful response to the death of Rob Reiner, sending troops into Democrat-led cities, trying to shut down media organisations through threats of being sued, mass pardons for criminals, the pardon being for sale, vast theft of money via crypto scams…
But the one that immediately had a major impact was the announcement of tariffs. On a personal basis, I had some money on the side-line which I put straight into the stock market, so financially (all other things being equal) I have benefitted.
This really was Trump, and half of America saying “fuck you” to their allies. And how did we respond? We sucked up to Trump. Disgusting.
19. Painted The Main Room
Well, I didn’t buy most of the furniture/decorative elements that I wanted to this year because I kept spending my money on holidays.
However, I did get rid of the yucky and slightly depressing blue-ish grey colour in the main room.
The only other things I did were small bits of sorting out/tidying up – I still need to buy various bits of furniture, shelves, art and plants to make it look more like a home.
But at least the walls are not depressing any more!
18. How Much Fucking Tax?
One of the reasons I stayed at M&S over the last year or so, was because 50% of my 2022 bonus was due in July 2025 – which having been invested in shares due to vest this year, had grown into a very decent 5-figure sum.
I kind of expected it to be under Capital Gains tax rules, which isn’t great but could be worse.
Though someone persuaded me that it wasn’t actually taxed, because it had been taxed in 2022 (it hadn’t).
Alas, worse than I expected – it was all taxed as income tax, so the higher rate of 40% which was ouchie. Yeah, higher rate tax payer problems and all, I know, but I paid nearly £13k in tax that month. Rachel Reeves better be spending it wisely.
17. Christo’s Funeral
Being in my mid-40’s, funerals thankfully don’t come around often. But when they do, they can be quite hard-hitting.
Christo was a legend at M&S. Someone part responsible for my direction, bringing me into the personalisation space, I worked with him on and off for a few years.
He was funny, charming, always – always up for a beer or 5, I could have weird conversations with him about what we’d do at M&S if there was a major space weather event that knocked out the networks, or if America came under the control of Putin, what would happen to Microsoft Azure’s services, etc.
Around my age, two adorable kids, a super talented principle engineer – one of those that makes no sense. I cried.
16. Connaughty
Speaking of crying, I spent £78.00 on a roast dinner.
It was a stunning experience at probably the most upmarket place where I’m allowed – though I did feel way out of place. Imposter syndrome was back.
Great wine which somehow we chose from a 118-page wine list (some of which were £60,000 a bottle, and I didn’t read it all), gorgeous vegetables, superb cake – solid wood in the toilets.
Worth the bill? Probably just about, but it’s a once a year kinda thing.
15. More Portimão
Leaving Portugal is rarely straight-forward, but being there is a delight.
This time for my dear friend, Carrie’s birthday. For some reason I took my work laptop so I could work morning, so I could have enough holiday to go away again in November – which I never actually went on. Moron.
Anyway, the last of the sun-worshipping of the year, some good beers, some great food and delightful company – Saturday afternoon on the hotel rooftop for her birthday was such a delight.
14. Another Euros Victory
Every summer now features the stress of following England in a major football tournament, at least since I realised women’s football is actually pretty fun.
Of course, we won again, this time by beating the Spanish on penalties – and it just felt like we’d do it. There was a part of the first half when I thought the Spanish were too good for us, but most of the time, I believed. And – we won!
Also, of course, it wasn’t smooth sailing. We lost the first game against France, a match I spent around half of debating whether Israel had committed genocide or just a fuck-load of war crimes (I side towards the latter).
Oh and then the worst penalty shoot-out ever against Sweden – any half-decent team should have beaten us then.
The semi-final against Italy was the most fun we had, watching it at BoxPark, winning in the most dramatic style with an equaliser soooooo far into stoppage time that I’d given up hope, and then the winner almost in the last minute of extra time. There were limbs.
Plus women don’t throw their beer in the air when England score at BoxPark.
13. Chilling In The Sun In Helsinki
Helsinki was the least of my 3 favourite cities that I went to on my Scandinavian excursion, yet it’s the only one to feature on this list.
Why?
Well there was just a perfect moment of glorious sunshine, really good (and fucking expensive beer) and top-notch friendship laughs just rolled into one.
We were on a fortress island called Suomenlinna, it had a kind of industrial vibe, which I love. The salmon soup thing was really good too, and we’d finally found some sunshine for pretty much the first time of the holiday – I could actually take my jacket off. It was just a really great couple of hours.
12. Ancient City in Santorini
Santorini wasn’t really my kind of place – the food was bang average, the prices pretty expensive and the Instagrammers swarmed in certain parts.
But…hot sunshine in September, yes please every single year.
So my highlight was probably walking up the mountain – not the highest peak ever, but I think just about counts as a mountain. It was actually quite an easy trek, a paved road that meandered upwards.
Up top, there was the remains of an ancient city. At first I wasn’t going to bother paying the €10 just to go see a load of stones, but actually it was pretty cool – one could imagine oneself watching theatre on top of a mountain thousands of years ago.
Gosh I miss sunshine and warmth sooooo badly. And it’s only December (at the time of writing…might be February before I finish this post).
11. The Importance Of Being Earnest
I don’t really have much to say on this, but gosh was this play a lot of fun.
So much queer innuendo, such brilliant acting, great costumes – there’s a great write-up here.
10. The Importance Of My Sister Being Older
And my sister turned 40 in 2025. So instead of being sensible and just having drinks/food at a pub, she decided to host her own party at a venue she hired, whilst having a mega stressful job, heart condition, and all that at the same time.
Because Winfield’s apparently don’t like an easy life.
Anyway, the party was a smash, so many of my sister’s lovely friends were there (most of them you could say are also my friends now, and vice-versa), the parents were there, I got to DJ for the first time in years and didn’t totally mash it up.
And there was a decent roast dinner the next day. Oh and it was sunny and warm that weekend too…always a bonus.
9. OMG I Went On A Date
The teeth will be mentioned later, but one thing that the teeth gave me was the confidence to go back onto dating apps – though I still get mostly nothing back, I have had a couple of dates from an app called Breeze, where you cannot do all the bullshit chit-chat back and forth beforehand, you actually have to go meet them.
So my first date was lovely. Super pretty, really intelligent, loved to talk about politics more than I did – but I did feel a tad out of my depth, she was way out of my league, as amazing as I do generally think I am.
We did get on well, but she didn’t feel a spark…fair…neither did I but I would have had a second date.
I then went on another date with another woman. There was something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, a little bit of duplicity between her profile and her actual life (like living in Ipswich when her profile says Kensington!). Anyway she asked me at the end of the date if I’d like to meet her again. I mumbled something about I’d think about it.
But then on the way home I messaged her, still unconvinced but saying “yes, let’s do it”. She sent me her number (via the app), I sent mine, with the intention of messaging her the next day.
Then she said, “well if you expect me to be the man, you can forgot about it”. Erm…bullet dodged I suspect.
8. Siege Of Sarajevo
I’ve started reading more about the concept of “dark tourism” recently – going to places with a sinister history, be it cities themselves, museums about dark periods of history or actual old military sites, jails, etc.
This wasn’t especially my intention with a visit to Sarajevo, I was mostly looking to tick another country off the list, experience something new, eat different food, etc. But I was very well aware that I was visiting somewhere that had been relatively recently through a war – and did feel that way when in the city.
The moment that really impacted me was going to the Siege Of Sarajevo museum, which was quite a sort of basic place, filled with trinkets and memorials from the war, but also stories.
Some of the stories were horrendous, and I won’t repeat them here. But others were hopeful – like the story of the ballerina who never missed a practice session despite the siege, or the woman who always wore heels and dressed smartly when walking through Sniper Valley.
And then there was a soldier who was sat on his book, but then put the book in front of him – and a few minutes later a bullet hit the book. Both book and bullet were in the museum – and his life was saved by the book. I forgot who the author was, Ernest Hemingway maybe…something like that.
Anyway, I came out of this museum two hours later, and was just emotionally shell-shocked about what I’d read. Heart-breaking stuff.
7. Better Than Blacklock
So I finally found a roast dinner that is arguably better than Blacklock.
Alas, you’d need to travel to Hull to experience it.
Literally everything was perfect – fluffy yorkies, perfectly crispy roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese that tasted of cheese, OMG the lamb croquette thing. Had this been in London, it would have smashed the league table with well over a 9.50/10.
The place is called Hearth. I might do a road-trip to Hull in 2026 so give me a nudge if you want in for the best roast dinner I’ve ever had in a restaurant.
6. Fun of Midsummer’s Nights Dream
One of my favourite moments from 2024 was going to the immersive theatre of Guys and Dolls, and being in the audience on the floor, watching it.
In the same theatre, we went to see Midsummer’s Nights Dream, by William Shakespeare – and it probably even topped it.
Sure, it being Shakespeare, the story wasn’t easy to follow, but the acrobatics were, the costumes were amazing, the stage movement was a lot of fun…easily the best thing I saw all year.
5. Day Trip To Paris
So I discovered the knackering wonders of an Extreme Day Trip in 2025, as I had booked myself onto the Eurostar to Paris – going there and back in a day.
For my birthday!
Which of course meant that could drink, as detox doesn’t count in a foreign country, or even once you have gone past passport control.
We had a pretty action-packed day, looked at Notre-Dame, had a good lunch, went to an art gallery in a squat, then went to Musée d’Orsay to admire all the impressionist art which is stunning, then had some craft beer, then popped into a little wine shop for some charcuterie and wine…then got the Eurostar back.
I was totally knackered the next day, but it was so much fun. Need to do another one in 2026!
4. Sarajevo Mountain
For some reason, exercise-hating Winfield loves walking up mountains.
Sarajevo is surrounded by mountains – it is where the snipers were during the war, but also where the old Winter Olympics bobsleigh track was – so not only did I get the challenge of getting to the top, but also had this outdoor urbexing opportunity when I arrived.
You could walk down much of the track – most of it graffitied, and imagine the crowds cheering you on as you sped down the track, competing to finish second-last (for sure in my case).
The walk up to get here was fun, and the views of the city stunning. You could get a cable car instead…or drive…but I wanted the walk.
3. OMG Lake Bled
So years ago I had a picture of Lake Bled appear on my Windows machine, and I thought it was stunning, so I put it on my list of places to visit.
And finally in 2025, I did actually visit it. And my, was it stunning.
The lake was clear and blue, the castle looked gorgeous, the church on the little island so pretty too. Plus surrounded by Alpine forest. It really was soooo dreamy.
Wish I had shared it with someone…but I was delightfully happy wandering around on my own, listening to music, I stopped off for a couple of beers in the warm sunshine too. No…I didn’t walk up any of those mountains.
2. Beautiful Ljubljana
It is a bit strange that 3 of my top 4 moments were by myself, not sure if I should read more into that?!
Anyway, Ljubljana was the best place I visited all year – such a vibrant, beautiful small city – at least the central part is anyway, as it just gets a bit 70’s Yugoslav outside of that.
A bit like Strasbourg the year before, it was picture-postcard pretty, but also I had some really good food – both traditional and modern, good craft beer everywhere.
And OMG there were sooo many hot women around.
Good beer, hot sunshine, hot women, beautiful buildings – I had a superb time.
1. Being Able To Smile Again
So the actual “moment” has to be on the Friday morning, the third session of pain and torture that week, when my dentist was fitting my crowns and my implants – everything was almost there, yet she had a concerned face then started speaking to her colleague – in Hungarian.
What’s wrong????
“We just need to do a little root canal also”. Just…a…little…root canal. After all the pain that I’d already been through.
But after another 15 minutes of incessant pain and drilling, it really was over. I had a full set of teeth again. I could smile again. Fuck, I could even get rejected on an actual date in real life again.
I still forget to open my mouth and smile sometimes, I’m still getting used to it – but I’m also so fucking happy I did this.
It was horrendous to go through, but holy cow I’m much happier and more confident now.
So, of course, it is my number one moment of 2025.