Happy 2026

Once again, it’s that time of year to wish everybody a happy new year!

In addition, it’s also the time of year when we reflect on what we went through in the previous year and what we learned. But also, many of us have got New Year’s resolutions planned. I shall leave mine for the end of this article. As ever, I shall keep this as brief as possible.

I start with those who we lost in 2025. No year is ever a stranger to death. Those who passed on include;

• Ozzy Osbourne
• Michael Madsen
• Val Kilmer
• Prunella Scales
• Patricia Routledge
• Tony Caunter
• Rob Reiner
• Steve Cropper
• Stanley Baxter
• Peter Greene
• Chris Rea
• Dan McGrath
• Jimmy Cliff
• Pope Francis
• Robert Redford
• Tom Lehrer
• Brigitte Bardot
• Roberta Flack
• David Lynch
• Gene Hackman
• Brian Wilson
• Connie Francis
• George Foreman
• Hulk Hogan
• Wayne Osmond
• Jay North
• Sly Stone

I understand that I didn’t include everybody on this list. As a matter of fact, there were a couple of people I personally knew who died; one being an old schoolmate of mine, and another who I knew from a local amateur dramatics group.

Events we experienced include the 80th anniversary of VE-Day, Donald Trump moving back into the White House, the ongoing Gaza war, Blue Ghost Mission 1 where a vessel by Firefly Aerospace landed on the moon, the floods in Nigeria, Hurricane Melissa, some to name. I felt it was necessary to mention VE-Day considering how important it is to express our gratitude to those who worked hard to fight for our lives and considering that time has moved on so much that there are not that many veterans left today.

I myself have experienced a busy and hard working year. For starters, I was the prompt for a play performed by the Little Theatre for the first time in 17 years. I also helped out on another three short films as the sound recordist, which always proves useful for my resume, and one of which was screened at the annual Leicester Comedy Festival. At another time, I attended a day of training in First Aid – this is especially something I had been planning to do for some time. That day served to me as a miracle. I’ve not experienced that many events that required emergency first aid, but I’m proud to have gained the knowledge.

Since last year, I’ve been considering taking up lecturing, especially in film-making. For some time, I’ve thought about holding similar lectures for children. Though last year, I had to focus on other things, i.e. creative projects. Sometimes in life, one has to put things on hold and it’s hard to focus on many things simultaneously. But this serves as a new year’s resolution for me.

Speaking about my projects, I completed one of them last year, that is Attack Of The Killer BlackCurrants;

This is a short film project I am very proud of since this has been the first full CG-animated short movie I constructed and I’m very much looking forward to submitting it to a selection of film festivals.

I’m currently nearing the end of writing the first draft of my children’s book. At the moment, I’m writing the 18 chapter and I’ve got another estimated 4 chapters to write. But I have enjoyed writing that book – In fact, I even wrote a few spin-offs while I was at it, including a short film script and recently, a festive short story. Earlier that year, I spoke with a potential agent who had some tips on my writing. Once I complete the first draft, there will be changes to consider which I’ll gladly follow up with.

I would also like to announce that I’ve recently started a new film project, which is an animated short inspired by Aesop with modern storytelling elements. I’m very excited to be working on it and have just started some rough animations.

But one particular highlight I want to point out, which made my year last year, was seeing my girlfriend again – she came back from China and we’ve been spending the last three months together exploring and with a range of activities we planned to do for some time. This Christmas, we had a short vacation in London. And yet, we’ve got some plans for the future ahead of us.

Now, onto my New Year’s resolutions;

• As I mentioned above, look into lecturing/teaching
• Complete my book
• Complete that animated short
• Read more books and other paper materials especially when it comes to research
• Get in more contact with professionals/companies near me to discuss opportunities
• Develop more on my film scripts

These resolutions, I feel, will increase my focus not only within the field of creativity, but life in general. Some of you may have similar or different resolutions and that’s cool.

In the meantime, welcome to 2026!