Where do I even start? 2025 was one big emotional
rollercoaster.
I got told that I could start working from home one day a
week, which I thought was fabulous as I hadn't really been allowed to
previously unless I was ill. Being told that I could work from home was a big
thing for me, it meant that I was being trusted to get on with my work
unsupervised. It wasn't something that people got to do straight away in our
job as there is so much for us to learn that the bosses prefer it if you work
from the office for a while so they are confident you know what you are doing.
We saw Spyder Byte at my favourite gig venue, Leo's Red Lion
in Gravesend. They had 2 super duper awesome support bands who were Hekz who
incorporate a violin into their music and it is incredible to watch; and the
other band was The Lost Search Party who I absolutely loved because they had
such brilliant big energy.
We took our nieces swimming for the first time, everything
was fine, no one drowned or got lost so yeah, all good lol.
I launched this blog, I was starting to find it hard keeping
up with my music blog, Suzy's Musical World, so I started looking for other
writers to help me out. I thought that having other writers would take the
pressure of writing off of me as well as putting out other peoples opinions on
music other than my own. I was also really missing writing about my travel
adventures and writing reviews about hotels and restaurants so I started The
World Of Suzy as a side project to add to on a casual basis to see how I felt
about it.
My friend Amy was having the same issues as me getting
diagnosed with ADHD so was over the moon when she messaged me and told me about
Right To Choose. If you aren't aware, it can take years to be diagnosed with
ADHD or autism because the NHS don't have the funding to go through all the
referrals as quickly as they would want to. So Right To Choose is where you can
ask your GP to send your referral to one of the private companies that are
trying to help the NHS. It can still take some time but it's not as long as just being on the NHS waiting list. I know some people who have been waiting 4 years and still not been diagnosed yet.
I was not in a good place for this month. I had been in my job as a temp since August, I knew the job inside and out but when my job was advertised (they needed 2 more people to do the same job as me and Stuart who was already a permanent member of staff) I got told that it was company policy that I still needed to go through the interview process to become permanent staff. I wasn't happy as I had been doing the job for 6 months and then went through the interview only to be told that I wasn't successful. Out of the 4 people who were interviewed, me being the only one actually doing the job, I came out at the bottom. Believe me when I say I was fuming, how can someone in the job come out worse than people who hadn't ever done the job. I also didn't like the way I was told about it, I got a Teams call while I was in the office, it wasn't face-to-face. To me, that was seriously disrespectful.
I went through a week of torture because my manager was on holiday when I got told and I didn't want to talk to any other member of management about it. I was seriously angry feeling like I had been set up to fail or someone in management didn't want me to progress in the job. I couldn't work out what the issue was, no one was complaining about my work, I was doing it right and got everything done on time, I was active in working out new processes to help make the job easier and I got on with everyone that I worked with. When I talked to other people in the office, they couldn't understand what was going on either.
When my manager came back off of holiday, we had a meeting straight away. We chatted about the interview, he hadn't
been in on the interview so he wanted to talked it over. I told him how I felt and told
him a few of my observations from the interview, like the fact that I was asked
questions that had nothing to do with my job. He wasn't happy and promised that
he would work out what we needed to do to get it sorted out. I have such an amazing boss.
I took my niece and nephew to Leeds Castle for the day on my
own, which was fine, it wasn't the first time I had taken them out on my own,
so I knew they would behave for me. We had a wicked day looking round the
castle, finding our way through the maze (which took us 45 minutes), the kids
did the obstacle course twice, I didn't see them for nearly an hour when they
went in the big wooden play area castle and we watched the bird show.
We went to the Brighton Tattoo Convention and got tattoos on
our wedding ring fingers. I got a queen crown and Sean got a king crown We got
to spent the day with one of my favourite people as well, Carmen, it was the
first time that Carmen and Sean had met so I loved that they got on so well.
I went to see Uriah Heep with Sean in Bexhill. I'm not into
Uriah Heap but Sean is, so I went with him to see what they were like. They
actually put on a really awesome show and I found I knew a few of the songs
lol. I loved that Tyketto were supporting, they are such a brilliant band. The
other support band was April Wine but I really couldn't get into them so I went
to get a drink about half way through the set.
I went with my mum to see Ghost the musical at The Hawth in
Crawley. I forgot how emotional the storyline was and cried my eyes out at the end, but it
was an amazing show, I couldn't work out how the stunt doubles were appearing
in scenes when people died.
I got all excited because Five announced they were going on
tour. I didn't think I was going to go as I couldn't think of anyone to go
with, but then my friend Carmen posted that she wanted to go and that was it.
Tickets were booked!!
We went to see Sons Of Liberty in Hastings, they had Thieves Of Liberty supporting them and it was such an awesome night. We had the best
time, especially when Russ walked round the crowd singing and then rubbed
himself up against me lol. He's a saucy one he is, top performer.
Our favourite seafood stall in Leysdown re-opened so we
ventured down there for the day with Sunny. We always have the same thing, I
have cockles, sweet chilli prawns and deep fried salt and pepper prawns. Sean
has jellied eels, welks and pinched some of my deep fried prawns.
I finally got my hair permed, my hair had gone very straight
and I didn't like it anymore. I've been perming my hair since 2021, I'd finally
had enough of living with dull, thin hair so decided to try perming it. My hair
looks and feels better than it ever has and it's easier to look after. Win win!
I had an awesome weekend away in Cardiff visiting my gig
bestie Roxxi. I haven't been to Cardiff in years so it was great to have a look
around again. We looked around Cardiff Castle, the old and new parts. We went up the tower in the old castle and OMG, the stairs are crazy!! They are so steep and tall but some of them were really short depth wise so I was just about getting my toes and the balls of my big size 10 feet on the steps. Some of the really steep steps I had to go down backwards because I was freaking out. The architecture of all the buildings and the street art that we saw was amazing. Cardiff is a beautiful city.
I don't know if anyone got in trouble for me complaining
about my job interview to my manager, but instead of being called into an office, I got told
in a very casual way (in the office) that I had the job I interviewed for. I was
quite confused as I wasn't sure if it was a joke, so I spoke to my manager (who
didn't realise I had been told), and he confirmed that I had the job. It would
have been nice to be told in a better way but I was over the moon that I had
the job. I'd been getting super stressed for a month thinking that I would end
up getting fired.
Now April was exciting! First off, it was my Sean's 40th
birthday and as luck would have it, Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons were playing in London and doing a 50th anniversary Motorhead gig. My Sean
absolutely loves Motorhead, so I got him tickets and booked us into a hotel for
the night so we didn't have to worry about getting home afterwards. We had an
amazing time and loved that we got to see the support band again which was Kim
Jennet, you all need to watch out for this girl as she is frigging amazing!!
She is going to take over the world.
My Lost Zone boys came to the UK on a tour supporting HalfLives. Unfortunately, I could only go to 2 of the 5 UK gigs as I was on holiday for the other dates. I saw them in Bristol and then Birmingham the next night before rushing down the motorway in the middle of night to get home in time to go on holiday. Roxxi came with me to the Bristol gig to see what the boys were like and I was so happy that she liked them, it meant that I had someone to go to their gigs with when they come back to the UK.
The Lost Zone boys got into a bit of trouble when their van was locked in an overnight car park in Bristol. Roxxi and I were sitting in the bar/merch area and Flo came up to us laughing. We ask why he was laughing and he said the van was locked in the car park because after a set time, there is a height limit and the van is too tall to get out. Luckily though, my hotel wasn't far away, so Roxxi and I got my car and we helped them get their gear to their van in a couple of loads lol. Awesome memories.
The holiday was to Evreux in France with Sean, we had booked
a little bedsit and spent just over 2 weeks chilling out or exploring the
French countryside. Evreux isn't a big town but it had what we needed and we
loved walking around it. We made a special trip up to the second world war
cemetery where my grandad is buried in Hottot-Les-Bagues. My mum gave us a few
bits that she wanted put on the grave so we made sure to take those with
us.
We also had 2 days in Paris during the holiday seeing as it was just an hours train ride from Evreux. We got an unlimited 2 day pass for the bus and just rode that round Paris getting off at places of we wanted to check out. Something I wasn't expecting was when we were getting selfies at the Eiffel Tower, I heard someone shouting my name. I looked around and the was Andre from Lost Zone and their merch guy Alex.
So as you can guess, Paris was where I saw Lost Zone again, I had been very cheeky and planned the Paris trip around their gig in Paris just so I could see them again lol. I loved that my Sean was with me so that he could finally see them as well.
April was also the month when I got taken on at my job as a
permanent full time member of staff. No more being a temp for me and not
worrying about having a job all the time felt amazing.
Once we were back from France, we were back at Leo's Red
Lion again for a Bon Jovi tribute act called Jon Bovi. We went with our friends
Ross and Amy and had a brilliant night jumping around, well, I jumped around
like a loony to my favourite songs lol.
It was our niece Monroe's holy communion, she did an half
look lovely in her dress, and seeing as it was such a lovely day, we went to
the pub where I got very drunk and have no memory of anything that happened.
It was our nephew Noah's birthday and celebrated by having a
big family bbq at my sister-in-law's. It was a scorcher, thank goodness that
there was a paddling pool for the kids. Once they were done with it, I got a
chair to sit next to it and put my feet in the water.
It was also Eurovision time!! I do love Eurovision. I don't really cheer for one country as I can never pick a favourite with how many awesome acts there are. I was in bed for the points being given and Sean was sound asleep, he's not into Eurovision lol. One of the people signing the songs for deaf people was so awesome, she was really getting into the music and dancing.
There are some annoying things about Eurovision that I try not to think about though, like how political it is and the fact that the UK can't pick the act that represents us. Other countries do public votes for their acts, I think that's what we should do too seeing as most of the time people in the UK don't like the act that is picked for us.
We went to Leeds Castle again but took our 2 nieces this
time and we got to watch the jousting as part of the Queen's Jousting Event weekend. It was quite exciting getting to watch it, I haven't watched real jousting in years. We had fun walking round the stalls as well checking out things that had been handmade.
June was a month in the sunshine with trips to Leysdown and
seeing friends at their houses for bbqs.
I had an optician appointment and found out that "because of my age" I now need varifocal glasses. This may not seem bad to some people, but for me, someone who hates the fact I am getting older, this was horrendous. I needed new glasses, which Specsavers tried to charge me about £500 for but I said no thank you and walked out with my prescription. I went onto Goggles4U and got myself some nice new.......varifocal...... glasses.
We went to the Aylesford Food Festival at Aylesford Priory and had an awesome day trying different foods and drinks. I love picking up different food seasonings so got a few bargains and Sean got to go into a wine tasting.
Me and mum went out to Tilgate Park as a dinosaurs park had been set up with big mechanical dinosaurs that moved. They looked amazing, I wish I could have seen the mechanics, I think it would be fascinating to see how they work.
My birthday month. Sean took me away to Eastbourne for a
long weekend where we eat loads of lovely food and we went to the Victorian TeaRoom to have afternoon tea. I love Eastbourne, it's nothing big and flashy but there is so much to see a do. You have the pier, the open top bus ride, the beach, the history, all the shops and restaurants. I love it.
On on our way home from Eastbourne, we stopped at a farm
called Middle Farm where we got to walk around seeing all the animals, one of
my favourite things to do. they have a tea room onsite so we went in to have
afternoon tea but didn't get to have any of it because we were ambushed by
wasps.
Sean and I signed up to Freedom Leisure, we loved that they had a swimming pool as well as the gym and it wasn't a huge facility with lots of things that we wouldn't use or be interested in. Plus, we got a discount through my job lol.
I had my first work team building day which was playing
mini-golf in Folkestone. We had some new people so it was a good day getting to
know everyone a bit better.
We got to go to the Maidstone Food Festival and Maidstone River Festival in the same day. We were just going for the food festival but our niece and nephew noticed the fun fair of the river festival so we went to have a look around. This was also the first time we had the kids overnight, usually we just have them during the day so this was new for all of us lol. They behaved so everyone was happy.
This was of course the month that Ozzy Osbourne passed away. I found out when I came out the gym and Sean told me. Neither of us really believed it at first, we had to Google it and find real news articles to make sure it had actually happened. We were devastated and it wasn't long before I was sat at home watching his funeral. The world had lost a true legend and so many of us felt it.
This was a fun month because Sean and I went to our first
medieval festival. It's called Loxwood and it was so much fun. We turned up and
felt weird because we were some of the few people who didn't turn up dressed up
in a costume. I was totally jealous as some of the dresses the ladies were
wearing looked amazing, I'm making sure to dress up next year. We saw jousting
and people in armour fighting, I had a go at archery and a crossbow. Absolutely
loved it.
Our niece Millie had her birthday so it was another BBQ at
my sister-in-law's, but we couldn't stay late because Sean was playing at
Greyfest that evening with his band 3ST, which is a charity raising money for
greyhounds.
I got to see the Sex Pistols for the first time and I
thought they were brilliant. I'd got the tickets for Sean but I went with him
and it was a really good night. The supports were The Buzzcocks and TheStranglers, didn't know I knew some of both songs bands so that turned out well
lol. Johnny Rotten was the lead singer for this tour, it was Frank Skinner and
I can see why, he is a great performing and had me in hysterics a few times.
Sean had 2 gigs in one day with his band 3ST, one was a food festival and the other was at a small festival. It was a crazy day but we somehow managed to pull it off.
I finally got to see Revenant at a gig, these guys are just
so awesome. I love their music and they put on an amazing show. I got to see
them in Faversham at the Old Brewery Store, my second visit to the venue which
is in my top 10 list of venues, and not just because it is half an hour from my
house haha.The support was the awesome AK And The Red Kites who I hadn't been
able to see before as well so loved getting to see them in the same gig.
Sean had a couple more gigs with 3ST so I had fun going along to support him. I love watching him play in a band, he looks really happy when he's playing.
Sean and I went to see one of the best bands on the scene at the moment, Asomvel. They are just super frigging amazing and we didn't just see them on the Friday night at Leo's Red Lion, we also went to London the very next day to see them play at The Underworld.
After 3 years, I finally got diagnosed with ADHD which was a
happy and sad experience. Happy because I finally got to understand why I do
some of things I do and sad because I've been so misunderstood for years. If I
had been diagnosed as a kid instead of being told I was dyslexic, I could have
got the help I needed to get good grades at school. Instead of being diagnosed
as depressed in my 20s and mid 30s, I could have got the right help and
medication to help me get my head straightened out.
I saw an awesome Kiss tribute at Leo's Red Lion called
Hotter Than Hell and OMG, they are amazing! I had the best time watching them,
they were sounded and looked like Kiss. I don't think I've ever seen a tribute
band so on point in every way.
I went to Brighton with my buddy Carmen to see Five at the Brighton Centre. We got to dance and sing along like we were teenagers again, but as soon as the music stopped, my cody reminded me that I wasn't a teenager anymore lol. They put on a brilliant show though, I had a amazing time and my friend Dee was there with us too, we saw her in the queue for wristbands.
This was a very important month, it was the month that my
Sean finally got to meet his wrestling idol, Mick Foley. Sean is shit at
telling me when there are events on that he wants to go to and I got fed him
telling when it was too late that Mick was in the UK doing shows; so I signed
up to the Mick Foley website to get updates.It wasn't long before I got an
email that Mick was doing a tour of the UK and one of them was in London. I set
4 different alarms that started an hour before tickets went on sale to make
sure I was online with card in hand to get my Sean VIP tickets. On the day, we
had an awesome day chilling in London before going into the event. As part of
the VIP ticket, each of us could get something signed so Sean picked a poster
from the merch stall and he'd brought a Mankind mask. We got to go up to a
table to meet Mick and speak to him, we had a nice chat and got our stuff
signed. Then we took our seats while everyone else attending got to meet Mick.
Then we all had to line up again to have a picture done with Mick. I asked if
it was ok that Sean had 2 pictures instead of me having a picture and the
people running it was fine with it. So Sean had a nice picture with Mick and
then I asked Mick if he would put Sean in a choke hold, which he was lovely
enough to do. Then we got to sit through 2 hours of Mick talking about his
amazing wrestling career. There was so much I didn't know, Sean knew it all but
I didn't and I found it seriously fascinating.
I got tickets to watch the first episode of Stranger Things season 5 a few days before it was released on Netflix. So me and Georgia had a dash over to Crawley to go to the Cineworld as it was the closed cinema to us that was showing the episode. We had to put our phones in security pouches before going into the screen, but they did give us a free drink and bag of popcorn so they were forgiven lol.
November was also the month that we got the first proper Download Festival update with the headliners and did a weird girly noise before going on ticketmaster and getting a weekend ticket. Sean isn't going with me as he doesn't like many of the bands so I'm going to meet up with some friends when I am there. I'm really looking forward to seeing Electric Callboy, Cypress Hill, Babymetal, Pendulum, Limp Bizkit, Spineshank, Guns 'n' Roses, The PRetty Reckless, Scotter, Bloodywood, POD, Rory, Linkin Park, Static-X and Drowning Pool at the moment. Really hope I don't get too many time clashes.
Now December was hard, with the lead up to Christmas, even
though I was very busy, I cried everyday missing my dad. I did my best to be
cheerful and happy about Christmas but seeing a Santa or something that
reminded me of dad would set me off.
There was some really good things about December though, at
work we had a Christmas celebration day where people wore Christmas jumpers,
there was a raffle and auction to raise money for charity, all sorts of cakes
and treats. Then that evening was the department Christmas party, that was a
lot of fun but once again, no matter how much I drunk, I actually couldn't get
drunk. I was tipsy but not drunk, I had Sean picking me and Georgia up so I
didn't have to worry about driving.
I got my new tattoos which is sheet music coming from behind
both my ears, then going down and along my shoulders. The sheet music is to
Amazed by Lonestar which is mine and Sean's song. The left side is "every
little thing that you do" and the right side is "baby I'm amazed by
you".
I saw the legends Bowling For Soup at Wembley arena,
the first time they played there as headliners and it was amazing. The supports
were Punk Rock Factory who I love, they are just so fun and I love their covers
of Disney songs. Then it was Wheatus who I have basically been waiting over 20
years to see just so I can Teenage Dirtbag live, my inner teen rocker was very
happy. Then it was Bowling For Soup and holy shit it was such a good night.
They played all my favourite songs, The Bitch Song, Almost, Emily, 1985 and
then they played Me With No You. I know it's a break-up song but listening to
the lyrics had me in tears thinking about my dad.
"I'm a circle incomplete
I'm a heart that barely beats
All the memories stay forever like tattoos
I'm a star without a sky
I'm hello with no goodbye
I'm the the dreams we had that never will come true
That's me with no you"
Sean and I both had the week leading up to Christmas off
work so we took our 3 nieces and nephew to Kent Life to meet Santa and have a
nice day out. It was cold and wet but everyone had an awesome time.The kids got
to go on a tractor ride, paint some little figures, decorate gingerbread men,
feed the animals and go on the trampolines.
On Christmas Eve, we drove to my mum's so we could be with
her on Christmas morning. Sean and I went to The Apple Tree pub round the
corner from my mum's for a few drinks. There was a lot of people in there and
there was a duet which was nice. Then we went over to the fish and chip shop to
get us all dinner.
Christmas Day I got woken up by Sean saying that my mum was already up and sitting in the living room waiting for us. I can't remember the last time my mum was up on Christmas Day before me. I loved us all opening presents before I made us all a big fry-up. My brother had just dropped his girlfriend off at Heathrow as she was off to Thailand for a month so he went to my mum's to spend Christmas Day with her. He arrived a little while before we left to drive home so it was nice to see him as well.
It was the first Christmas that Sean and I were on our own in about 7 year, so it was weird just cooking for the 2 of us. We went to the pub when we got back to Larkfield from mum's and saw Sean's dad for a little while.
Boxing Day we were round Sean's mum's house for a family party with Sean's sister, brother, partners and all the kids.
I was back at work between Christmas and New Year, There wasn't many people in and a lot of our sites were closed so we had a chance to catch up on projects and things that could do with some attention as we didn't have a lot of work coming in.
Then New Year we were in bed by 10pm and I just about saw midnight before falling asleep lol.
So yeah, it was one hell of a year and I've been thinking about it a lot writing this post. I learnt quite a few lessons in 2025 and it will be interesting to see how 2026 turns out.