I was on top of a mountain in Kazakhstan when Advent began this year, eight months into an attempt to circumnavigate the world on a bicycle and screaming into a freezing 60kph headwind as I battled up to the pass and subsequent long, cold descent to the snow-covered Steppe.

In my tent that night, where the temperature dropped to -15C and I hugged my water bottles to stop them freezing overnight, a brief window of cell signal pushed a message through to my phone. It was from my mum, a photo of the Christmas pudding mix with a caption that said “make a wish”, and I thought: Oh God, I forgot to tell anyone where I put the Christmas decorations.