Two genuinely nice, friendly people.  And very happy to sign a couple of books and pose for a picture.  Walked back past the shop after they were supposed to be done – there was still a long queue and yet they were still smiling and signing.

It’s always nice to support your local independent bookshop.  Sadly St Albans lost theirs when Paton Books closed (although they do still run a book fair in the Town Hall on a regular basis). But Maher Books in Welwyn Garden City is only a few miles away, well stocked and the staff are always very friendly.  OK, so you can order from Amazon, and cheaper, but it’s nice to be able to browse sometimes, and if you’re doing that the least you can do is support them.   They’re on the third floor of the Howard Centre just by the stairs down from the carpark; why not pop for a coffee in Bebo afterwards? Best coffee shop in the town and just outside the other end of the Howard Centre. Their salads and soup are rather good too!

The time has come, however, for me to bore you one final time with 2009. Herewith my “best of” – a shot per month which I think was the best.

January – 26/365 Old man river

February – 33/365 Winter

March – 81/365 Bawa

April – 109/365 Odeon

May – 140/365 In tune

June – 158/365 Billy

Actually, I lied.  I’ll bother you twice – there’s still the second half of the year…

One word review: Wow!

More than one word review: What a show.  Completely unlike childhood trips to the circus, yet clearly the circus and not just dancing.  A magical story, humour, and infectious music…

Best viewed large!

Poor Phoebe has taken to lying under the bed.  It’s not easy when you wear a fur coat that you can’t take off.   She’s a lot more herself today, and has been purring around the house like normal.

If you are a fan of icanhazcheeseburger (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), how about voting for this one?  Or indeed coming up for a better caption of your own!

• Why show The Wire with an episode every day? It’s far too hard to keep up with so many episodes at once.  Especially as the V+ box only takes 80 hours and we do want to record some other stuff too!
• Damages series 2.  I’ve stopped watching.  The first series was pacy, and the use of flashbacks/flashforwards really kept me guessing along the way.  By contrast, the second series seems to plod a lot more and doesn’t work anywhere near so well.
• Desperate Housewives.  Still fluff.  Still enjoyable. Even if I can do something else at the same time.
• The Apprentice.  No, I don’t like any of the candidates.  Yes, we are still gripped.  And it’s even better with the live blog from the Grauniad.  And with this too:

• Law & Order: UK? OK.  But the quality let it down – “He’s been granted a bail?”  What – a crook goes to court to argue that he has been unlawfully deprived of a piece of cricketing apparatus?
• Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant.  David Starkey.  Will no doubt be a bit provocative, but always interesting.
• Lewis: Not quite as good as Morse.  But Hathaway and Innocent are growing into being good characters. Now if only Lewis and Hobson could get it together…
• Genius. A work of genius! Titter along with this:

67/365 It’s been a hard day’s night…	68/365 Murphy nose
69/365 Blossom	70/365 New specs
71/365 Rooftops	72/365 Red red nose

After the fun and frivolity of Red Nose Day (limited, sadly, to sitting and watching on TV rather than doing anything particularly funny!) we headed down to my parents…

Brussels was too wet to venture out at lunchtime.  So that left England when I got home for today’s picture.

St Pancras is a wonderful temple of engineering and architectural achievement.  And it does generally look pretty light inside the Barlow train shed.   But flicking over to manual meant I could snag this, which gave it a far more film-noir quality.

Technical notes:

Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX @95mm. 1/200 @ f/8 IS 800. No flash – way too long a distance!