down by the river in the early evening sunshine: book reading, people watching. joggers, dog walkers, half the neighbourhood washed up along the shore, soaking up the warmth.

an impromptu game of football, but with real goalposts in the flood plain; no jumpers or school bags here. no kids either: everyone here is that much older, more involved in real life. a dog on a lead on the sidelines, bouncing up and down, cheering on his team.

a pair of crows, chasing in mock-anger, switching and tumbling and cawwing into the tree above the heads of four augustiner-drinkers.

for the briefest of moments i forget where i am, what country i'm in, disoriented as i cross the road in front of the oncoming traffic.

I don't Know - Lisa Hannigan Music Video from Stitch Films on Vimeo.

Charlie Harper

Being reminded of Charlie Harper's genius from all angles today.

2011: over already

52 weeks, 32 books. slacking, obviously...

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Black Sea - Neil Acherson
The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
An Island in Time - Geert Mak
Portugal: a companion history - Jose Haermano Saraiwa
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
A Concise History of Bulgaria - R J Crampton
The Road to Oxiana - Robert Byron
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
Absolute Friends - John le Carre
Paradise Lost: the destruction of Islam's city of tolerance - Giles Milton
Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Red Dust - Ma Jian
Luke and John - Robert Williams
Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Our Kind of Traitor - John le Carre
The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen
The Story of the Night - Colm Toibin
Untold Stories - Alan Bennett
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
Hackney, That Rose Red Empire - Iain Sinclair
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
Number 9 Dream - David Mitchell
Germania - Simon Winder
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
Dead Europe - Christos Tsiolkas