Preparation is the key. Something I should have learned during all my travels, but apparently still like to forget. When the end of 2024 arrived, I hadn’t done my list of things I had learned. So for 2025, I started early, already on the third day of the new year, determined to keep track of everything I learn during the year.
Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with my resolution of writing this list throughout the year and struggled with it again at the end. No matter though. Without further ado, here is what I learned, experienced, or simply felt during 2025. Yours, Pollybert
1.) As mentioned above, preparation is the key to everything!
2.) Road trips are the best! Even better when done with long time friends and teenagers. Suddenly there were a lot of new things on my agenda for the trip.
3.) Getting sick in summer is a waste of time.
4.) Spontaneous decisions are the best. They saved me money on a plane ticket, even if it wasn’t an optimal use of vacation days, and book a weekend trip on the spur of the moment. They also helped me to get my foot on the property ladder.
5.) Friends and godchildren are all part of my extended family, and I have embraced this feeling that I am surrounded by many loved ones.
6.) Unfortunately, even I am not getting any younger, and without regular exercise I start to feel little pains here and there. The last year taught me that I really need to take better care of my body.
7.) The plan for the next ‘Wings For Life World Run‘ is to manage 10km before the catcher car stops me. But for that I need to get out and start running (see also above).
8.) Reading is good for me, because my phone is draining my energy. Although I managed more books in 2025 than in 2024, I still have a long way to go to get back to the 65 books I read in 2021.
9.) 2025 was a superb travel year, but I am way behind in my writing about these trips. I need to get my act together and start updating this site. Traveling, though, has really been excellent, with some really amazing trips!
10.) I enjoy investing money and watching it grow. I also enjoy spending it for delicious meals.
11.) Fantasy novels have become my new guilty pleasure.
12.) In 2024, I had a new kitchen installed, and this year I really started using all its features. I have fallen in love with batch cooking and freezing portions to enjoy whenever I feel like it. The three freezer drawers have truly given my cooking life a new lease on life.
