Month: January 2025

The cold and wet weather continues, as it rained pretty much the entire day yesterday. Temperatures hovered around 3C all day, which is a bummer because a few degrees colder, and it would be a winter wonderland. Instead, it is a grey and depressive environment. We stayed up late for New Year’s Eve, and we all got off to a slow start on January 1, 2025. I walked around the Tashkent Botanical Gardens and pushed through a light rain to get a refreshing workout.

Nadia and I have completed watching the NetFlix spy thriller Black Doves. The six episodes were entertaining, although there were several holes in the plot. There were plenty of action scenes, enough character development, and enough relationships between characters to keep you cheering on them as they faced difficulties throughout the show. Ben Whishaw’s performance was especially endearing as a “triggerman.” His voice and acting are captivating to me. I remember his performance as Q in the James Bond films, but reading his biography, he starred in many other films. Keira Knightley co-starred and she has aged well. I haven’t seen her since she was a teenager in Love Actually. The Black Doves are a for-hire spy agency that sells information to the highest bidder. The plot includes the UK government, MI5, and, Chinese spies and diplomats, the CIA and the US embassy in London. All of which are in my wheelhouse of television viewing.

We kicked off the New Year by going to the rooftop bar at the Hyatt Regency here in Tashkent. It was the perfect spot because it was not crowded, but had enough people to make it feel like a party. It was not expensive either and we didn’t need to buy an expensive dinner and entertainment package that many of the places we looked into were offering. We arrived about 9:30 PM and had a great time with the kids. It is awesome that we can now go out with our adult-ish children. We laughed and danced a lot. Nadia was the driving force getting us out and together. I am so thankful to be able to start 2025 with our family! If it was up to me, we would have stayed home, but that is the advantage of marrying a younger woman, she keeps me young! The rooftop bar afforded us views of the fireworks and gatherings around the city, including right below the Hyatt.

My eldest son Owen was not feeling well, so we took the party home, played Mario Brothers, watched Michigan defeat Alabama in the Citrus Bowl, and did some more dancing with him. I feel blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy family that likes to spend time together. These moments of all of us together are getting rarer as the kids grow up and forge their own paths in life.