Stock

The year is almost over and I find myself thinking that I ought to organise and sort the events of the last twelve months into some sort of deeply meaningful order... but actually, all I want to do is work out what my Top 5 films of the year are. And as I'm in need of some frivolity, I'm going to go with the latter.

So here they are, in the order in which they were seen... and I must say I'm very disappointed they've all turned out to be English-language movies...

1. Vera Drake [M. Leigh]

2. Million Dollar Baby [C. Eastwood]

3. The Machinist [B. Anderson]

4. Mysterious Skin [G. Araki]

5. A History Of Violence [D. Cronenberg]

As ever, many of the DVDs I watched proved more worthwhile than a lot of the cinema fare. Notable titles included: Noi Albinoi, Since Otar Left, Goodbye Lenin!, In The Land Of The Deaf, Czech Dream and Dirty Pretty Things.

By the way, Christmas was good. I made a strawberry pavlova for the first time. Everyone seemed to like it.

And as for taking stock... well, OXO's vegetable cubes remain essential inhabitants of our larder.