Shopping List

Print out.
Delete where applicable.
Rush around shops during three remaining days until Christmas.
Purchase fine DVDs, CDs, hardcovers and paperbacks.
Wrap. Relax.
Leave small offering of port and cashew nuts for Santa Rore, patron saint of obsessive end-of-year list-makers.

Books

Anna Funder, Stasiland
Tim Moore, Spanish Steps
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Giles Milton, White Gold
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Felicity Lawrence, Not on the Label
Robert Twigger, Being a Man... in the Lousy Modern World
Andrew Collins, Where Did It All Go Right?
Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell, From Hell
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

Movies

Albums

Kings of Convenience, Riot on an Empty Street
Snow Patrol, Final Straw
Nick Drake, Five Leaves Left
The Divine Comedy, A Secret History
Bebel Gilberto, Bebel Gilberto
Air, Talkie Walkie
Manic Street Preachers, Lifeblood
The Finn Brothers, Everyone is Here
The Bluetones, Luxembourg
William Shatner, Has Been

Cities

Places I visited this year, in chronological order. Also (not cities) Skye, the Outer Hebrides and the Trossachs.

Málaga, Spain
Cádiz, Spain
Sevilla, Spain
Córdoba, Spain
Jaen, Spain
Granada, Spain
Leuven, Belgium
Brussels, Belgium
Ghent, Belgium
Dundee, Scotland
London, England
Paris, France
Glasgow, Scotland

The Rest

Favourite TV series caught on DVD (in no particular order, old and new): Futurama, Black Books, I’m Alan Partridge, Peep Show, Kath & Kim, Look Around You, Frontline, The Office Christmas Specials, The Micallef Program, and The Goodies.

Favourite foodstuffs: Spanish olives, Malaga wine, Belgian chocolates, Stornoway black pudding. (Not all at once.)

Favourite Edinburgh Fringe show which just happened to have my friends in it: The Elephant Woman.

Previous lists: 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000.

25 November–21 December 2004

←@→