As ever all those films that I intended to watch on TV over the Xmas period passed me by completely. In the old days it seamed as though we would lose hours wallowing in wonderful old black & white films, as the holiday break slowly edged past us.

2005 has also seen a marked decrease in our cinema visits, this has mainly been due to the increasing amount of time that we have been spending on hospital visits, as our families lurch from one health crisis to another. "Have you seen the new King Kong?" "No, but have you checked out ward 14 yet? I think it's their best work so far."

Anyway in an effort to change things, our Xmas gifts to each other were rather different this year. Neither of us could come up with particularly inspired options for one another, so rather than just buying things for the sake of it, we have decided to set aside a week in January when we are going to surround ourselves in cinema. For a week, we will watch as many films as we can during the evenings and weekend, we also have the bonus of both of us being at home on Fridays in January, so we may be able to sneak in couple of films then. Bristol does have a good range of cinemas, so hopefully we will be able to find enough things to amuse.

It was great to see "I know where I'm going" the other week, it's a magical film. We are really lucky to be able to see wonderful old films in the cinema. When I was younger I would spend hours looking through the revival cinema listings in the New Yorker to work out an imaginary day of viewing. It's always struck me that one of the signs that you live in a civilised place is that you don't have to have to be dependent on just recent cinema releases for your viewing pleasure. You should be able to watch a classic film from the past, rather than the latest thing that Hollywood wants to push at you.