Happy New Year, Everybody

Countries I visited in 2002
Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, United Kingdom, Turkey, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France.

Countries I visited in 2002 that I had not visited before
Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium.

Greatest product I discovered while travelling to one of these countries
Belgian beer.

Greatest product I discovered in a country I had visited before
Real Ale (it was that kind of year).

Total number of countries visisted in my life
32 (Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, USA, Canada, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Kenya, Tanzania, Portugal, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Japan, Ireland, Thailand, Nepal, Macau, Finland, Estonia, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Belgium, Turkey).

Number of these countries that no longer exist
3 (Czechoslovakia, Macau and Hong Kong, although you can argue both that Hong Kong and Macau are still countries or that they never were).

Best theatrical production I saw this year
Twelfth Night, at Shakespeare's Globe.

Movies I most enjoyed in 2002
Mulholland Drive, Donnie Darko, The Two Towers.

Most over the top (and very Japanese) movie I saw this year
Battle Royale .

Books that I most enjoyed reading in 2002
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

Musical acts that I would have liked to have seen, and that I could have seen in London in 2002 if I had bought tickets in time, but didn't
Aimee Mann, Sigur Ros.

Favourite television program of 2002
Once again, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Most stunning place I visited in 2002
Istanbul.

Place I visited where I felt most like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes, he spied the Pacific, and all his men looked at each other, wild with surmise, silent upon a peak in Darien
Troy (the one in Turkey, not the one in Michigan, although I salute the person who named a town in Michigan "Troy").

Great bridges I walked over in 2002
The Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The First Severn Crossing.
The Pont de Normandie.

Great Bridges I travelled over in vehicles in 2002
The Second Bosporus Bridge (which, as a bonus, is in the same location that Xerxes built his bridge of boats across the Bosporus as he headed East on the way to fight the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BC).

Great Bridges I saw, but did not travel over in 2002
The First Bosporus Bridge.
The Second Severn Crossing.

Great tunnels I travelled through in 2002
The Channel Tunnel.
The Rotherhithe Tunnel.

Other places I visited in 2002 that are of interest to the hacker tourist
Bletchley Park, The Avon Canal, the Roman Baths at Bath. (I wanted to get to the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy at Porthcurno in Cornwall but didn't quite manage it).

Places that are of interest to Jane Austen fans that I visited in 2002
Various other parts of Bath. (I wanted to get to Lyme Regis where Louisa Musgrove fell over in Persuasion, but somehow didn't quite manage it).

Most upsetting event of the year.
The Sari Club bombing in Bali.

Rawest emotional reaction of the year
Unexpectedly bursting into tears while watching CNN reports about the Bali bombing while sitting in a McDonald's in Hamburg.

Moments in 2002 that most reminded me how Australian I still am
The Bali bombing again, a visit to the Gallipoli battlefields, and the silly, ridiculous, and frivolous pleasure I feel every time I see the Australian cricket team play.

Most time consuming but rewarding activity I took up in 2002.
Blogging.