My personal year:

2025 brought some challenging suprises. A bit more than we asked for.
It started off with something silly, my nasal turbinates needed a bit of surgery. Nothing serious, quite minor. It took me out for a week and didn't help. Later that year my lovely wife directed my to the GP, who sent me to the hospital for a better check. And they confirmed: Skin Cancer. Thank God, only the "light" version (Basal Cell Carcinoma). After not having seen the hospital for quite some years, this was not the plan. Anyway: Stuff is removed and they will keep on checking me in the future.
As if this wasn't enough, almost as soon as I returned to the office, my employer told me that after 5 years they wanted/needed to get rid of me. Although the message itself wasn't nice, it was actually a blessing in disguise. When you have a fixed contract and everything just keeps going as usual, you can get comfortable. Too comfortable even. Especially if you've seen things happening which you don't like, but don't impact you directly. So this was actually a nice wake-up call. I guess they were a bit surprised I didn't fight the decision at all and we agreed on the conditions within a few days.
Finding a new job didn't take long, though. In August I started working at Intemo as a Product Manager. No more commercial responsibilities, just responsible for product selection, supplier selection and calculations. And as an extra bonus: it's good to be back in Brabant again.

My MSX year:

2025 brought some nice developments to the MSX world. Thanks to the MSX Pico+ & Pico WiFi you can now download MSX games to your MSX directly from the internet. Just watch the video on the right. But this can also be done with any MSX with a UNAPI network card, thanks to the FH-Browser by NataliaPC.
And of course there was the MSX2 GOTO 40 Event in Amsterdam where the original FONY members were reunited again after more than 30 years!
In the meantime the MSX Whatsapp group keeps on growing. And you can now play your favourite MSX games on your Apple devices. You will need to hit the INFO & BACK button to get access to the games though.
NOP has surprised us with some nice Full Motion Video on MSX. There was a very nice meeting of what might become the MSX-GG Zoetermeer.

My culinary year:

Stephanie de Klerk holding a wine bottle

In 2025 we have had quite a few culinary highlights. There are a few I would like to mention:

* Our new favourite restaurant: De Leuf. They have received an award for their hospitality (and well deserved!). Just click the link in read my review. And go there if you have the chance...
* Newcomers to visit: Cellar Door, Ovum & Odille.
* Other favourites this year: Kasteel Maurick, Hofstede de Blaak & Sense.

Final thoughts:

All in all I can say 2025 was a busy year... a VERY busy year with some ups & downs. Mostly ups though... Enjoying good food & hospitality with my lovely wife is a great hobby. Kind of an expensive hobby, so we will put ourselves on a budget in 2026. But, the death of Jonnie Boer only confirmed to us that you only live once and that you should enjoy it as much as possible. That is also the message we want to give to all of you: Enjoy 2026!