Goodbye 2025
But first, an update, since the last post on this blog was September 1st. There’s an old adage that has it that the more time you have, the less you get done. That actually wasn’t the case for me this fall – I had lots to do and that meant some important things didn’t get done. This blog being one of them. I considered giving it up entirely, but it seems as if almost twenty years of being something means, you tend to keep on doing it. However, I will be giving up wage slavery in 2026 and retiring around the middle of the year. What impact that has on things like this blog remains to be seen. But until then…some things that made 2025 a bit more bearable.
1 Edinburgh
I travelled a lot this year. In the summer, my wife and I did a mini-European tour and the first stop was the Scottish capital Edinburgh. My mum was Scottish, and my dad half Scottish, so I suppose I get to claim that too, but I hadn’t been to Edinburgh since 1997. It’s a beautiful city and contrary to the popular idea, it was sunny and the weather was lovely. The thing I love about European cities is so much history in them (Check out the royal Museum) and statues – Greyfriars Bobby and David Hume are very close to each other.
2 Shetland.
After Edinburgh, we travelled to Aberdeen and took a ferry to Shetland. I’ll confess, the true reason we went there is we both love the TV drama Shetland. On the trip we met a couple from Australia who were there for the same reason. It’s a cool little island, and we really enjoyed the scenery and the people (I turned 61 there, and it was a good place to celebrate)
3 Berlin.
I wrote about Berlin earlier this year, but we ended up spending Christmas there as well. My daughter lives there, and we got home yesterday. This time, we stayed in a working class district called Wedding. Or as it was known in the day Red Wedding. We stayed just a few blocks from Kösliner Straße, the famous red alley which was the scene of an infamous massacre of demonstrators by the police in 1929. We also got to see the Berlin Wall which I had missed last time and the memorial for the 1919 Revolution in Friedrichsfelde Cemetery. As someone who has lived most of his life in North America, it’s striking when you encounter streets named after Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg. Lastly, we did go to a Christmas Market – it felt a little like being in one of those Hallmark Christmas movies, but not in an unpleasant way. The mulled wine probably helped.
4 Vessi
Yeah, Vessi. It’s a Canadian shoe company out of Vancouver. I was looking for a lightweight, but waterproof sneaker tihs summer, and bought a pair. The most comfortable show I worn in ages. We tramped around Scotland, Shetland and Berlin and I got not a single blister. Earlier this month, I saw they had a light winter boot (basically a lined high-top sneaker) – bought a pair of those with the same result. Very comfortable. [End of commercial plug, but it might be more of a public service announcement]
5 Vancouver
Later in the summer, we went to Vancouver to see our son who was working there. Not been there since 1998, but it still seemed pretty cool, the east side of downtown with its horrific poverty and fentanyl epidemic notwithstanding. I really like the central library, and the continued existence of Spartacus Books is important.
6 Montreal
The final leg of our mini-Canadian tour was also due to our son’s re-location – he worked in Montreal in the fall. Spent a day wandering through the mile end neighbourhood. Cool area which is home to a lot of hipster stores as well as Drawn and Quarterly and a significant Jewish community. Great vibe.
7 Severance
I’ve only watched the first season of this show. A friend at work was constantly talking about it, so my wife and I finally got to viewing it. Oh, it’s so good. Two things. I really liked the slow burn: How details were gradually revealed, as the show built up to it’s season one climax. Enthralling. And then there’s the the show itself. God knows, I’d like to walk away from work and forget everything, but we know if we could, it would be for the needs of capital. Amazing.
8 The New Eves
I discovered the New Eves after they appeared on an Uncut compilation CD. It was one of those moments where you go, “What the hell was that?” Imagine Patti Smith singing for the Raincoats who were performing as a Velvet Underground tribute band. A disservice to all of those bands, but you get the idea. Hoping they are touring Canada soon.
9 Kota the Dog
Last year, we lost our beloved Lester. It was a profound experience from which I will never totally recover. Will I get another dog? Dunno. Maybe. However, one of our neighbours has a husky who visits our back garden once or twice a day. She trots over and as soon as we go out to see her, rolls over for a belly-rub. I feel like a grandparent. Perhaps we’re not quite ready for another dog, but we both look forward to Kota’s visits.
10 Hope
When I was in Berlin last week, I visited the Anti-War Museum in Wedding. It was originally set up in the 1920s, but the Nazis closed it when they came to power. In a perverse twist, they used the building as a detention centre where they tortured prisoners. the original building was destroyed during World War II, but was re-established in a different location. The woman who was volunteering there and who gave me a tour asked where I was from. When I said Canada, she laughed and made a joke about Trump. It’s hard to watch (and obviously much harder to live through) the actions of the Trump regime, although it is easy and tempting to see parallels with the past (there is a very interesting piece on the International Perspective website on this topic which I will post later on just this topic), it is also easy to see class struggle. Earlier this year workers at Air Canada and the Canadian post office fought important battles for working conditions and dignity at work. In the US, the anti-Trump “No Kings” movement mobilized millions, and in Canada, Britain and the US, there have been small steps against the existing structures (the Yves Engler campaign for NDP leadership, Your Party, and the election of Zohran Mumdani respectively). Now, it is important to see that these movements are not revolutionary uprisings and in the case of Engler, Your Party and the DSA, they will ultimately be ways to continue to bind workers to “democratic” capitalism albeit with the possibility of more sugar. But it is in the moments of realignment, of struggles that greater possibilities emerge. It would be foolish to suggest that 2026 will be the year of struggle, of a revolutionary moment. But it might also be as foolish to suggest that things could not get better.
Here’s to a New Year of class struggle and a better tomorrow.
Notes from Underground 
