This is my last blog post for 2025.
It’s been a year!
I’ve published 46 posts (not including this one) which amounted to 64,172 words. About half of those were about Generative AI from the perspective of this sensible woman, and about half were personal, like this very post you are reading
A colleague and I have run a big training contract, and I launched an AI learning circle.
I’ve done good work for my regular clients, but I can’t say I’ve gained any new ones – which is my focus in the new year. A big push into marketing is planned, along with a review of everything I currently do, including my blogging calendar.
I’ve learned that there’s a word for people like me, who see patterns and make connections: interstitionary.
I’ve read 39 books (and probably more – my phone died a couple of months ago, taking with it some of the data in the app I used to track the books I read). That number is likely to increase exponentially once I take to the couch on December 19.
But most of all the year is marked by a huge loss: the death of my lovely brother-in-law Andrew Trench at the age of 54 on May 30, an event that is still rippling through the lives of my family, and will do for years to come.
One of those ripple effects is the need to rethink what we all do on Christmas Day, which was always spent at the Moodie-Trench household, where Andrew would cook epic meals while my sister Gill kept everything running in the background, and while Jack and his cousin Aster transformed over the years from teenagers to young adults.
Instead, this year, our own tradition of a Christmas Eve meal will be expanded to include Gill and Aster. We’ll light a candle and make a toast to Andrew, and miss him terribly.
We’ll be keeping each other close this year.
My wish for all my readers is that you can do the same: spend time with the people you love, and keep them close.
Posts resume in mid-January 2026 – until then I wish you all as restful a Dezemba as possible.
Main picture: Our Christmas Eve table setting, December 2016.
Other things I have written
Why everybody counts, or nobody counts – Why everybody counts: The story of something extraordinary that has happened in our family over the last months.
The end-of-year Gen AI post: be afraid, be thoughtful – We are almost done with 2025. Time to reflect on a year of generative AI and the emerging dangers – but also to think about what to do about that.
End of year greetings: Ke Dezemba boss! – South Africans celebrate the end of each long year in their own special way. Let’s get into the spirit of Dezemba!
How can I help you make order from chaos?
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Or sign up for my personal fortnightly email newsletter In Safe Hands (it’s a place to pause and think about things).
Book a free half hour of my time, here. Find out how I can help with writing, editing, project management, general clear thinking, technical hand holding, or an introduction to AI.
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