Today, I turn forty-one.
It’s fair to say that my fortieth trip around the sun was overly quite eventful, and I’m in a very different place to where I was on my 40th blog post, in every sense of the word.
July of 2024 my world was largely turned upside down and saw huge changes. After years of abusing my body with alcohol and crap food I was severely overweight and was diagnosed with raised blood pressure. I needed to make lifestyle changes. I began running (read my Couch to 5k App experience here), knocked booze on the head and generally decided to take better care of myself. I’ve been sober for around 7 months, and in that time I’ve dropped 3 stone in weight (about 20kg). As I write this in mid February I’ve absolutely flatlined with my weight loss. I am still larger than I should be, but a lot better than I was.
Everybody says I should feel better about it but…I think I do? It’s self doubt creeping in a bit. I worry about my blood pressure and said worry raises my blood pressure. Turns out I have the worst white coat syndrome. I also bought a Garmin which has both been incredibly useful and a pain in the arse. Garmin basically is telling me on a daily basis that I’m a rather pathetic human being. Seriously. I watched 3 episodes of The Traitors back to back and my stress levels went through the roof. Similarly to my blood pressure being raised when I worry about my blood pressure, Garmin’s sleep tracking is single handedly the one thing that prevents me from having a good night’s sleep. So I only wear it during the day. Cracking for tracking my running, mind.
Yes. Running. Running has become a new hobby, and I love seeing the world through the eyes of a Parkrun. Seeing the world on a Saturday morning before folks get up has been a joy. I also did the Aintree 5k just before Christmas, and I’m happy with the time. I don’t think I miss alcohol really. I think I can count on one hand the number of days I can say I’ve missed the booze. Usually when I’m in a place that doesn’t have a non-alcoholic beer option is the worst. So far, the worst offenders are the football stadiums and gig venues in the UK, and the entire country of Italy.
Away from health stuff, one thing I have done lots of is travelling. This year I managed to go to Barbados, United States, Germany (Berlin and Dusseldorf), Romania (twice), Italy, Austria and Poland. Within the UK I’ve made significant trips to London, Cardiff and Blackpool. A lot more travel has been outside of the UK so I’m fortunate in that regard. Barbados and the United States was to see the Cricket World Cup (I was in the stadium when USA beat Pakistan), and the Germany trip was tied with the London trip, in that I went to AEW All In (watching an excellent Brian Danielson vs Swerve Strickland match) and Bash in Berlin a week later. Just a proper fun old school wrestling weekend. Blackpool was for Play Expo, which is one of my favourite weekends of the year.
The rest of the travel have been due to another large change in my life. For the first time since 2017 I’m no longer single. My partner doesn’t live in the UK, so we’ve been trying to meet up in easy/cheap/convenient locations every few weeks. So far it’s working pretty well, so please keep your fingers crossed. Right now as I hit publish I’m being whisked away for a evening or two somewhere close to Bucharest, I can’t wait! She’s been a massive rock and – along with 2 other people – been the constant source of strength with my health issues last July.
Work wise 2024/25 has been consistent. Largely one or two clients have kept me busy, which has meant I’ve not really had to look for work. However, that is coming to a change in the next few months, and I’m actively looking for projects now, so if you do need a WordPress developer, please do get in touch.
Side projects wise they’ve been ticking along. All Rumble Stats has been great, albeit it’s incredibly seasonal. A month or so of incredible traffic and then a baseline of a couple of hundred visits a month. It was nice to be cited in 411 Mania’s website which was a nice traffic bump. I’ve got an idea which I need to get on in Q3 which will hopefully work well. Retro Garden and Drive in Cinemas are also doing okay. Retro Garden it’s getting to a nice place where I can turn articles out pretty quickly, so looking to expand that. I’ve also been working on the shop as well which is doing well. Drive in Cinemas is still doing well. They’re pretty much my three sites at the moment.
I picked up video game development as a hobby, and I’ve made a number of video games. MonoScale, Frosty’s Snowed Under and Mari Lwyd’s Festive Rap Battle were the games I made this year. They were all done for Game Jams (read about the 1-Bit Game Jam and Pico-8 Advent Calendar Game Jam entries in those links). I’m playing around with another game (which I’ve been sharing on BlueSky). I think I’ve a pipeline of about 3 or 4 games I want to build. Whether they get done this year I’m not sure, but it’s something I’m keen on exploring.
Cricket was a bit of a nothing season, but training for the new season has started well (still bowling with a tendency of bowling leg side). Still the Sponsorship Secretary of Earlestown Cricket Club.
Twitch Streaming has been up and down. I begin in earnest and then get bored. I have been able to stick to somewhat of a schedule on Sundays (it helps not drinking to be fair), and also been streaming my game development stuff. They have been popular. I am looking to do more of those!
I’m a wee bit behind on my 50 before I’m 50, but I’ve ticked 2 off. I finally finished that list of 50 things too!
My 40th year feels like potentially one of the most significant years of my life. It had it’s fair share of challenges, but it feels like things are beginning to solidify and crystallise in some sort of place as I continue the next phase of my life.
Which seems rather dramatic when I say that.
And now the yearly comparison!
As you all love it so much. Here’s my updated comparison with you know who.
 Rhys (With a Spoon) |  Reese Witherspoon | |
| Age | Nearly 41 (Up 1) | Nearly 49 (Up 1) |
| Oscars (Nominated) | 0 – No Change (0 – No Change) | 1 – No Change (2 – No Change) |
| Books Written | 1 (No Change) | 4 (No Change) |
| Marriages | 0 (No Change) | 2 (No Change) |
| Children | 0 (No Change) | 3 (No Change) |
| WordPress Plugins Written & On the WordPress Repository | 11 (No Change) | 0 |
Happy birthday!!!
Had a big chuckle re NA options at “the entire country of Italy” – I remember there being literally zero AF options available when I did WordCamp in Torino (except soft drinks, but they don’t count).
Disappointing lack of change in the With a Spoon/Witherspoon comparison table this year – I think we need another book or something 😉