2025 in Review: Grounded, Glum, & Gaga

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2025 was my first fully ‘grounded’ year since before COVID. I finally had a home again! And it felt gooooooood.

Though I’ll likely always feel the pull toward a nomadic existence, I ALSO really enjoy having a home of my own. Let me tell you, I NEVER take for granted having all of my belongings easily accessible and under one roof!

I’ve settled nicely into my daily/weekly routines: walks every day (often by the beach), gym/pilates, Monday morning house cleaning, weeknight meal kit dinners, nightly dinner/TV time with Pete.

I also strangely enjoy a lot of homemaker things, like picking out silky smooth bamboo bedsheets and soft towels, baking healthy desserts, and adorning every room of the apartment with plants and flowers.

And of course, we have a cat now (who we adopted at the end of last year)! I could not be more obsessed with her. Chloe is the light of my life, my favorite stim toy, and just perfect in every way. She makes the cutest little noises (mostly chirps and trills), loves to play fetch (yes, a cat that plays fetch, and no we didn’t teach her!), and is never not making direct eye contact with us.

It was such a trip going through photos I took this year and seeing her progression from an actual kitten to a bushy little cat. I originally thought all the extra fur was just her winter coat, but seems that it’s here to stay. But don’t be surprised if half of the photos in this post are of her (she’s just so dang photogenic!).

Now, let’s get real for a minute:

For no specific reason, 2025 was really challenging and not-so-great. Disillusioned and creatively constipated are two terms that sum up how I felt all year.

Like, a general feeling of: things are pretty bad in this world and I don’t know who or what to believe, and I want to make things better but am too overwhelmed and uninspired to do anything.

Also, I turned 40 this year. 40! Gosh, 40 used to sound so old when I was a kid.

Age is a funny thing. I felt nothing at all when I turned 30, and gave little-to-no thought to the ageing process throughout my 30’s. For some reason, though, 40 has been a bit of a wake-up call to my mortality. Physically, I feel like I’m in my 20’s; but mentally, I feel like I’ve rapidly aged to be at least 40.

I think the current state of the world has made turning 40 more serious for me than it would’ve been otherwise.

Either way, thoughts of *WTF are you doing with your life?!* are running much more frequently through my mind these days.

In lieu of therapy (not in the budget) or friends (still don’t have many locally), I turned to astrology to find some relief from my accelerated existential dread (and by astrology, I mean my actual birth chart, not horoscopes).

Long story short, apparently I’ve been impacted by some ‘heavy transits’ (Neptune and Saturn) the past few years, which have put a metaphorical fog over me. I don’t fully understand how it works, but apparently these transits come in and blur everything so that you’re essentially forced to stop, let the transits do their thing and clear out the crap that no longer serves you, and then start rebuilding once clarity returns.

It’s felt like I’ve been in a holding pattern for years now, so to find out that there’s actually a reason behind it brought me so much peace and validation.

It looks like Neptune and Saturn will finally F off in February 2026, and I should expect clarity to start returning later next year THANK GOD.

(Sidebar, 30-year-old me would roll her eyes at the idea of astrology bearing any actual truth. I guess I HAVE grown/changed a lot in the past decade!)

A few things stand out when I reflect on what got me through this tough year.

Chloe was #1, OBVIOUSLY.

Plus, I watched a lot of TV shows (more on that later), and I spent a lot of time lurking on Reddit. I am often very late to trends, so I partially can believe I never f-ed with Reddit before. But then, also: how the bloody hell did it take me til 2025 to start using Reddit?!

I also cut down massively on other social media use – sort of by accident, actually. When I was setting up my new iPhone, I dragged all my social media apps into a folder on the last screen, just because I wanted to actually organize my home screen rather than have it be a chaotic mess. I later realized that I was averaging less than 5 minutes a day on Instagram (previously, I would have an alert go off daily whenever I got close to the 1-hour mark). I was not consciously trying to minimize my social media usage, but it happened naturally just because it took a bit more effort for me to open up the apps on my new phone setup.

Once I realized how infrequently I was opening Instagram, I resolved to keep going with it. And honestly, I do not miss it AT ALL (I had already stopped posting over 2 years ago anyway). I think so many of us have gotten sucked into the habit of mindless scrolling that we aren’t using social media because we actually WANT to. It’s just a reflex that we give into and then are bombarded with ads and other toxic low vibe crap that isn’t helping us.

And the big thing that got me through 2025? My rediscovery of/obsession with Lady Gaga! She released a new album, ‘Mayhem’, early this year, and in no time I found myself on the Little Monster train like it was 2009 all over again. Her Coachella performance BLEW MY MIND (that transition from Abracadabra into Judas, are you kidding me?!).

Gaga’s albums were the soundtrack to much of my NYC years, but then I sorta stopped following her and her music when I moved to Australia. Also, during this time she was experimenting with her sound a lot, and her newer music didn’t really appeal to me the same way her older stuff did.

But this new album? OG Gaga is back, baby! After I listened to it dozens of times, I revisited her older albums and uncovered some new favorite songs. Needless to say, she was pretty much all I listened to on Spotify this year.

At the end of the year, the obsession culminated with the Mayhem Ball tour hitting Australia (her first time back in 11 years, with her last visit being just before I moved here). I attended both Sydney shows dressed in all the black clothing items I own (I’m more into whites and browns than black these days) and IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Even though I had already seen the show numerous times on YouTube, I was absolutely enthralled by it live.

My plan was to soak it all in and take lots of videos when I was front row in the upper level on night 1, and to put my phone away and sing/dance my face off when I was on the floor on night 2. I mostly did this, but I was surprised to find that the vibe in the nosebleeds was actually better than the vibe on the floor.

I swear I was the only one dancing where I was on the floor – everyone else seemed to have their phones up at all times, which I kind of get since we were right in front of the small stage at the end of the cat walk (i.e. the view was too good not to shoot). I was about 8 heads back from the stage (seriously, SOOOOOOOO close!). Also, it rained nearly the entire time on night 2, which delayed the show and even led to one of the dancers sliding off stage (resulting in another pause while they cleaned up the stage).

Say what you will about Lady Gaga (Pete insists she’s satanic), but she’s a legit creative genius. The Mayhem Ball is a work of magnificent art that I’m not sure can ever be topped. I’m currently plotting a way to see it one last time before the tour ends in April next year.

Table of Contents

2025 in Review

Where I Went

Since I was paying rent and had a home base this year, my travels were just a wee bit more modest than they were in recent years. I spent the bulk of the year in Australia, with about 5 weeks spent overseas. Here are the countries I set foot in in 2025:

Australia
Indonesia (Bali)
Turkey
Greece (day trip)

What I Read

I read 26 books this year, 5 of which were audiobooks.

As usual, a * means it was a favorite. In particular, the new Liz Gilbert book was a banger (it stuck with me for days after I finished it), and the book about the Kennedy family was super fascinating/infuriating.

The Widow’s Guide to Sex and Dating – Carole Radziwill
What Red Was – Rosie Price
Force of Nature – Jane Harper
Everything I Never Told You – Celeste Ng
Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld
Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell
Haunting Adeline – H.D. Carlton *
Hunting Adeline – H.D. Carlton
Confessions of a Video Vixen (audiobook) – Karrine Steffans
Neither Here Nor There – Bill Bryson *
Aesthetica – Allie Rowbottom
Never Lie – Freida McFadden
Please Don’t Lie – Anne Burt & Christina Baker Kline
Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History (audiobook) – Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Alan Sepinwall
The Woman In Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware *
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir – Dolly Alderton *
4th of July – James Patterson
All the Way to the River (audiobook) – Elizabeth Gilbert ***
Luster – Raven Leilani
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
One By One – Freida McFadden
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn – Betty Smith
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed (audiobook) – Maureen Callahan **
The Teacher – Freida McFadden
The Book Of Sheen (audiobook) – Charlie Sheen
The Water Lies – Amy Meyerson

What I Watched

Sharing the TV shows that had me in a chokehold this year.

What I’ve come to learn about myself in recent years is that I lean into TV shows for comfort and emotional support.

Being that 2025 was not one of my finer years, I found myself watching a lot of shows. Like, a LOT a lot. And you know what, I’m not going to shame myself for it because they brought me joy and comfort.

I would often finish a series and then immediately start rewatching from the beginning – both because I’m not ready to say goodbye to it, and because I love seeing the contrast of the characters at the series end vs. the start.

Not only that, but my series watches/rewatches are accompanied by rampant google searches of all the actors, lurking in the show’s subreddit, and listening to episode recaps on podcasts. It’s not that I have to know every single thing there is to know about the show; it’s more just a part of my immersion process (plus, it leaves more to learn with every rewatch!).

This year was a mix of new shows and rewatches. Some I watched with Pete, and others I watched by myself late at night after he went to bed, mostly as background noise while working. The starred shows below were my favorites:

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (rewatch) – I originally watched with my old flatmate in Bondi, and it was a real trip rewatching, 7 years later. This show is pure absurdity! Definitely not for everyone, but if you enjoyed Glee or Superstore, you’ll probably love it.

The OC (rewatch) – I have strong memories of having a Ryan Atwood poster in my dorm room and watching weekly episodes of season 1 in the lounge with most of the girls on my floor as a college freshman. I thoroughly enjoyed watching The OC 22 years later (well, at least the first two seasons). Sandy Cohen remains the best TV dad in history. And the OC Oral History book is a must-read for all the behind the scenes deets.

Dawson’s Creek (rewatch) – This was my first time watching the whole series straight through, and I just want to know: was Dawson always this insufferable?? My god, he was just the worst. Also, it was pretty clear to me that Joey is the actual main character of the show, not Dawson, but I suppose “Joey’s Creek” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I listened to the Freaks and Creeks podcast while rewatching and was a big fan of their non-surface level recaps of the episodes.

Younger (new + watched twice) * – This was a random delight! I’d never heard of it before but very quickly took to it and watched the whole thing twice in quick succession. The plot is brilliant: a 40-year-old woman pretends to be 26 so she can get hired in publishing after a 15-year hiatus she took to raise her daughter. You’re constantly wondering if she’s gonna get found out by someone. Lots of NYC vibes and aesthetic b-roll footage (this is a Darren Star production, after all). Hilary Duff is one of the main characters and she’s surprisingly great in this.

The Bold Type (new) – If you want to see more career-driven women in NYC, this is another good show to watch. I wasn’t quite as emotionally invested in it as I was with Younger, but I still really enjoyed watching the 3 main girls constantly make really bad decisions and kick ass at work.

The Summer I Turned Pretty (new) – I watched the whole series after the finale aired, just to see what the hype was. Is it good? Not really, but my expectations were lower than low, so that’s fine. Season 1 was much better than 2/3, IMO. For the record, I’m Team Neither, because Belly really just needs to be on her own and cultivate some semblance of self worth – but if I had to pick, I’d go with Team Jere.

Gossip Girl (rewatched twice) * – Can you tell I was exceptionally nostalgic for NYC this year? Gossip Girl has officially cemented itself as a comfort show for me, and I’m a Chuck Bass apologist. Also, the GG soundtrack is SO SO GOOD and reminds me so much of my 20’s in New York.

Lost (new) * – I’m pretty sure I only watched the first season when the show originally aired 20 years ago, so I had to rectify that. And OMG I LOVED IT! Sawyer and Ben are my (problematic) faves. I really enjoyed all the flashbacks/flash-sideways, loved the timeline jumps, and was satisfied with the ending (to the point where I was like, wait, does this mean I’m a fan of sci-fi now?).

Glee (rewatch) * – I pretty much rewatch this every year and it never fails to bring me joy. What I love is that with every rewatch, I find myself loving new songs that might as well have been invisible to me before (this time: Got To Get You Into My Life, This Is The New Year, River Deep Mountain High). And btw, my Glee hot take is that season 6 is actually great: Sue Sylvester is at her most unhinged, they win nationals, and every character gets a happy ending by the series end. What’s not to love?

2025 Travels

Bali (April)

After spending 4 months in Bali in 2023-2024, I wan’t exactly in a rush to return for another visit… but we went for a couple weeks just because Pete’s friend was getting married there.

The first half of the trip, we were in/around Uluwatu: we did 2 nights at the InterContinental in Jimbaran, and 2 nights at The Mulia in Nusa Dua, while attending the clifftop wedding in Uluwatu. Both hotels were luxurious oceanfront properties that I collaborated with. I did my best to enjoy and be present while running around taking photos and doing various activities that they’d booked us in for, but ideally I would have had one extra day at each hotel to just chill and soak it all in. Still, we definitely took advantage, lived like royalty, and had a fabulous time.

The wedding was beautiful, but it was so insanely humid even at night that after just one dancefloor boogie, I’d have streams of sweat pouring off of my body.

The morning after the wedding, we took an early boat to Nusa Lembongan, where we spent the rest of our trip. We based ourselves in the “Millionaire’s Mile” part of the island, which is the headland on the south end of Lembongan Harbour (Jungutbatu). We barely strayed from this area because it had stunning views and pretty much everything we needed

We stayed a few nights at Batu Karang, a gorgeous boutique hotel on the cliff with multiple pools and restaurants, a sauna and cold plunge, and THE BEST waterfront speakeasy (The Howff). Then we did a couple nights at the nearby Jenggala Hill, which was perfectly adequate and had the BEST pool view… but paled in comparison to Batu Karang.

Other Lembongan highlights included an afternoon sauna/cold plunge at Sundeck by Lago, beach swims and fresh coconuts at Coconut Beach, and massages at Spring Spa. Overall, I loved this island and would be very happy to return someday!

Turkey/Greece (August/September)

In late August, I took a very cheap China Eastern flight to Turkey for a 3-week solo trip. Turkey has long been on my bucket list, and I’m so glad I finally got to visit!

My Turkey itinerary was roughly: 4 days in Cappadocia, 2 weeks on the Turquoise Coast, 3 days in Istanbul. 2 weeks on the coast was definitely more than needed, but it actually allowed me to take an “off day” whenever I had to catch up on work or simply take a break from adventuring in the very hot sun (which happened every few days). Uh yep, in case you didn’t know either: Turkey is VERY HOT in September! Like 90F and sunny every single day. It’s also very busy in September, with crowds that felt like peak summer tourist season.

Cappadocia was the highlight of my Turkey trip (more on that shortly!), and I spent every day going on long walks/hikes and ogling the sensational landscapes and unique cave buildings. The coast was beautiful, but all the best bits were insanely crowded. Istanbul was as vibrant and satisfying as I’d always dreamed it would be.

Another thing about Turkey is that you can catch a ferry to a number of Greek islands nearby, the closest of which is Kastellorizo (a mere 30min boat trip from Kas). Of COURSE I had to take advantage of this and spend a day there. It was my first and likely only time going through immigration in a bikini (yep, you get stamped in/out, since Greece is an EU country and Turkey isn’t).

And ahhhhhhhh – being back in Greece felt like the warmest of hugs. I sensed a distinct vibe shift from Turkey to Greece that I can’t quite articulate, other than to say that Greece felt like home and Turkey… not so much.

On the coast, I stayed in Antalya, Kas, Kalkan, and Oludeniz. I sunbathed at a few beach clubs, ate a crap ton of kebabs, and walked everywhere. There were a couple of insanely gorgeous (and busy) beaches that I simply *had* to set eyes on, but my goodness were they overrun with tourists.

In Istanbul, I checked out a few mosques and markets, but I had the most fun exploring the colorful hoods of Balat/Fener and Kadikoy. It had been a ridiculously long time since I last lost myself in a new city, wandering around without a plan and going in the direction of whatever happened to catch my eye. There was just so much to look at in Istanbul, from the street cats to the old buildings to the *unique* wares on display at the shops (I found THE COOLEST coasters in Balat, made from thin slices of tree branches that were decoupaged with cat photos).

Overall: I enjoyed Turkey, loved the food, very much loved having cats around at all times… but the Turquoise Coast was a little too hot and busy for my liking (maybe late Sept/early Oct would’ve been better?). And it was hard not to compare Turkey to Greece: both have great food/cats/beaches (what drew me to both), but I think Greece does them all a bit better. Still, no regrets!

2025 Highlights

One year of Chloe – I knew I loved cats, but I did not know just how much I would love this particular cat. Chloe has brought us so much joy, which made a tough year just a little more bearable. She’s got so many cute little quirks and is just so chill. Truly a dream cat!

My new BFF Patti – I met my new Polish bestie on BumbleBFF early in 2025 and since then, we’ve been very committed to our weekly hangs, despite her living in Bondi and me in Manly. She set the bar very high for the type of friends I want to call into my life, and I’m devastated that she’s moving to Perth in 2026. But I know we’ll see each other again because neither of us can stay in one place for too long!

The Mulia – Pete and I are obsessed with this beachfront Balinese hotel and are already dreaming of our return. This place has it all: aesthetic pools, luxurious bath tubs, a private bath house, insanely delicious food, and a gym that’s better equipped than most of the ones I’ve seen in Sydney. I don’t think we’ve ever felt more like royalty than when we were staying here.

Nusa Lembongan – Further proof that I much prefer the smaller islands off of Bali than Bali itself. Nusa Lembongan was a literal breath of fresh air after the craziness of Bali. I loved the first hotel we stayed at (our room had sea views and an outdoor bath tub!) and how we were able to gaze out at the beach from pretty much everywhere we went. We only saw a tiny bit of the island, so I’m eager to return someday and explore more!

Living in Manly – I wasn’t sure if I’d be happy in Manly after a few years living in Bondi, but I’ve actually really enjoyed living here. We’re close to several different beaches, though I usually default to Freshwater (if it’s a day off for me) or the rocks near Fairy Bower in Manly (if I’m swimming/sunbathing after the gym). I also find Manly better for walks and for bike riding (so many bike paths!), and the people in Manly much less annoying/vain than the people in Bondi.

Cappadocia – The best part of my Turkey trip, despite not doing the token sunrise hot air balloon ride. I based myself in Goreme, which was ideal for accessing various hiking trails and nearby villages. I did the Love Valley/Uchisar/Pigeon Valley hike and the Rose Valley/Red Valley hike and absolutely lost my mind over the stunning landscapes.

One thing I learned while researching is that Cappadocia is a mecca for activities, a smart way to capitalize on tourists who are looking for ways to fill the rest of the day after their early morning balloon ride. I booked a Turkish coffee making lesson (I was the only attendee and it was awkward, but I still had fun learning about coffee), a sunrise photo tour that ultimately got cancelled, and a sunset horse riding tour through Rose Valley. All excellent value for money, IMO.

Goreme in general is overrun with tourists, but still a delight to wander around. Many hotels and restaurants are built out of caves, which was just so cool to experience. A few spots worth mentioning:

Wooden Spoon Cave Restaurant – an incredible cave restaurant serving the BEST Shepherd’s salad (seriously, I tried this dish a dozen more times elsewhere in Turkey and none were this good) and delicious pottery kebabs
Gaia Cappadocia – they have the prettiest handmade ceramic mugs that I manically became obsessed with, so much so that I ordered more pieces online and had them shipped to my hotel in Istanbul in advance of my arrival, and then carefully lugged them all in my (stupidly overweight and overstuffed) carry-ons while flying back to Australia
Goreme Palace Cave Suites – I stayed in a tiny cave room here and enjoyed a massive Turkish breakfast spread every morning, plus one of the best rooftop views in town of the balloons at sunrise

Kastellorizo – I jokingly(?) messaged a friend, “but why is this Greek island the highlight of my Turkey trip?”. Kastellorizo was significantly less busy than anywhere else I went on the coast of Turkey, with some of the clearest and bluest water I saw on the entire trip. Maybe it WAS the best part of my time on the coast of Turkey, and maybe that’s ok. What can I say, I just love Greece so much!

Seeing Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball 2x – The amazingness of this show cannot be understated: the dancing, the set, the vocals, the details, all of it was top tier perfection. I think I’ll be forever chasing the high I felt during the first 15 minutes of the Mayhem Ball set on the first night (seriously, I have watched back my iPhone video recording of this sequence dozens of times and it still gives me all the feels).

And I’m so glad I got to see it twice: once from high up in the front row, where I could see the whole stadium with no one right in front of me; and once from the floor right in front of the catwalk stage, where I was able to notice facial expressions and set details that I couldn’t see in the first show, not to mention be SO FREAKING CLOSE to Gaga and all the action. Both were wildly different experiences that made my overall Mayhem experience more complete.

2025 Challenges, Mishaps, & Misadventures

A very rainy winter – Historically, I have always booked summer trips to Europe and the US during Australia’s winter. This year, I stayed put in Sydney and endured what might have been its rainiest winter on record. It was pretty miserable a lot of the time. Is there anything more demoralizing than walking 30 minutes to the gym in the rain while carefully leaping around puddles to avoid getting your feet soaked, only for a car to come speeding past and send a giant sheet of rainwater directly at your whole body? (I really should invest in a pair of rain boots next year)

Caucasus trip falling through – So, the whole reason I went to Turkey is because I was originally invited on a (all expenses paid) blogger trip to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. I had booked my flight from Australia to Turkey and was later going to book the shorter flights to/from the Caucasus. Then, after some back and forth with the tour company, I realized that they were adamant about me not mentioning that I was being hosted by them in my blog post write-ups (aka they wanted me to pretend like I was paying for a $5000 tour myself). They would not accept any variation of disclosure, no matter how soft and vague I made it.

So essentially, they were asking me to lie AND break the law (disclosure is required by law for any sponsored trips like this), which really didn’t sit well with me, even though the odds of me ever getting in trouble for not disclosing are close to zero. So I said thanks but no thanks, and took myself on a solo trip to Turkey instead. No regrets!

The worst weekend getaway ever – I planned a glamping trip in the Blue Mountains for Pete’s birthday, something we were SO looking forward to after a bleak winter in Sydney. We stayed in a very cool glamping tent with a huge bath tub on the deck, with panoramic views out towards the surrounding ridges. Unfortunately I can’t share the name of the accommodation because it was originally meant to be a collaboration/sponsored trip… however, due to the shit-tastic experience we had there, we mutually agreed that I wouldn’t publish the agreed-upon write-up on my blog (first time this has EVER happened to me in over a decade of travel blogging).

To be clear, the accommodation itself was fantastic, and I’m sure I would have had nothing but praise, had everything gone our way. But we were hit with horrendous weather the entire weekend: literally a nonstop downpour, save for a two-hour window during which I ran around like a maniac getting all the photos I’d need for the blog post I ended up not writing.

Then right after I finished shooting and was about to take a moment to actually enjoy our time there by taking a sunset bath, I realized the bath water was running cold and that the gas must have run out. We went to switch to the backup gas bottle, only to find that it had run out already and was never replaced. The owners were not onsite that weekend and couldn’t replace the gas for us, so we went the rest of the night and the next morning without hot water or a functioning stove. So after all that, I didn’t even get to enjoy the scenic bath tub, which was the main draw of the whole glamping experience. Such a bummer!

Hiking down a mountain in the dark, in slippery shoes – One of my toxic traits is that I do not prepare for hikes or walks AT ALL, no matter how long or how difficult they may be. I don’t ramp up my fitness beforehand, I don’t really plan the route, I’m never equipped with every single thing I could possibly need for it (first aid kit, PLB, compass, extra water, etc).

This is a direct result of the core belief I have that underpins most everything in my life: that no matter what happens, I’ve got this, and everything is gonna be fine.

Mostly, it serves me extremely well because I go through life with little-to-no anxiety. But occasionally, it causes a wee bit of stress when I haven’t done one tiny thing that could have saved me a lot of hassle or grief.

When I was in Cappadocia, I found myself stopping every few minutes to snap photos on the hike through Red Valley, fortuitously arriving at the popular sunset viewing point just before the sun went down (I would’ve been done with the hike by this time, without the lollygagging). What I didn’t know was that there was still quite a bit of the hike left to complete after departing the sunset spot, much of it on a steep downhill or on trail that was heavily shaded – neither ideal when it’s dusk and you’re walking in shoes that have zero traction (another oopsie of mine).

The scariest part of it was that I never knew how much of the walk I had left, or what the terrain would be like. All I can say is thank god for the flashlight on my iPhone, and the 20-year-old siblings I ran into on the last segment who distracted me from the sh*tshow.

And the funny thing is: everything was indeed fine, as it always is… so a scary experience like this just reinforces that core belief, and my correlated lack of preparation for hikes.

Pete’s mom’s cancer diagnosis – Late this year, Pete’s mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. I don’t think I need to expound upon the suckiness of this, but I will say that she has responded very well to treatment so far.

RIP old iPhone – Ever heard of the iPhone’s white screen of death? Well I can confirm that it’s a thing. At first, my old phone would start flickering and turning white, and then I’d restart it and all would be well for awhile. Then it started happening more and more often, culminating in a final white screen of death that no restart could get rid of.

It’s fine, my old iPhone lasted a good 4 years, which I suppose is more than you can ask for these days. The only negative was that I couldn’t transfer settings from the old phone to the new phone because the old phone was fully dead, so the setup process was a little annoying.

I’m loving the iPhone 17 Pro so much! The camera quality is unreal. And this is so silly and duh-worthy, but my old phone was an iPhone 13 Pro Max that I used to drop CONSTANTLY (the back of it was full of cracks from all the drops). I opted for the slightly smaller Pro model this time and it has made all the difference in the world. My short sausage fingers are much better suited to gripping a slightly narrower phone, and now I hardly ever drop it.

What’s Next in 2026?

In keeping with my every-other-year family visits, this May I’ll be heading to the US for a few weeks to stay with my parents and spend some time in NYC. I’ve also added on a week in a new-to-me destination, en route to New York, which I’m very excited about!

I’m pretty sure we will be moving apartments at some point this year as well, hopefully somewhere closer to the beach that actually has a dishwasher and more storage space.

READ MY PAST YEAR RECAPS: