The now customary round of year-end polls are being cross-posted to librarything, so here's mine. Fewer graphic novels (especially superheroes) this year - almost certainly down to Croydon libraries being a lot poorer in that respect than Lambeth.

( Ticky boxes ahoy! )

“Good morning. Thank you for waiting. Would you like a small bag?”

“No thank you” I said as I unzipped my rucksack.

At least she looked slightly embarrassed as I took everything out of the carrier bag she’d put them into and transferred them to the rucksack.

I'm really not sure that the script writers for Season 7 of Rugby World Cup have done a very good job.

They've continued the habit from previous seasons of writing out fan favourite characters such as Tonga or Wales before the finale, and have decided that the season finale would be a rematch of the one from season one. So what have they added that's new?

Well, in terms of character development, previous seasons have hinted towards France's mental instability but this season the writers flirted with pushing them over the edge into insanity. But then the went and bottled it and failed to follow through on this development in the finale itself.

Deciding the make the England character the focus of multi-media spin-offs rather than a core part of the series itself was an odd way to treat a character with such a large fan base and which had been such an integral part of previous seasons.

The running gag about New Zealand fly halves is in rather poor taste and is just ripping off Spinal Tap anyway. And the gag about no one at all being able to kick straight is rather clumsy attempt on the writers' part to counter criticism of too much kicking in previous seasons.

The finale itself was a rather scrappy affair, almost as if there wasn't enough budget left for any spectacular special effects sequences. I can't tell whether having the teams play in black and white was supposed to be some sort of post-modernist statement or not.

All in all not a classic season, but I kept on watching anyway so they must have done something right. I just hope the writing team has some fresh ideas for Season 8.

What a sad way to leave the world cup.

That tackle was dangerous, it deserved a penalty. And it likely deserved a yellow card. But a red card? No *%!$ing way!

Wales scored the only try and ended up losing by just one point after playing three quarters of the game with only 14 men - they were the better, braver side.

Pretty much the only decision of David Cameron's that I'm ever likely to whole heartedly support is the flying of the Welsh flag above Downing Street today.

Wales have been playing well this tournament, a close loss against South Africa and then four good wins. France have taken their customary unpredictableness to a level that somtimes approaches insanity. If we get the France that lost against Tonga then we should win easily. If we get the France that beat England then it will be a close match.

Wales have only made the semi-Finals once before and have never been in a Final. Forty minutes to go until kick off. Fingers crossed.

She had sunglasses perched atop masses of curly blonde hair. She wore a full length blue dress that was cut low at the front to reveal a very small dog nestled contentedly in the cleavage of her rather ample bosom.

She was wandering round the One-Stop, looking for the wine, chattering constantly to herself, her mate and her dog.

Only in Croydon.

Last Thursday evening I attended the launch of the Out of this World science fiction exhibition at the British Library. I've blogged about the exhibition for work.

The launch night was fun in a peculiarly geeky way as I got to play spot the author/critic/BNF. Some people (Kim Newman to give the obvious example) are easy to spot but far too many fall into the general category of middle aged men with greying beards. In fact I could easily have been looking at the crowd at Salute or @media instead.

At the same time that I was listening to China Miéville give a speech to open the show, Lettice was at a different exhibition launch with Cilla Black and Ringo Star. There's probably something profound in that contrast but I'm really not sure what.

I've just voted. If you haven't already done likewise, you have two hours left to do so.

I voted Yes.

I don't think that AV is a great system - it's no more proportional than FPTP. But it's what's on offer and it is slightly better than FPTP in two respects.

It helps to mitigate a situation where a candidate is elected to whom the majority of the electorate are opposed. e.g. a Labour candidate getting elected because the right wing majority in the constituency is split between UKIP and Conseratives. MPs that are at least tolerable to the majority of their constituents must be a good thing.

And it helps us to more accurately judge the support for medium and small parties. Under FPTP many people don't vote Green, etc., because they see it as a wasted vote, and hence we have no idea how widespread the real support for these parties is. Better knowledge about what people really support must be a good thing.

I think we're going to lose, and that we'll be stuck with FPTP and (with a Lib-Dem collapse likely) a strengthened two party system for another generation. That seems like a bad thing.