Let’s get reflective

At this time of year it’s impossible to avoid the media offering recaps of the past 12 months. Radio stations will be playing their top 100s of 2005, stores will be selling the obligatory cash-in CDs.

So, before all this is forgotten in a wave of new year Slim Fast adverts and those ‘free binder with part one’ magazines, allow me to point you to two of my own finds.

First up, we have the Top 50 Inventions of the last 50 years. Far be it from me to shun another site on the grounds of it being ‘geeky’ I have to confess to never reading or visiting Popular Mechanics. I suspect this won’t change in the future either.

Coming in second we have TV Cream’s Top 100 Toys. This is a wonderfully humourous, nostalgic and distinctly British listing of toys and games from an era when Rupert the Bear, Captain Pugwash and Bagpuss were all part of every child’s TV viewing. I imagine the over 20’s will get the most from this listing and from the wonderful TV Cream site itself.

If, like my 5 and 8 year old nephew and niece, you got a PSP or other expensive gizmo for Christmas then that second list will, I hope, allow you to sympathise with the older generation when they scold you with that timeless classic “You young ‘uns – you don’t know how lucky you are!!”

Happy New Year!