With the 1st of January now rolling us into 2025, it’s time for my annual review of the year that has just closed. Another beautiful sunny day here in Virginia, warm and blue skies as I sit down and reflect on some of the stats and journals I have maintained this year.

Health

Definitely stepped up efforts here, after the previous year’s dismal outing. Peloton usage went right back up again, with 3,700 minutes logged compared to 2023’s 1,795 minutes. After I stopped going back and forth to India in March, I managed to get back into a stricter regular routine. The doctor was happy progress with all my usual vitals was trending back in the right direction. Focused now on getting my weight down, which isn’t at “Walmart” level – though I was 4 lbs. heavier in 2024 than I was in 2023.

Professional

Stepped off the good ship New Harbor Capital in April, as we came to a natural close with Escalon being handed over to new leadership. With our skills no longer aligned (we’re in the technology creation business, not technology consumption), it was good timing. We were then asked to come and look at an interesting opportunity that ParkerGale was kicking the tires on, and 4 months of diligence later, Ryan and I jumped on at HiBid.

This has been one of the best career decisions I have made, jumping in as CTO, building out a new team to reimagine the platform, preparing the company for its next evolutionary growth. I have not felt this energized about a role for a long time—back to doing what I do best.

Flights dropped down a little from last year’s 77, with 59 flights registered (with 55 hotel nights). I suspect this year that number will continue to reduce.

Movies

Tracking my 7th year of movie and television watching over at IMDB, I only raked up 250 titles compared to the record breaking 410 in 2023. Going to put this down to my traveling dropping off a little, but I think a lot of it is I did a lot more reading (more later).

I always love reflecting on this as you forget what came out and what you thought of it at the time. The Top 5 (with only one gaining 10/10 the rest coming in at 9/10) was:

1. That Christmas
2. Fly Me to the Moon
3. The Fall Guy
4. Road House
5. Conclave

Some disappointments that I was purposely excited to see included Wolfs (Pitt/Clooney), and Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warface (I have to reside myself that he will never make another Snatch level movie again).

TV

TV continues to excel and pack a lot into a single episode. The top rated series for this year was:

1. Slow Horses
2. Clarkson’s Farm
3. SAS Rogue Heroes
4. 3 Body Problem
5. Black Sails
6. One Day
7. Nightsleeper
8. The Traitors NZ
9. The Diplomat
10. Rivals

Some repeat customers are here, with strong continued seasons coming out. I didn’t get to watch the latest Brassic, which dropped its latest season in the Fall that I intend to binge very soon. Slow Horses continues to get better, and I started reading the books, which had me roaring with laughter and highlighting just how good the TV series is (and this year I sat on the haloed clandestine bench).

Music

I kept the tradition of tagging music videos in YouTube, with 51 snagged (compared to 53 last year). This was the year we discovered Chappell Roan and Jelly Roll (largely down to my wife who has really leaned in here) and they kept popping up all the time. The top 5 songs of 2024 was:

1. Chappell Roan – Pink Pony Club
2. Mark Knopfler – Going Home (Guitar Heroes)
3. Jelly Roll – Liar
4. Beyonce – Texas Hold’em
5. Amy Winehouse – Rehab

Two movies came out, One Love (Bob Marley) and Amy (Winehouse) which reignited their music and it was nice rediscovering them again.

Continued to add to my record collection, including weaving around more walls to display some of this beautiful artwork.

Books

I managed to drop my eReader and well it was an excuse to grab the latest Kobo model which has not failed to impress. I read a lot when I am on the plane and also a little bit before the light goes out at night. If a book catches me I can usually get it nailed in a 2-3 days. I usually go back and forth between fiction/non-fiction.

Fiction wise I started John Le Carre (Tailor of Panama) and looking forward to continuing. Mick Herron (he of Slow Horses) has been a riot, short books that are hard to put down. I read all of TJ Newman books centered around airplane drama (she is like a Michael Crichton lite).

Non-fiction, I have been all over, with Patrick Lencioni, John Doerr, Michael Lewis, Brad Stone and Steven Levy. Getting the inside scoop on the likes of Amazon, Google, eBay and FTX to name a few.

Misc.

Overall, mental health and general relaxation were good in 2024, with our monthly poker nights becoming a look-forward-to event as the quality of our group continued to grow. The annual Eurovision party, around May, was a little disappointing (we still had fun – but Peacock had technical difficulties streaming, which took the shine off a little).

I try to keep my Saturdays for me to go out and piddle in the yard/garage and sit beside the Solo Stove reading – there is something very soothing about sitting in front of a fire and just listening to its crackling.

2024 did mark the year that I got my ass back on a motorbike, finally getting my USA license in May (I’ve been meaning to do this ever since moving to the USA after I had it in the UK). I am a huge lover of the adventure style of motorbikes, and since I started out on a 50cc Suzuki back when I was 6 years old, it felt right to go back to my roots and get its big brother.

This has been a huge stress reliever, as I bounce around the backroads of Virginia, exploring and experiencing the sights and smells. As they say, every corner you come out of was a good one.

Kelley and I went over to Paris (opening week of the Olympics – I never realized when booking!) and had a really nice time exploring what turned out to be an empty city, before taking the EuroTunnel over to London, then up to Scotland/Ireland before heading home.

Looking to 2025

Usual platitudes, keep getting healthier, don’t let the small things get to you, and try and add good to the world around me.

Here we go.