Grey

Yesterday, whilst the Divine L and I were on our traditional New Year's Day walk, the sky made no effort to endear itself to us. Twelve months ago we had sunshine and a cloudless blue. This time, the pallor above our heads made it quite difficult to focus on what seems to have become the point of these walks: gaining a more intimate, pedestrian's view of sections of our immediate surroundings which we normally ignore because we dash past them on four wheels. I think our main observation was that when it's freezing cold and miserable, most people stay at home! Never mind: at least we got to see an albino squirrel running up a tree near the Catholic Cathedral.

Another annual tradition is an exercise in total self-indulgence (or perhaps I should call it a hypocritical suppression of all my suspicions around lists and 'star ratings'): a rundown of my Top 5 films of the previous year. Here they are, in the order in which they were seen, and a fairly violent bunch they are too, albeit not in a visceral, 'do-my-guts-look-better-in-CGI' Hollywood way:

There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Persepolis (dir. Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi)
In Bruges (dir. Martin McDonagh)
Gomorra (dir. Matteo Garrone)
Waltz With Bashir (dir. Ari Folman)

Worthy DVD titles included: The Bridge (dir. Eric Steel); I For India (dir. Sandhya Suri); Silent Light (dir. Carlos Reygadas); Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes (dir. Avi Mograbi); and Man On Wire (dir. James Marsh).

This year's cinema-going has already got off to a thought-provoking start with Soderbergh's complete Che epic and, oh look, as I peer out the window, I think I can just about see the faintest glimmer of sunlight. Who knows, perhaps in a few months, I may even be letting you know of the imminent publication of my novel!

Happy new year everybody: peace and good health to all.

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