2025 - The Year That Was

The year is almost over and I have written much for 2025, partly because I was injured for maybe half of it, the other because I didn’t do too much apart from work and another because the app I use (and also the internet) were not working very well. Last New Year’s Eve I stayed home, watched some TV and had trouble sleeping. Anyway, I digress.

January

I grew a beard, watched all the Arsenal end of season recap videos from like 1994-95 to 2004-05. Apartment sat for Sam & Stu over Australia Day; it rained briefly on that Friday night which was nice. Went on a date.

February 

Turned my beard into a moustache, went on two dates over the Valentines Day weekend which was nice but this is where things started to go downhill fast for me, my Friday night dry desert workout finally struck back at me and I injured one of the disks in my back, due to not warming up and not drinking water. Tough times. Feb needed with me finally going to the physio.

March

Going to the physio a fair bit, the weather cooling down a little and becoming darker too. I couldn’t run anymore so I was just walking around Subi and down Rokeby Rd at like 930pm one or two nights per week and walking about 90 mins on the treadmill on Friday nights. Had my first ever MRI scan too which I got through much easier than I thought.

April 

I got to my break I point at work as I was in too much pain sitting down and far too much pain when I tried to stand up. Still walking around Subi and struggling to sleep a bit. Thinking that maybe I will need to have surgery.

May

Started standing up at work finally and things slowly started to improve. Kept walking at night. Finally went to the chiropractor at the end of May.

June

After I inexplicably fainted at 4am in the morning on a Thursday before work and woke up with my head wedged between the wall and the TV cabinet, things started to turn around.

Friday night 6th of June

Went out for the first time all year, was so cold but was pretty busy in the city. Jas, Trav & myself were at Flight Club for ages, by the time we left it was about 1020pm, the bar area upstairs didn’t seem as busy as before but downstairs and all of the darts area were still busy. Then we went to The Aviary for maybe another hour or so before we left. I was wearing a hoody because it was so cold, it was pretty busy and good atmosphere and Jas and Trav had probably had at least 8 drinks each. Eventually we departed and I caught the train home.

The end of June I apartment sat for Sam & Stu again for almost a week which very nice again. Was so cold though.

July 

Started running on the treadmill again but at slow pace. Going to the gym on Friday nights on the treadmill.

August

Started doing Saturday night missions to other Goodlife gyms. New gyms discovered = 2. Started running again on Tuesday nights.

September

Had a Friday night beer after work in West Perth. Watched some athletics. Did some more Saturday night missions and discovered 2 more Goodlife gyms, both pretty close to me.

October 

Discovered one last Goodlife for 2025 which brought my total gyms frequented during the year to 9 - definitely a record. October is probably my favourite month because it is so cool but not cold, it is still cloudy with a little bit of rain (especially at night), footy is finally over and the urgency to Christmas hasn’t started yet. One night I went to Langley Park at about 8pm for some Indian/work festival and walked through there. It was cloudy, cool and raining a little bit so was nice. Halloween at the very end of October was similar too and also rained a little on the drive home.

November

As seen in the previous blog November always seems to be busy and the warm weather starts and it’s light in the morning from pretty much 5am every day. Pretty busy like yoga on Friday mornings, work Christmas party, cricket and one or two other things. Probably the highlight though was apartment sitting for Sam & Stu for the 3rd time this year but this time it was one of the two penthouse apartments on Beaufort St. This was amazing and definitely made me think about upgrading my unit.

December 

Here I am now with only about 5 hours left for 2025 and I am lying on my bed wondering if I should stay home tonight or if I should go to the gym and then to the South Perth foreshore to watch the fireworks. December was a good month but so busy and pretty hot. I was having sleeping on Sunday nights as I’d only had about 1 leave day since the Christmas break finished in January. I had so many things on my mind that I wanted to do but hadn’t touched them due to working all the time. Anyway I will finish this blog off with my second and final outing to the city for drinks for 2025. Something that I had tried to plan for late July but it kept getting pushed back until the year was almost over.

Friday the 12th of December

I was late to book so didn’t get a darts booking until 1035pm which was about 2 hours later than I had wanted. At least this meant that I could take my time after finishing work and could head home and not have to rush.

I caught the train in and met up with Trav at the Murray St train station entrance just after 8. It was definitely busy and we went to Belgian Beer Cafe whilst we waited for Jas. It was busy and we were there until about 845 before Jas showed up. We were there until about 10 before we left for Flight Club, I randomly saw Brendan & Sam (my old manager) near FC so was talking to them for a bit. Anyway the place was busy but the darts not as much as the bar. We played for at least 30 + minutes and it was good, might do this again next year. We then walked to Yagan Square and made our way through the Stories labyrinth (seriously annoying) and then had a few more drinks there.

It was late now and we were there until about 1220am, right next to the walkway between Wellington St and Northbridge at Yagan Square. It was nice and cool and the wind was pretty strong. There were a lot of young people walking by, some late 30’s women was looking on the ground for cigarette butts (she looked decent for a drug user) and I think she made a lot of the new Australian residents a bit uncomfortable. One young Aussie guy took her away from scaring these people as I think he gestured to her that there was someone nearby that actually had cigarettes.

Anyway, Trav & JC would have been at least 7 drinks deep (quite possibly a few more). Trav mentioned to me that his goal for 2026 was to lose some weight. I didn’t realise that his weight was an issue but when he mentioned that he probably drank about 40 beers over his 6 days off then I started to see the issue. JC mentioned that one of his goals was to join a gym and do his gym work during his lunch breaks, partly due to him running out of room in his gym room at his house. JC was the one person that I know who I thought could do hole workouts for the rest of his life without losing motivation and still being as fit/strong as anyone else that I knew, so JC saying this proved to me that change applies to everyone and every part of life. Two interesting insights that I was not aware of.

At about 1225am it was time to leave, mainly so Trav & Jas wouldn’t wake up too hungover in the morning and also because I didn’t want to miss my train. I walked to the city station and caught the train home and took some selfies as it was so peaceful in Daglish. Made some chips and didn’t go to bed until after 2am. Was a good night and decent closure for the unusual year that was 2025.

November - Friday 21st & 28th

Friday 21/11/25

533am - Wake up and have a 30 second shower, get dressed and then drive to West Perth. Am tired but pretty alert. It is light outside.

6am - Arrive at yoga for my first non-Wednesday night class ever. Have done about 260 Wednesday night classes so this is new for me and don’t really know what to expect.

720am - Yoga finishes and it was a fair bit more tiring than my Wednesday night class. I quickly drive home and the roads are a little busy now.

815am - Am finally ready and leave Jolimont to head to work. Am def a little fatigued from yoga.

440pm - Turn off my computer and go to the big meeting room for some Christmas games with everyone else. We are doing jigsaw puzzles and ours is a soccer one so I am very keen as I know pretty much all of these players but know there is no way that we will finish this puzzle before our dinner.

620pm - Leave work to go to our Christmas dinner in Innaloo, after completing about 5% of our puzzle. We are def behind schedule. Eventually I arrive at the Indian restaurant which is on the other side of the road from the Innaloo Goodlife which means that I didn’t have to worry about checking directions because I’ve been going there a bit lately on Saturday nights.

950pm - Leave the dinner, I am so full and have about 3 containers full of leftovers which I take home. We always order way too much food at these dinners so there are always leftovers.

1005pm - Arrive home in Jolimont, I am so full and tired too. Feel like I am in a stupor and am seriously questioning if I will be able to make the gym.

1130pm - Arrive at the gym, did not think that I was going to make it. There’s pretty much no one here and I do my usual Friday night walk on the treadmill and 40 or so minutes later I change over and do a 20 minute run. Watch the coin drop game (UK version) on one of the TVs in front of me.

130am - After having a shower I leave the gym and drive to Wembley IGA to buy some orange juice.

205am - Finally go to bed, I am pretty cooked.

Saturday 22/11/25

830am(ish) - Wake up by alarm even though I’m still so tired, play on my phone like a zombie for a bit.

920am - Stu messages me to say he’s got a spare ticket to the ASHES and he plans on going for maybe one session or so. This is the reason why I set my alarm and yes I decide to go for a bit as well and yeah this would have been a lot easier if I just msgd Stu during the week to confirm this.

1130am - It is so overcast and not hot which is nice. I arrive at the stadium after training it from Daglish. Definitely a good vibe and I make my way up to the top tier and find Stu. Perth Stadium is def a 10 out of 10 for watching live sport.

540pm - Am shocked but very impressed that Australia who started the day batting managed to bowl out England in two sessions and then score 200 odd in less than 30 overs to win the match. Very good atmosphere. I head down to the train station, wait awhile then very, very slowly catch the very packed train to Daglish and manage to get through the crowd and out of the train.

625pm - Walk home from Daglish Station, arrive home and message David and Ben to let them know that we won’t be going to the cricket tomorrow.

Friday 28/11/25

530am - Wake up, have a 30 second shower and race out to yoga in West Perth for another Friday morning session.

6am - Arrive at yoga. Nice and light like usual and people are walking past the studio wearing their Christmas party clothes.

720am - Am lying on my back as yoga finishes, it was another really good workout. The relaxing music is still on and all the lights are off. Everyone is lying down still and I am looking to make a quick exit. As I get up really quietly to spray my mat and sneak off, Eva (our instructor) is also sneaking out and she says that she’s got to go to work in a very soft voice. I sneak out too but it’s funny because the music is still on, the lights are off, people are still lying on their backs with their eyes closed and I’m wondering who the hell is going to lock the studio up 😂😂😂. I get to my car quickly and head home through Subiaco.

730am - Arrive home and start getting ready for work.

835am - Arrive at my desk at work and I am the only in our office for at least the next 30 minutes.

The day passes.

6pm - After working late to get as much done as I can, I head home. Was a very quiet day in our office with only about 3 or 4 people there.

635pm - Get home, get changed and lie on the couch and play on my phone.

725pm - Cut up and toast the remaining sour dough bread that I have, eat it with some cheese and avocado.

805pm - Pack up my two shopping bags with all of my gym clothes and a towel. Drive to West Perth near Pascoes and park my car.

820pm - Cross over to Watertown and am waiting at the Yellow CAT stop with a lot of other people. A car pulls up in front of the stop and I am wondering what this person is doing because it’s not a taxi bay and they’ve pretty much stopped. I look to my left to see which person is going to get into this car, I notice a guy standing close to me and I wonder if he is going to get in. I am staring at this person and eventually I realise (unbeknownst to him) that this is Prayash from work that I talk to every day and he is waiting for the bus but is looking at his phone.

825pm - Catch the CAT with Prayash to the Forrest Place. Prayash and I get off, Prayash says that he is going to have a look at a few more shops and then will go home. I go to MYER and David Jones and the city is so busy, the busiest Friday night I’ve seen for so long, there are food trucks and Forrest Place is packed. When I am at David Jones it is getting close to closing time so I have to be quick. Eventually I have to leave and I walk back to the Yellow CAT stop on Wellington St and have to wait for about 15 mins for the bus to show up. Am a little annoyed because still have a lot to do. Catch the CAT back to West Perth and then drive to Goodlife in Subi.

940pm - Do Duolingo and then go into the gym and start my workout on the treadmill, facing the 8 TVs. Catch up on all the news for the week 😂.

1145pm - Finish my workout and have a shower. It is pretty empty by this stage except for the cleaner. Have to tell her that I’m having a shower so she doesn’t start cleaning.

12am - Drive to Wembley IGA and buy a hot meal and some orange juice.

1215am - Arrive home.

1235am - Eat dinner after being hungry since I woke up at 530am this morning. Classic fasting Friday.

125am - Go to bed.

Saturday 29/11/25

Somewhere between 8am-9am - Woke up, played on my phone, turned on the TV, watched YouTube, checked out the recently uploaded movies on SBS On Demand, are food, watched Survivor.

Somewhere between 1230pm - 2pm - Fell asleep on my bed.

5pm - Get a text message from Sam about Brendan’s gig later tonight. ETA is meant to be 730pm but I know that I’m not going to be on time.

530pm(ish) - Park my car in the multi story car park at Goodlife, warm up, do my medicine ball workout, have a shower and go home.

740pm - Walk to the Daglish Train Station and catch the train to to Bayswater.

810pm - Try to find the entrance to The Basement, eventually find it and go downstairs. Meet up with Sam and watch Brendan’s gig. There are five other Pascoe/ex-Pascoes crew there. I have 5 drinks over the night and we are there until well after the gig has finished, Sam is pretty drunk and eventually I leave at 1145pm to make sure that I catch the train in time.

1150pm - Walk to the Bayswater train station, catch the train to the city and then to Daglish. Arrive home about 1230am and am pretty tired. Looking forward to having a quiet week next week as the lead up to Christmas is pretty tiring. A busy couple of weeks for me (by my standards anyway 😅).