Farewell to 2025 - a gentle look back

It’s New Years’ Eve, and I’m painfully aware that I haven’t published an end of year review. I have been working on one, but it’s been slow progress, and at times like this, I’m easily distracted, and not just by trivia. One distraction was to book a trip to the local tip – sorry, "Waste Transfer Station" as Deform UK controlled, Kent County Council like to call them these days, although to be fair, it was the previous Tory administration that came up with this euphemism.

We have quite a lot of items to dispose of, and most of these were already bagged or boxed up in the shed, awaiting their fate. Well, that moment came earlier this afternoon when these pre-backed items were unceremoniously loaded into the back of the car, ready to be driven over to North Farm (it’s the industrial and wholesale area of Tunbridge Wells). I’d managed to book one of the two available slots for New Year’s Eve, so all I need do now, is drive over to the WTS, unload, dump the stuff (carefully unload each type of junk).

With luck there will be time for a pint on the way back, although as I shall be driving, it will strictly be a single pint of low to medium strength beer. There will then be the tallying up of number of different pubs visited over the past 12 months, even though I already know the score. Prior to my visit, I shall be calling in at my workplace to check the progress of a major revamp taking place to our staff canteen and kitchen area. 

Somewhere along the line, my official title of Safety Advisor, has morphed into that of Site Manager, which does mean I ought to be checking up on the project. Like HS2, and all manner of similar projects, this one isn’t running to time. I know this as the contractors sent me some photos earlier, but it is what it is, and at the end of the day if the job isn’t fully complete by the time the bulk of the workforce (me included), return to work next Monday, it won’t be the end of the world.

Looking back, it’s been quite a restful break that has allowed me to catch up on, or even complete, a number of different projects. There is one thing that has suffered, or rather has been neglected, and has been the absence of country walks. This unfortunately followed on from the pattern of the previous year, as since completing the North Downs Way in 2022, and then the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk, the following year, there have been no set hikes or rambles for me to follow. And no pub walks either. I don’t know whether this is a sign of growing older, or whether general apathy has set in, but this worrying trend is one that needs fixing.

There used to be a WhatsApp group called the Weekend Walking Group, that was linked to the local CAMRA WhatsApp group, but that became moribund several years ago. The absence of these organised groups shouldn’t be seen as a barrier, because whilst my walk along the North Downs Way started out as part of an organised group, because I came in at the tail end of a friend’s completion of this Long-Distance Footpath, I was quite content to carry on from where this individual had finished off.  The Three River Valley Walks would be good series of rambles to look at in 2026. I already have a guidebook for this, and in case you’re wondering, the three walks are, the Darent Valley Path, the Eden Valley Walk, and the Medway Valley Walk.

As all three of these rambles primarily follow river courses, there is little, if anything in the way of gradients, and the majority of each ramble is potentially flat. So, these trails are easy going in most respects, although accessing the start of the Eden Valley Walk, takes a bit of detective work on the ground – clue, the source of the Eden, is in the middle of a field, and isn’t easily accessible by public transport. There’s another hurdle to overcome, because as the years go by, Mrs PBT’s has become a little over-protective, especially when it concerns me walking alone.

I like walking on my own, as I can set my own pace, but even I have to admit, it’s good to have company on such walks as well. Walking with companions isn’t always a guarantee of safety though, as I remember a colleague who went into cardiac arrest, whilst on a walk with his wife and daughter. Despite his wife being trained in first aid, the CPR she administered proved ineffective, and the wooded terrain the group was walking through, meant the air ambulance was unable to land either. Barry was younger than me, by several years, and as a cross-country runner, was considerably fitter, as well.

That’s enough doom and gloom for the time being, but it’s a timely reminder that none of use know how long we’ve got on this earth, and we owe it to ourselves and others, to keep ourselves fit and healthy, so we can live our best lives. Moving onto more cheerful things, Eileen and I booked ourselves on a circular navigation of the British Isles, cruising in an anticlockwise direction right around Britain, on Cunard’s newest cruise ship, Queen Anne. We made a return visit to Hamburg, a voyage on which we were joined by son Matthew, for his first cruise, and towards the end of the year, we visited the Azores plus the lovely island of Madeira. That, for me, was a long overdue return visit to those particular Atlantic islands, having first visited them on an “educational” school cruise, at the tender age of 16.

There wasn’t as much travel within the British Isles, as I would have liked – something I intend to rectify this coming year, but I managed visits to St Albans, Portsmouth, Topsham – a trip that touched briefly on Exeter as well plus I also made a return visit to Farnham, scene of my NDW completion, three years ago. The sea voyage took us to Newhaven (Edinburgh), Invergordon, Stornoway, Greenock, Liverpool, and Cobh (ROI). 

 On the home-front, we had a new kitchen installed, a job which also included fitting a new window, plus a complete re-plastering of the kitchen area.  We made the sensible decision of having this work carried out, whilst we were away on the Round Britain Cruise, which meant we missed the bulk of the disruption and virtually all of the mess. We were also able to have a good clear-out of the kitchen and cookery utensils that we’d accumulated over 40+ years of living together.

That’s probably it for the time being, apart from saying that I finished off the mini cask of Harvey’s XXXX Old Ale. I cracked it open on Christmas Eve, which was the day I finished work. I’m please to report that this dark, luscious and full-bodied beer remained bright, lively and well-conditioned, right down to the last drop. And now, after sharing that little pearl with you, I shall sign off and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.