This was without a doubt the toughest year of my life. Not because of any singular horrible event but just due to the daily grind. Of course, plenty of people have been through far worse this year so I shouldn’t complain. But obviously, I will.
You hear a lot about the ‘Terrible Twos’ but not so much about the ‘Terrible Threes’, which I can confirm are much more terrible.
Last year we had three childcare days a week, plus a nap during the day, which gave Annika and me a nice little break to recharge and get stuff done.
This year we could only get two days a week and the naps were suddenly replaced with a 1000% Gus energy increase. And two days of childcare a week is only the theoretical maximum. It was rare to actually get that more than a couple of weeks in a row thanks to the regular carrousel of exotic daycareborne illnesses that swept through our house.
So it was a challenge to get anything done this year. On the plus side we did spend a lot of time together doing family things like going to playgrounds and/or centres, swimming lessons, riding to the end of most Melbourne train lines and hanging in the backyard.
It’s been fascinating seeing Gus’s sense of humour develop. He’ll often say things wrong on purpose and then look at me with a sly grin to see my reaction. For example: “Wee comes out the butt.”
Hmm… the farce is strong with this one.
Speaking of cracks, we’d noticed the ones in the walls were getting pretty big and several of the doors no longer fit in their frames so we got a structural engineer to come have a look at our house.
Turned out our circa 1939 terracotta sewer pipes were leaking, causing the nearby wall and everything else to move. So after a series of quotes and inspections and soil testing and coordinating with our neighbour (because yes, turns out it’s a shared sewer) and many, MANY different opinions, we finally got that fixed just before Christmas.
The sections that were more accessible were dug up and replaced with PVC and the rest was re-lined.
Mmm. Love that new sewer smell.
Aside from releasing the 2024 season finale of VHS Revue in February, I took a break from making new episodes this year. It just wasn’t practical to make any with the time constraints.
I did however post some of the shorter clips from the back catalogue as YouTube Shorts. In the past I hadn’t posted many Shorts as it requires the video to be in portrait and if I upload the 4:3 file directly it crops the sides off (and I hate that).
So my Shorts upload process involves using the Instagram stories editor (or TikTok if the video is longer than 60 seconds) to add black squares at the top and bottom of the video to fill it out to portrait and then add some text at the top. This is somewhat tedious.
But it was something I could do on my phone (usually while at work) and when YouTube increased the maximum length of a Short from one minute to three, it meant a lot of my older VHS Revue clips were now Shortable. Ditto with BlueSky.
Occasionally a Short would get 10k views and I’d get a trickle of new YouTube subscribers. More recently a couple got over 100k. So despite only the one new full VHS Revue episode in 2025, I increased my subscribers from 5,600 to 7,154. That’s 7% of the way towards that shiny silver plaque 😉
I did make time for one major creative project this year however and that’s the ‘On The Talking’ podcast, which had been in the works since 2021. Here’s our just released Christmas episode (which was actually recorded LAST Christmas):
Why do these episodes take so long to come out? Although it’s mostly improv, it does have scripted material like fake ads and news gags and they take a bit of time to edit. Plus we can only record when I go back to Adelaide and get together with the other guys. It’s really just an excuse to hang out with mates and laugh a lot. But I’m really happy with the result and I think it’s some of the funniest stuff we’ve ever done.
And then there’s my actual job(s).
For the first time in five years I was back working as an audio operator at the Australian Open in January – this time at the (relatively) new Kia Arena during the evenings. It was great.
My two favourite things that happened were when a Dad held his baby up above his head and the arena roving camera put the vision up on the big screen. It was the last shot before play resumed and JUST as the vision mixer was fading back to the AO logo, the baby threw up.
The sound of the crowd was indescribable. Sadly I don’t think any cameras got the reaction in the arena. You just had to be there.
The other thing was during a mixed doubles match with an all New Zealand team. There were a lot of Kiwis in the crowd and a couple of pockets started singing ‘Slice of Heaven’ by Dave Dobbyn.
Incidentally, this song has a special significance for me as it was the number one song in Australia the week I was born.
After the third or fourth time hearing it from the crowd I thought we should play it for real. I got the okay from HQ (as it wasn’t in the approved playlist) and during a set break I played it from the start with the fader up. As soon as the “DA DA DA” came out the speakers, the crowd went nuts. They were singing so loud and kept singing after the players came back on court (and I had faded it down), the chair umpire had to tell them to be quiet.
I even got a shout out in the post match interview:
This was my highlight…
— David M. Green (@davidmgreen.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
(By the way, we always tried to balance songs from each player’s home nation but there were so many New Zealanders in the crowd it was a bit stacked against the other side)
Panelled the sport radio at SEN again. Yeah that’s still going.
Wrote quiz questions for a popular TV show throughout the year. That ended up being more work than I expected as it kept getting extended – a good problem to have in this biz in these times.
The familiar conversation I keep having with TV folks is: “yeah bit quiet out there”. Hoping these new local content quota rules will actually have a positive impact.
I found some time to get my frustration with Subway Restaurants out of my head and into this article for The Guardian. Although it wasn’t my intention, since writing it I haven’t eaten there again. Possibly because I discovered a fantastic sandwich place not far from my house in Coburg called Elio’s Panini & Coffee. Once you have their focaccias there’s no going back.
In May the extended family spent four days on Lady Elliot Island in the Great Barrier Reef (thanks Mum!). Really enjoyed snorkelling and seeing the sea turtles up close.
Swimming was really the theme this year.
Annika, Gus and I went to Sweden again for the northern summer. We stayed for six weeks this time. It was the best weather I’ve ever experienced there and the water was unusually warm.
I finally had no excuses to swim across the bay to the neighbouring island. It’s only 120 metres but it looks further when the water’s up to your neck.
Every year I’ve wanted to do it but the water has been just a bit too cold or the current a bit too strong. There’s also a bit of boat traffic but I figured if I didn’t do it this time I was never going to do it.
So I did it.
It sparked a love of swimming that’s continued after we got back to Melbourne, where I’ve joined up at a local gym and now swim laps regularly in their pool. This was also a new year’s resolution, which frankly I assumed I wouldn’t keep.
However, I didn’t realise this exercise would actually be enjoyable. I feel great too. I’ve never been a gym person. But I think you get to your late 30s and you’ve got to face the reality of “use it or wake up every morning with an aching back”.
By far the worst thing that happened this year was losing my Uncle Richard, who passed away in June. He was 71 and had been diagnosed with cancer three years ago.
He’s the uncle I saw the least, as we only lived in the same city at the same time briefly. He was in Sydney when I was growing up and then just after he came back to Adelaide, I moved to Melbourne. This is probably also why I have so few photos of us together.
My earliest memory is visiting him in the Hyatt Hotel when I was about 7. He let me waste half a roll of his film taking photos of the trains from the window as they pulled into Adelaide Railway Station below. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the photos so it’s possible there was no film in the camera.
On my first trip to Sydney in 1996, Richard took my sister Alice and me to see ‘The Phantom’ and ride the monorail.
He loved the arts and had exquisite taste. When I moved into my first apartment he gave me a Laguiole cutlery set and a Royal Albert tea strainer. He was also a Le Cordon Bleu graduate so dinner at his place was always a treat.
Whenever I was back in town, I enjoyed catching up with him for a coffee (or two) and a chat. He had a great sense of humour and knew all the gossip.
Richard also loved to travel and wherever he went he made lots of friends. He never stopped planning his next trip. Even as he lay in his hospital bed in March, he told me he’d love to visit Spain again.
When I open my email, it sorts them by the oldest first and I’m always welcomed by this one he sent me in 2009 when he was working with Mum at Chandlers Hill Surgery:
“I’m well and happy, and enjoying working with your mother, although it may be time for an O.S. trip. Perhaps France later in the year. See you soon, Richard.”
I figure that’s where he is now. Out there somewhere, having a wonderful time on his next adventure.
Perhaps France.
I was very proud (well, more proud than usual) of my Mum, Dr Carolyn Lawlor-Smith, this year as she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours List for services to General Practice and Community Health. She has worked as a GP in Adelaide for over 40 years and was one of the first doctors to be trained in Voluntary Assisted Dying in South Australia. She travels all over SA to assess people who are requesting access to VAD and has so far assisted more than 280 people in their VAD journey.
My sister Hannah, Aunty Lorry and I went with Mum to her medal ceremony at Government House in Adelaide. I’d never been in there before. A wonderful experience and a great day.
Other things… We had a small olive harvest from our seven trees – about 25kg – which gave us a couple of litres of oil and I preserved two jars of olives. More than last year (which was zilch) but not as many as the 62kg we got in 2023.
I think our cherry tree is on the way out. Last year’s cherries must have been its swan song because they were probably the best I’ve ever eaten.
I’ve started learning Swedish on Duolingo five minutes a day. I figure I’ve been to Sweden six times and probably going to go many more times so should make an effort.
I got Lyme disease again this year thanks to another tick bite (yeah cheers Sweden). That’s the second time that’s happened – so I had another huge course of antibiotics, which wrecked havoc with my digestive system.
The worst thing about it is I’m now not allowed to donate blood in Australia, which used to be something I enjoyed doing regularly. There’s talk of the Lifeblood people changing the rules some day but doesn’t sound like it’s happening any time soon.
You may have also noticed I’ve given this website an upgrade and changed its appearance for the first time since I launched it in 2007. It’s okay if you haven’t.
Mainly to fix some compatibility issues in the back end and change the page design to one that displays better on a phone. This website is so old it can have its own social media account in Australia.
I was also (forced to) upgrade to a new laptop thanks to Microsoft ending support for Windows 10. I’d had my old ASUS laptop since 2017 and felt like I’d only just got it set up just the way I like it. It had all the ports I needed. A DVD burner, which I didn’t really use any more but when I did, I was glad I had it. Windows 10 was very stable and reliable. I used it for all my video editing.
My God I’d been to hell and back with that thing. I originally got it with Windows 7, which must have been one of the last ones out the door because most of them came with the awful Windows 8 at the time – and I was keen to avoid that.
Then after about six months I stupidly used Windex to clean the keyboard and it shorted out a bank of keys. My friend Alexis had to take the whole thing apart and snap the plastic connections off to remove the keyboard, then put a new one in by using a soldering iron to melt the plastic back together. Seeing that laptop in pieces with tiny screws and ribbon cables all over the table was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever witnessed.
When I had to upgrade to Windows 10, Alexis helped again and we took the opportunity to replace the 1TB mechanical hard drive with a 2TB one. The new hard drive always felt a bit hot and failed after less than a year (thankfully) just after I had finished editing season 2 of ‘Good Afternoon Adelaide’. This was in the middle of the second Melbourne Covid lockdown in 2020 with all the state borders closed.
This time my talented friend John Hnatowych – who was also trapped in Melbourne – saved the day. He put in a 2TB solid state drive and reinstalled everything. Man that was a quantum leap. Over the next few years he also added more RAM for me and eventually replaced the entire keyboard section of the case when Alexis’s initial keyboard repairs started to come loose.
But in 2025, Microsoft insisted my laptop was too old to run Windows 11 so I had to get a whole new one.
Eventually I landed on the ASUS Zenbook with an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and ordered a 4TB hard drive, which was the largest it could take. I would have preferred a keyboard layout with a proper number pad instead of the weird one integrated into the touch pad.
Also going from four USB-A ports to one plus two USB-C’s felt like a downgrade but these are the compromises you have to make. It was more important for me to store a lot of video and render it fast and boy, this thing is a beast.
After one day using it though I suddenly realised everything I was looking at was out of focus. It turned out the screen is much more reflective than my old laptop and where my desk is situated with a window behind me, I was straining my eyes without even realising. That’s a great feature isn’t it? “Yeah let’s design the screen so looking at it makes the user blind.”
So I had to install an anti-glare filter (and I hope that’s the last time I have to stick one of those on a screen this decade).
As nice as the keys are to actually press, I realised just how often I need the ‘home’ and ‘end’ buttons, which are technically there but you need to hold the ‘function’ key down to use them. Plus the slightly smaller screen meant over the course of a day I was unconsciously leaning in closer and hurting my neck. So I propped it up on some books and got this cool retro external keyboard. The setup looks a bit unwieldy but it works.
Still not thrilled about Windows 11 but I’m hoping future updates will make it better.
So it seems the theme of this year was very much about stepping back and doing some much needed maintenance. I know I said earlier the theme was swimming but swimming is also a form of maintenance.
And in news just in we’ve just been confirmed for FOUR child care days a week next year!
Okay so I’ve got my laptop, my sewer, my health, my family.
2026. Let’s go.
DMG
PS. Best book this year = John Romero’s ‘Doom Guy’. Best TV show = Pluribus
