2025 in review

I concluded my 2024 review post by saying that I hoped to make the move back to the North of England in 2025. The event that defined 2025 (other than my 50th birthday!) is that I managed to do just that, and I’m writing this post from a little town in Northumberland, where I’ve been puzzling the other residents for almost six months. Buying and selling houses is an enormous hassle, as is moving three cats a seven hour drive up the country, but it is now done.

On my first recce to plan my move up here, as I drove across the country from Carlisle, the sense of homecoming was almost overwhelming. For years I’d told myself I didn’t really belong anywhere, I’d buried any thought of moving back North as it was never a consideration while I was married. My ex quite vehemently hated the idea, despite the fact we could have bought property so much sooner than we ultimately did. After that first trip up here, early in 2025, there was no doubt that I was coming home, that this is home.

The cats seem happy enough being Northerners, in fact Em (who was so anxious in Bristol she had pulled off a lot of her fur) seems to love it. I’ve been able to wean her off the anti-anxiety medication and she has a nice fluffy tummy again. In reality she’s probably picking up on my reduced anxiety. It’s nice to live life without the almost constant background sound of police sirens, and without the police helicopter over my house most nights.

Fitness

The move up North has also had an impact on my running, I’ve run slightly fewer miles this year, however since the move it’s been mostly on trails and also significantly uphill. It was hard to leave my harbour loopers in Bristol, but I’ve found a friendly bunch of runners here who have been introducing me to the amazing trails on my doorstep. Also on my doorstep is an amazing community-run gym, and I’ve been focusing more on lifting, mobility work and continuing to try and improve the situation with my arm and shoulder. In 2026 I hope to explore more of Northumberland and Cumbria, no big goals, just keeping moving and looking at cool stuff.

Work

In October I passed the four year mark at Google. It’s been a busy year with a lot of change and (of course) a huge focus on AI. As a technical writer and a manager of writers, I’ve had to figure out what AI means for me, but also what it means for my team and for their careers in an industry that is, whether you like it or not, changing.

II dislike hype (this is why I still haven’t seen the first Wicked movie, despite being a huge musicals fan). So when the AI hype kicked off I raised an eyebrow in its general direction, followed a few people who I know to be intelligent and sensible, read their stuff, and delayed forming a strong opinion. I’m not someone who feels compelled to jump on every new shiny thing in tech, and while I’ve probably missed a few opportunities because of this, I’ve also saved myself from wasting a huge amount of time over the years.

Initially, I noticed a lot of people seeing docs as low hanging fruit for AI generation. Notably, the people thinking this weren’t writers, they were engineers who sometimes were forced to write docs, didn’t like doing it, and were thrilled to think they might be able to automate away this annoying task. There’s a huge difference however, between AI used to automate something you don’t appreciate or fully understand, and AI tools used appropriately by people with real knowledge of what they are trying to do. Over the last few months I’ve been part of an internal “AI for Authors” group, Google technical writers figuring out together how best to take advantage of these new tools. At the end of 2026, I presented a short talk at AI the Docs in Paris about the initiative. I’d like to write more about this, but as a taste of the sort of things we’re doing, check out Allison Hodsdon’s series on Gemini CLI for Authors for lots of practical ideas.

There’s also been a lot of work travel. According to Tripit I traveled 71595 miles, spending 70 days on the road, visiting 27 cities in 7 countries. Less travel than I used to do, but more than I want to do. In 2025, I switched my airline status from British Airways to KLM. This was partly because my home airport is now Newcastle, and Heathrow is a fine enough airport to start and end travel in, a horrible one to connect through. Schiphol is the opposite, the queues can be a nightmare when starting or ending a journey there, but as a transit hub it’s great. It’s been fun to explore new routes, and connect through new airports.

I don’t expect to do a lot of speaking at events next year, I’ve agreed to a couple of UK-based things, and it’s likely that anything I do will be relatively close to home. There’s other long haul work travel I’ll need to do, so I can’t justify long trips for events like I used to. I do find the conversations that I have at events important though, they spur new ideas or give me insights into the community, so I’m not going to vanish from public speaking completely.

Other things

The move, preparing my Bristol house for sale, packing, and all the related admin has taken up a lot of this year. In my new house I have a garage, which I immediately kitted out as a workshop. It’s exciting to have a place for my tools, and to be able to leave things set up if I need to stop doing something partway through. I still have decorating in the new house to do, and flooring to lay upstairs, but I’m hoping to improve my carpentry skills in 2026. My ultimate aim is to find the house I intend to stay in up here, probably something that needs a bunch of work doing to it, and I’m working on my DIY skills to make it possible for me to do more of the work myself. I’d rented until six years ago, so had no chance to learn many of these skills. I’m proud of the fact I can now do basic plumbing, lay flooring, tile, and am generally confident to give things a go (with the help of the dads-demonstrating-DIY genre of YouTube video!)

In my 2024 post I mentioned I’d started sewing again. Since the move this has taken a backseat, due to not having a place to sew away from the cats. Max will eat thread and wool, so I have to be really careful to tidy things away from him. In March 2026 I’m getting a garden office built, as I miss my one from Bristol. At that point I can make the tiny room I’m currently using as an office a sewing and craft room, with the door closed to felines with dangerous cravings.

I want to take more photos. I live in an astoundingly beautiful place, surrounded by wild and beautiful countryside and so much history. While I get some great shots on my phone while out running, I’d like to document the world around me with a bit more intention in 2026. I’m also playing my mandolin quite a bit, and getting better at it. I think this year I might get some actual lessons as I’m through the knowing where to put my fingers stage.

And that’s mostly it, another year over. I spent Christmas just relaxing with my daughter, who is now forging her own career in tech, and showing her some of the interesting Roman history around my new town. And tomorrow, 2026 begins for real as I go back to work and see what the new year will bring.