As I have done in previous years, I will (eventually) get around to writing my Yearnotes. I enjoy looking back on the summary, although I am never quite sure how much I actually learn about myself from the exercise. Still, as the year draws to a close and at least some Instagrammers are clinging on to the tradition of posting their ‘top nine’ pictures, it felt like a good moment to do the same. I have an app that does the work, and all I do is press the button, so I thought I’d start here, ahead of anything else I might write about 2025.
I rarely post to the Instagram grid these days. This year, I managed seventeen pictures in total, fewer than last year and continuing the gentle downward disconnection from the service. I still like the idea of Instagram as a kind of personal memory bank. However, I am increasingly sceptical about trusting any social media platform to preserve your history for you, which is another reason to do it here.
Even so, here they are: the top nine, ranked by likes and interactions. It is not a particularly competitive field with only seventeen entries, but it feels representative enough of the year.
The first image is technically the first frame of a carousel taken in March on PY’s birthday, when we spent the day collecting experiences around London. We began at the World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum, and the picture shows one of the models on display: Carousel. Created by Albert Cuellar for a MoMA exhibition in 2009, it brings together creatures and elements from Burton’s work, with the eerie undertones of carnival life running through it.
Second comes a moment from our day trip to San Sebastián: Eduardo Chillida’s El Peine del Viento, where sculpture meets sea and sky at the end of the promenade. Standing there, with the wind and the Atlantic crashing in around it, somebody said it was a punctuation mark on the edge of the city. I have no idea if that was an original thought or from a review, but I can still remember the phrase.
The third picture takes me back to August at Rydell High, courtesy of the immersive production of Grease. The set and cast were outstanding, and the evening remains one of my favourite Secret Cinema experiences so far.
Further down the grid sits a reminder of a long-held ambition finally realised: a visit to South America. It had been on my list for years, one of those destinations that never quite got booked. Towards the end of the trip, we crossed the border to see the Iguazú Falls from both Brazil and Argentina, watching the landscape change as the bus passed through passport control. The scale of the place is difficult to describe — noise, spray, rainforest, rainbows, all layered on top of each other — and the boat ride beneath the torrents, soaked to the skin and grinning like idiots, is something I doubt I will ever forget.
At the centre of the grid is a snapshot from our Eurovision party, which is the kind of night that is simultaneously frivolous and an essential feature of the year. Austria’s win gave the evening an extra lift, and by the end of the night, we were half-seriously discussing whether Austria might become the basis of a trip in 2026. To its right is a very different piece of history: the preserved trunk of the former Tree of Gernika. Once the site where Basque leaders swore to uphold local laws, it now stands in a neoclassical pavilion as a quiet monument to centuries of tradition and continuity.
The bottom row brings things closer to home again, beginning with my enduring fondness for the Isle of Wight and the familiar ritual of crossing water to set foot on the island where the annual Isle of Wight Festival is now firmly embedded in my year’s rhythm. Another year, another festival felt exactly as it should: sunshine and weaving through crowds toward Seaclose Park for an eclectic mix of music played out before picnicking families. Day One was a collage of summer festival moments — wandering between stages, sock wrestling on an alternative stage and paella by the river, before collapsing back in the flat with tea and the closing set on the telly. Day Two brought packed crowds for acts from Busted to Paul Heaton and the tight harmonies of The Queenbees. On Day Three, Björn Again’s energetic set got the day going before the surprise of Ella Eyre’s early exit, followed by Midge Ure’s powerful performance and a gentle drift back to Ryde with fish and chips, watching Jess Glynne on screen rather than braving the final headliners.
Together, the nine images sketch one curated image of 2025. The fuller picture will emerge, no doubt, in the Yearnotes over the weeks to come.
