Pluribus.

The TV show.

Everyone keeps telling me that it's great, really clever and all. Much like Severance. Everyone told me I should like that too.

I finished Season 1 of Severance with a sigh of relief and a nod to the writing. Thus far, I've felt no urge to look for Season 2.

As I type, I'm keeping one eye on episode 8 of Pluribus. Given that pretty much nothing ever happens in any instalment, it makes for decent background TV.*

No accounting for taste, I suppose.

We're getting rain. Nowhere near as much as we need, but enough to interfere with my outdoor plans. Living somewhere it seldom rains makes one semi-allergic to going out in it. The dogs and I sit together, staring forlornly as the water runs down the window, dreaming of walks not taken.

Five months on from the fire, the landscape remains charred and bare, but nature is bouncing back. At the base of blackened trunks, new shoots have emerged, attracting insects and subsequently birds. The resilience is quite something to see.

I was determined that 2025 would be the year I lost weight. In April, I started injecting Mounjaro to suppress my appetite and began playing Padel to burn calories. As the weather began to cool, I started walking the dogs again, and have recently started resistance training at the gym. I have lost 25kg, and feel much better for it. I hope to lose the same again over the next 8 months. I didn't expect to become such a Padel fanatic. It's a great game, you should try it.

I'm not sure either you or I has the mental fortitude to consider all the horrors of 2025, let's instead look ahead to 2026 and damn it, let's be optimistic.

The EU has agreed to put its money where its mouth is, and fund the Ukrainian war effort. As Europe coalesces around a shared goal, Putin will find himself on the back foot, particularly as The United States switches focus to whatever the White House is up to. Things look rough for the Administration, as the American public catch on to the theft being perpetrated on it.

The rise of populism has succeeded where Tony Blair and Tony Benn failed, converting me back to the idealistic politics of my student days. If a few years ago you had suggested that I'd be reading the New York Times and the Guardian, I would have laughed at you.

Funny old world.

Right - I'm off to review the last and plan the next.

Have an awesome turn of the year - and with a bit of luck, see you in 2026.

*Didn't get any better.