Ways my world got bigger in 2025

You know I like to theme my end of year blog posts, and helpfully for me, the theme normally jumps right out at me. There was positive thinking in 2020, there were highs and lows in 2021, there were life teachings in 2022, there was my year in numbers in 2023, and then a year of change in 2024. This year, the theme jumped out to me right from the summer. When I look back on 2025, the main thing I think about is how my world has gotten bigger. Brighter, vaster, and more full than I even thought possible. You know I'm someone who's pretty in love with their life, and I thought I was already running with an extremely full cup. But this year has shown me that there's always room for improvement - even on perfection.

My coverage of the world got bigger

Obviously travel continues to be a number 1 priority in my life. Every year, I think I've had the most incredible year of trips and holidays, and then I just keep continuing to smash the glass ceiling with even more amazing ones. This year I managed 11 holidays across 13 countries, and ticked 4 new ones off on the way too.

I went to Milan to see Laura and Fulvio in January (the perfect start to every year). I went to Bratislava with Ash in February (our first trip abroad together). I went to Madeira with my family in April (a nice bit of early Spring sun). I went to Cyprus with Ash and his friends for a beautiful wedding in May (we took a trip in to Northern Cyprus too). I went to Albania with the girls in June (and hopped from one beautiful destination to another). I went to Valencia with Ash in July (we had tapas for every meal). I went to Prague with Ash and my family in August (his inaugural Littlehales trip). I went to Milan to see Laura and Fulvio in August (we went to Verona, Lake Garda and Lugano in Switzerland while I was there). I went to Copenhagen with Alice in September (we cheekily nipped to tick Sweden off too). I went to Poznan with Sophie in October (the autumnal colours were unreal). And then I went to Jordan with Ash in November (and did some serious bucket list stuff like Petra and the Dead Sea).

Travel brings so much to your life. It brings you beauty, sunshine, new foods, new understandings of the world, new history lessons and an education on culture. My world continues to get bigger every single year, precisely because I travel so much. Don't be fooled into thinking that this level of holidaying is completely out of reach either. My flights to Bratislava were £55, to Valencia were £50, to Poznan were £40, and even to Jordan were only £110. It's all about the tricks of the trade! Tricks that I've very much been putting into practice for 2026. With 10 trips already booked, I think it's shaping up to be another incredible year of travel.

My friendship circles got wider

I think this is actually one of the main ways that the theme of this blog post came about. As readers with a good memory will know, I had a big shake up of my friendships in 2024 and set out with the intention to make some new friends (which spoiler alert, was very successful). I went into this year feeling like I had so many incredible friendships and yet I've still come out the other end with even more!

I think that essentially the more good people you have in your life, the more good people you end up meeting through them. I always love the friends of my friends that I meet. And being with Ash has added to my life in ways I never expected. I always knew I wanted a partner who was sociable and outgoing, with lots of their own friends. But having had very separate lives (and therefore friends) in my previous relationship, I never imagined the loveliness that could come from having a boyfriend who wants to create things together.

We've got a handful of lovely foursome dynamics; with Sophie and Ash, with Laura and Fulvio, with G and Harrison. We've also got a lovely tensome dynamic as 5 of the couples from the wedding we went to in May have bonded into a really nice new friendship group. I've also been welcomed into the "wives and girlfriends" girlie counterpart of his big lad group.

I think when we first got together and I saw how sociable Ash was, I had high hopes that he'd get along with my friends and family, and that he'd welcome me into his as well. But what I've actually come out with is so much more than that. It's friends of his who I consider mine. It's friends of mine who I consider his. It's planning dinner parties, going on group trips and holidays, booking group activities like murder mystery nights. It's building a life together. And it's made my world feel so much bigger.

My relationship grew stronger

I might as well stay on the topic of Ash while I'm here. For anyone fearing that this blog post might be about to fail the Bechdel test, don't worry there are lots of non-male-centred parts coming up shortly too! But I couldn't delve into ways in which 2025 was amazing and enriching without talking about my relationship.

Me and Ash got together on 11th December, so his place in my 2024 blog post was gushing but relatively short because he'd only appeared in a small part of my year. Having been there for 100% of my year this time around, it's hard to truly capture all the ways in which he made my life feel bigger and better in 2025.

He loves me unconditionally, he's romantic, he's someone I can rely on. He's made me cry with laughter, he's continued to treat me like a princess day in day out, he's been by my side through grief, he's become a part of my family, and he's happily signed up for whatever whirlwind trip I want to go on next.

We've had such an amazing year together. We went away to Harrogate, to London, to Bratislava, to Cyprus. I watched him be best man at his best friend's wedding, he watched me enthusiastically integrate with his friend group. We went on double dates and started forming those lovely foursome groups I mentioned before. We started having conversations about the future. I got him to start liking coffee, wine, and every foreign food under the sun. We had fun afternoons in the pub, cosy evenings on the sofa, nice walks in summer, heavy nights out in town. I beat him at shuffleboard, he beat me at pool. We went on a pedalo, we went to an outdoor cinema, we went to the theatre (3 times). He spoilt me for my birthday. We went to the Crazy Bear hotel, we went on trips to Valencia, Redcar, glamping in the Peak District, and to Prague. He survived his first Littlehales family holiday. He survived his first Littlehales annual summer BBQ (and all the booze that goes with it). We went on a rowing boat, we got competitive watching the 1% club, we went on a hunt to find the best ever Sunday roast. I spoilt him for his birthday. We went to the lake district, he successfully manned the log-fired hot tub. We went quad biking, off-roading, rifling and go karting. We grew in emotional intimacy, we learned more about each other every day. We spent a weekend in Oxford. We marked a year since our first date. We had an incredible holiday in Jordan. We celebrated an official year together. We had an amazing Christmas together. And that pretty much brings us to now.

Ash enriches my life in so many ways, as you can see, and I wouldn't have had anywhere near as much of an amazing year without him. I never imagined that a relationship could make me this happy, and I feel so lucky to have found someone who is both my safe place and my biggest adventure. I'm very excited to be going into a new year full of love, and armed with lots of exciting plans ahead.

My family got... smaller

I couldn't write my summary of 2025 without specifically mentioning one major way in which my world didn't get bigger at all. It got a lot smaller, a lot worse, and a lot less funny. My tiny bestie, my Grandma, sadly passed away in January, leaving me to continue on through 2025 without her. I don't want to make the tone of this blog post too depressing, because on the whole, 2025 has been a great year. But my Grandma left a hole in my life that can never again be filled and from the moment she was gone, I always knew that life would be a little bit worse without her. I try to stay positive and grateful, by remembering all the incredible times I had with her over the span of 28 years. Plus all the great stories she's told me from before I was born! There aren't enough words in the world that could potentially explain what she always meant to me or what an incredible woman she was. So we soldier on in her honour, determined to enjoy life to the maximum no matter what it throws at us. My family may have got smaller this year, but it's no less filled with love, laughter, or the zest for life that Grandma always had. She gave us that.

My hobbies got broader

I think in modern times, it's hard to prioritise hobbies and activities that don't involve a screen sometimes. In fact, my new years resolution only a couple of years ago was to reduce screen time. Because so much of modern day leisure and relaxation means consuming something on a phone or a TV. Social media, films, TV series, YouTube videos. Even things like reading articles or the news are so often done on phones now too.

So in 2025, I felt that I wanted to get into more of a routine with my hobbies and interests, and prioritise time away from the screen. I've been learning French, Spanish and Italian for the past couple of years and I was starting to fall out of love with Duolingo, my method of learning. I felt like it was too focused on the gamification and encouraging you to just do like 60 seconds worth of practising in order to save your streak, rather than actually providing you with useful vocabulary that you might actually want for travelling. So I took a break and then started again with a 2 prong approach; Babbel and Coffee Break languages. Babbel is an app similar to Duolingo but it's much more structured, way more useful and feels a bit more grown up. Coffee Break languages is a series of podcasts (one for each language) with episodes which are 20-30 minutes long and focus on a different topic each time. They feel more like traditional language lessons and often also involve conversations with natives. I love it because I think learning to hear and speak a language is actually much more important than learning to read and write it. I do still keep up with the reading and writing element though, which is why I like the Babbel and podcast combo.

A great time for listening to these language podcasts is on a walk, which is another hobby I wanted to do more of the past year. I tried to work a lunchtime walk in to my routine every day and I was happy that I managed to up my daily average by over 500 steps a day. I'm not someone who's into deciding on an arbitrary daily number to try and hit (like a lot of 10k people do) but I just think the key to fitness and general health is to move more. 

In the interest of moving more, I wanted to add another fitness related hobby into the mix. I had tried to pick up yoga the year before but it was too expensive for me to justify sticking at it. Well, the classes are. But being the absolute genius that I am, I realised I don't need to pay anyone for the luxury to move my own body in a way that doesn't even require any equipment. So I decided to take up pilates at home, and need nothing more than a yoga mat and a good set of YouTube videos. Moves with Nicole is who I go to every time, as she has a massive catalogue of different videos, all in varying styles and lengths. She also has a really nice soothing voice!

So far all of these different things are working well, as is dividing up my time better. For 3 months now, I've successfully managed to do my languages 3 times a week, and my pilates 3 times a week, as well as my daily walk (on most days). I already feel so much better for it and you'll see how this change has influenced a few of my new years resolutions!

My exploration of the UK got vaster

It was actually my new years resolution for 2025 to see more of the UK, and it's a resolution I've thrown myself into with gumption. I went to Harrogate, to London, to Stratford-upon-Avon, to London again, to Beaconsfield, to Redcar, to the Peak District, to London (AGAIN), to the Lake District, to Oxford, and then to Liverpool. For quite a few of these places it was my first time visiting, and I loved literally everywhere that I went. 

I've also been better at exploring more of my local area in Derbyshire, finding more local walks, country pubs, and cute little coffee shops. I've always been a Nottingham city centre girly, so prioritising visiting smaller places and more hidden gems has been a lot of fun. It's also made me feel a lot more connected to where I live, rather than hanging onto the NG9 postcode that I grew up with.

My new years resolutions got ticked off... and made

I only made 2 new years resolutions last year, one of which was to see more of the UK (tick) and the other was to drink more water (tick). I know it's a largely silly ritual (why do you have to wait until the new year to make changes in your life?) but it's a bit of silliness that I enjoy so I always like to make some. This year, I'm making 4:

1. Reduce screen time (and specifically eliminate brain dead scrolling)

Like I mentioned, I've noticed a really positive influence in my life and how motivated I feel from adding in some new hobbies and activities that aren't focused around a screen. I want to bring more of that into 2026, and hopefully reduce my screentime even further. A problematic habit I've gotten into is the dreaded brain dead scroll, where you're not even looking at anything in particular but just keep swiping anyway. I feel like I avoided falling into that trap for so long but it's now caught up with me and I want to get rid of it. More books and time outdoors instead is on the cards!

2. Spend more time in nature

Speaking of time outdoors, my second resolution is to spend more time in nature. With both UK and international travel, I've always been a city break kind of person, loving architecture and things to do. But the past year I've seen the benefit of seeking out natural beauty spots with plenty of peace and quiet, and so I'd like to do a lot more of that. With holidays to Norway, Costa Rica and Jersey already booked for 2026, I don't think this is going to be a hard one to achieve!

3. Buy more stuff second hand

The caveat with this one is that you have to read it correctly. I don't meant that I want to buy more stuff. I mean that when I do want to buy stuff, I try and buy it second hand. I've already started shopping on Vinted and eBay more in 2025 and have got some great deals, like a Superdry trench coat for only £15 (instead of £100) and a ghd creative curl wand for only £50 (instead of £160). The money saving is a massive benefit but the main reason I want to make this swap is for the environment. I may seem like I do a lot of environmentally bad things (like catching 25 flights a year) but I actually try to live a fairly waste-free life and my fast fashion habit is currently staring at me as something that needs changing. So let's try!

4. Get faster at writing blog posts up

I've been keeping this blog for a long time and while I'm proud of the consistency over the past 12 years, it seems like it's taking me longer and longer to write up my holiday blog posts. For no reason other than procrastination too! I hate it whenever I get too behind on writing so the goal for 2026 is to try and write them within 2 or 3 weeks of the holiday (instead of 5 or 6 like I've been managing this past year).

My heart got fuller

Like I said, my heart was already extremely full when I entered the year. But time with friends, time with Ash, time for myself, and time with my family have all contributed to making it fuller and fuller and fuller. If I was a video game character, I'd have a shiny full health bar!

It was Buddha who said "There is no path to happiness; happiness is the path". This past year I've been walking an excellent one, creating so many amazing memories and funny in-jokes on the way.

And it was Gossip Girl who said "Age breeds wisdom. And this I know: the best is yet to come". So cheers to hoping that she was right, and that there's incredible things in store for 2026.