A belated Merry Christmas to you, dear readers — I hope you’ve had a good one, whatever you’ve been up to.

Me? I’ve been kept busy most of the month, first with wrapping up the year at the day job, then with family stuff across the holiday. It hasn’t left much time for the ol’ blog — plans to write a review of my year’s TV viewing, or promptly say something about the new Wallace & Gromit film, have fallen by the wayside. Such is life.

But as the new year approaches (2025! A quarter of the way through this century that I, at least, would still refer to as “new”), I’m once again preparing for my barrage of annual review posts. Lists! Rankings! Statistics! It’s all brewing; all on the way soon now. I have a slight suspicion it’s not going to roll out as quickly and smoothly as usual (it doesn’t help that the first weekend of 2025 is so early — the chances of having 2024 finished by January 5th seem slim), but I’ll do my best.

And then it will be on to 2025 proper. Plans are afoot for the fourth year of my new-style Challenge. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?