LOST SPARROW

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Look what a spooky welcome to the flat would've greeted our guests, if we'd had our party. *sniff* Wooooooooooo!

America goes nuts for Halloween. As long ago as our trip to New Hampshire - which was a good three weeks ago - the country has been buying into Halloween-mania like it was Christmas.

Most front yards have for weeks greeted visitors with ghouls hanging from trees, cobwebs strewn everywhere, pumpkins lining the path and tombstones all over the place.

Of course in Georgetown, you get a slightly higher class of scary decor and I've seem some front gardens there looking like they've been dressed by professional art directors. I was particularly sad to see the front of one house being decorated by a Hispanic maid, because surely most of the fun of decorating is for kids to do it with their parents.

Anyway, as we all by now know, our big Halloween party didn't happen tonight. In fact, I was a bit embarrassed, because it seems like such a big event over here, that to've bagsied the date in so many people's diaries, only to cancel with a week's notice, I worry we've wrecked people's night. However, it seems most of our guests had second parties to go to anyway, so that's a relief.

I had a really nice long chat on the phone with my friend Kate today and also finally got round to watching 'This Is England', which has been winking at me from the top of the DVD player for weeks, having been sent by NetFlix, taunting me to watch something a bit more challenging than 'Studio 60'.

We got sent it a bit by mistake, because I hadn't arranged our NetFlix queue quick enough, and have never quite been in the mood to watch a gritty film about life on a council estate in Britain in the 80s.

However, I'm so pleased I watched - it's really terrific. The little boy who loses his father in the Falklands and falls in with a gang of skinheads, in search of belonging and identity, is as brilliant as I remember all the reviews said when it was first released. And I always like stories that show touching loyalty and a softness in groups of people you'd expect to be mean and hard. I definitely enjoyed it more than the last Shane Meadows film I saw - 'Once Upon A Time In The Midlands' - and probably more than 'TwentyFourSeven', but it's been ages since I saw that.

This evening we saw another film that I very much enjoyed, called 'Lost Sparrow'. It's a documentary made by a chap called Chris, who's friends with Brewster, about his family. Turns out Max didn't have to work late tonight at all (but he does have to work tomorrow, so I guess it's good we cancelled the party), so we went round to Alison and Emily's for a private screening of the film, with Chris, Brewster and Alison and Emily's friend Katie.

The film is quite extraordinary. It's made up of seemingly endless super8 video footage and photographs from Chris's childhood as one of four blonde-haired, blue-eyed upper middle class children whose parents adopted four Native Americans, three of whom were related - two brothers and their sister. From the outside, they look like a very happy, affluent family.

The spine of the documentary is Chris overseeing the exhumation of the bodies of his two adopted brothers, who died on a train track when they were little, having run away from home for no apparent reason. Chris drives their bodies from upstate New York back to Montana, so that they may receive a Crow Indian burial and return to the land of their ancestors.

The film tries to establish what happened to the two little boys and, through interviews with his family and relatives of the boys, it transpires that Chris's father was sexually abusing one of the two adopted little girls, that her brothers found out and then ran away from the apparently happy family home, to get help back in Montana. They were thought to've been sleeping on the railroad tracks when they were killed, only a day after disappearing.

The interviews with Chris's father - who's initially utterly defiant that he did anything wrong, then breaks down during the making of the film and faces up for the first time to what he did and the implications of it - and his mother, who seems lovely and is a compelling interviewee, but claims to know nothing, are so well done and woven into the film. His mother at one point describes being married to Chris's father as 'living at the end of a loaded shotgun', which I thought was an amazing phrase for an unscripted interview.

Chris also speaks to the daughter who was abused and it's so sad - she's an alcoholic who's only ever been in abusive relationships since leaving home and currently has a broken leg because her boyfriend beat her so she wouldn't leave him. She's written off by Chris's father as a mad person who drinks too much, but is heartbreakingly lucid about her experience and the effect it's had on her life.

I found the film very interesting, both in terms of the subject matter - they were one of the last white families allowed to adopt Native American children and there's interesting material in there about the Crow Indian community and the issues of adoption - and the way the whole thing was put together. I think Chris builds tension terrifically well - you don't know what the film is really about from the beginning, then slowly, through throwaway comments and half-references in soundbites from interviewees, this air of menace starts developing, until the full horror of what's gone on in this family unfolds and you watch the fallout as it happened.

Perhaps the strangest thing is how Chris was able to put the film together and how he's happy for people to watch it now. He seems really detatched from it all, despite having lived through it, and Brewster says that he's never once let on that he had a troubled or even unconventional family, which is odd, as they're very close friends.

No charges were ever brought against Chris's dad, and he apparently now lives in Florida in a kind of self-imposed exile from society, just sitting in his condo watching the History Channel with the curtains shut. As satisfying as it is to know that he's not doing cartwheels and living the life of Riley, it did cross my mind that perhaps something should be done to establish whether his abuse of his daughter was a one-off, now it's come to light.

It was great to get Chris to ourselves after watching the film, and ask him questions both about the process of making it and his personal experience and opinions of the subject matter. It really made me want to be involved in documentaries again, even though I've never made anything like that, but having come over here hoping to think of an alternative career to TV, it gives me comfort to know that I still have some mileage left in telly yet.

You can see the 'Lost Sparrow' trailer here:

BUTTS, GUTS & GUNS

It would appear that Britain has gone crazy! I'm absolutely astonished by the uproar surrounding the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand fiasco and am really sad that Lesley Douglas felt she had to fall on her sword, because she totally turned Radio 2 around and is considered one of the best people working in radio at the moment.

I of course appreciate that the remarks Ross and Brand left on Andrew Sachs' voicemail were offensive and hurtful - I get that and am baffled as to why on earth they were ever broadcast, seeing as the show was a pre-record. The guys should've given Andrew Sachs a full apology in private and witheld the messages from the show, so as not to further embarrass the poor chap and that should've been the end of it.

But what annoys me the most is that only two complaints were lodged as the show went out. It was only after the Mail on Sunday had covered the story a week later that 60,000 complaints poured into the BBC, from people who would never in a month of Sundays listen to Russell Brand or Jonathan Ross.

And of course the BBC have done their usual thing of taking ages to decide how to respond to a public outcry, such that by the time they do come to react, they have to make a gigantic gesture, like suspending Ross and accepting Lesley Douglas' resignation, to make up for the delay in reacting.

Actually the bit about the complaints is only the second thing that annoys me the most - the first and most offensive thing about this whole business is the prominence it has been afforded by the British press. There's a freakin' civil war going on in the Congo, with thousands of people fleeing for their lives, and yet in The Guardian today, the whole top half of the front page was devoted to the BBC scandal, with the unrest in the Congo being relegated to a small section below the fold. I think it's a disgrace.

As you might imagine, it was also a hot topic of conversation at dinner tonight, as we gave a dinner party for some of the many BBC News people who've come over to cover the election. It was funny, to be surrounded by British people for the first time in ages, and the conversation was all in-jokes about people at BBC News and British-y things.

It was the first time I'd really spent any time with a good friend of Max's from his days in Analysis & Research, Giles. He's super-brainy and worked for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004 and has written at least one book about politics and I always assumed he was kind of dry and boring, but he's a riot!

And he brought his lovely wife and their gorgeous baby, Maia with him, both of whom are lovely.

Making the brownies for dessert and stirring the pasta I made were both jolly tricky after putting myself through the gruelling 'butts, guts and guns' class at the gym this morning! Yup, I actually went to the gym.

The class was awesome, but I don't half ache now! As the title suggests, it works on toning your bottom, stomach muscles and arms, through a series of situps, pressups, squats, lifting dumbells, jogging round a track and sitting against a wall, as if you're sitting on a chair. Owwwwww. It was the perfect level of intensity - I always felt like I was just about to pass out, but never quite, and I felt really good for doing it.

The instructor is a little masochist called Carlos, who doesn't look dissimilar from Oddjob and could do just as much damage, I should imagine! But by putting his victims through endless exercise, rather than slicing off their heads with his evil hat.

B-BALL & BARACK

STRANGEST ENCOUNTER OF THE AFTERNOON: as I was walking along the distinctly residential and non-urban Columbia Road on my way to the drycleaners in the middle of this afternoon, a guy walked past me and muttered, "you want some ecstasy?". Dude's got to change his patch, if he wants any success, methinks!

I know the gym and I *will* be the closest of friends, but today my old nemesis - chores - got in the way. But it's been a beautifully sunny day, so it wasn't too much of a hardship to wander around, being housewifely in the sunshine.

I also carved another pumpkin this afternoon, as a surprise for Maxy. His name is Walt and he's a little slow...

Tonight we went to our first basketball game, to watch the DC Wizards play the New Jersey Nets at the Verizon Centre, which is a gigantic venue in the middle of Chinatown.

We were meant to go with Jean and Joe, but Joe couldn't make it in the end, so Jean tried hawking his ticket to the touts outside, all of whom laughed in her face, when they saw where her seats were and, once we got inside, I understood why (see left). I think there were only two rows of seats behind us! And our noses were inches from bleeding...

In the spirit of eating healthily, which is something Max and I are trying to do, I pre-empted the universally greasy food options that the Verizon Centre would have to offer, by bringing with me a box of macrobiotic noodles. How very Gwyneth Paltrow! However, I hadn't counted on the bag search as I entered the venue and was promptly asked by a burly security man to throw the noodles away! I said that I wasn't planning to eat them inside, that I'd picked them up for my husband's packed lunch tomorrow and that I wasn't about to throw $5 worth of food in the bin.

I sense the security man had no more fight left in him, as we reached something of an impass and I eventually said I'd go and pick up my tickets and then go outside and scoff the noodles. He didn't seem to mind too much and, as much as I shouldn't have lied, I felt much better chowing down on macrobiotic goodness in our seats, than Jean and Maxy felt, sucking on succulent chicken nuggets and tasty burgers. Or at least that's what I told myself.

Turns out the Wizards are about as good at basketball as the Nationals are at baseball and we were so high up that we couldn't really engage with the game anyway, however lame it was. The gigantic players, who we were being told on the big screens were 7 feet high and stuff looked from our vantage point like ants, as did the teeny tiny cheerleaders, but they were fun to watch - I love cheerleaders.

I would've liked to've seen more of the game, even though the Wizards lost, but felt obliged to chat with Jean, seeing as she was flying solo, but that was nice enough, I guess.

We very much enjoyed watching Obama on the Daily Show when we got home. He's just so cool. Earlier tonight, he ran a half hour 'infomercial'(!) on the main networks, clearly laying out his policies through the stories of four American families. I feel a bit annoyed that the Obama campaign pleads for donations every day and then uses the money on something like this, which must've cost loads and is surely a bonus, if you can afford it, but it was pretty moving and certainly confirmed in my mind that an Obama win would be incredible for the country as well as the world.

As you might imagine, the streets are lined with volunteers trying to make sure as many people as possible are registered to vote. Obama's ahead in over 100 polls, but despite that, no Democrat seems able to really believe that it's in the bag.

PUMPKIN FUN

BIGGEST SHOCK OF THE WEEK: Yo-Yo Ma is a riot! He was on 'The Colbert Report' and really fun! Regardez:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Yo-Yo Ma Pt. 1
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

It's been really crummy weather the past couple of days - crazy cold and kind of dingy - so I've mostly stayed inside, glad that we caught autumn in Dumbarton Oaks Park at the weekend, before it dissolved into winter.

My SAD-infused funk meant that I didn't feel much like cooking last night, so we had tasty mexican/salvadorian at El Tamarindo, down the road, and would've watched the final disc of 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip', had I not messed up the order of our NetFlix queue.

Fortunately we were able to watch it tonight and it was great. I'm sad it's over - it's a really really underrated series and I thought Matthew Perry was particularly brilliant.

The series is by Aaron Sorkin, who created 'The West Wing' and stars Bradley Whitford (Josh from 'The West Wing') and Matthew Perry from 'Friends' as producer and head writer respectively of a 'Saturday Night Live'-type show.

It's very wordy and witty, as you'd expect from Sorkin, but it got panned by critics and everyone I know hates it, but we really really enjoyed it.

The last episode is a bit like the end of a fireworks display, when it looks like someone's just thrown a match into the box of remaining fireworks and everything goes off all at once. I guess Aaron Sorkin knew by then that the series had been cancelled, so tried to tie up all loose ends and gallop through all the plotlines he'd had up his sleeve.

We were meant to go to the Annual High Heel Drag Race tonight, which is where drag queens race down 17th St in front of thousands of onlookers. Cindy's friend Holly, who we met at baseball, invited us, and I liked the idea of collecting another DC experience, but you know what? It's really dark and rainy outside, so we stayed in and carved a pumpkin instead. Hey, the BBC may've scotched our party, but the flat will still look Halloweeny!

Maxy brought muscles...

...I added finesse...

...and look what we made!

PHOTOS: DEVOS DO DC pt.4

Click HERE for random photos of our October

PLUCKY PIONEERS

Church was crazy this morning. First of all, during one of the lessons, a crazy man started wandering around, handing out scrawly fliers. No-one really knew what to do and my mind went straight to the shooting at a gay-friendly church in Tennessee a few months ago, but fortunately one of the vergers firmly guided the chap to the back of the church and the service carried on as normal.

I say as normal but during the Gospel, I looked over and saw someone doing a Sudoku!! I wonder where one draws the line between nice, open and permissive and making sure people behave in a way that is vaguely respectful.

I found the guy's fliers ripped up and scattered over a bush outside at the end of the service and couldn't make out what his point had been, but they definitely looked like the kinds of writings you see crazy people in films making and I don't think he was a fan of God.

After a nice chat with Mum, we made the most of the stunningly beautiful autumnal day by taking a walk through Dumbarton Oaks Park, where we saw the Easter egg berries the other day.

We got as much leaf-peeping in as we did up in New Hampshire, prompting us to wonder whether we needed to've bothered going all the way up there! The colours were amazing in the sunshine, with some trees having leaves on them that were green, yellow, orange and red.

This time we were very adventurous and decided to take a different path than last time and went off the beaten track, clambering over the undergrowth and parting bushes, convinced that we were in the middle of nowhere, only to emerge from a hedge into a beautifully manicured Georgetown playground!!

I can only imagine what the people there must've thought of these two people falling out of a bush and they can only imagine how disappointed I was that I didn't uncover some long-lost civilisation!

We wandered along lovely cobbled streets, covered with fallen autumnal leaves and had some food at the trusty Nathan's, before going to see 'Changeling' at the cinema.

The movie was ok, but not the masterpiece lots of Angelina-drunk reviewers would have you believe. She's really good and it looks lovely and once again Clint Eastwood has created an evocative score, but it was just a bit too relentless to be enjoyable.

Anne and her Dad, Don popped over after we got home, which was nice - it's felt like a really good DC day, like we're proper locals.

OUR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

While I've always thought I have a good face for radio, there's never been any doubt that Max has a face that any camera loves, to it was very fitting that he was on TV this afternoon! Observe:

The BBC World News did a little item on what the blogosphere is making of the extraordinary story about a McCain volunteer who claimed to've been attacked by an African American man who took exception to her McCain bumper sticker, beat her up and carved a 'B' into her cheek, to stand for Barack Obama.

The story is astonishing firstly because - even before the woman admitted she'd lied about the whole thing - you could tell it was made up, because the 'B' in her cheek was backwards, as if done in a mirror. And secondly, because the McCain campaign actively promoted this story and pushed quotes on the press, to ensure the 'attack' got coverage, in an attempt to discredit Obama supporters.

Anyways, back to Maxy. He was great! We both went along to the Bureau this afternoon, with Maxy all handsome in his suit, and he was interviewed by Jane Hill, who I've never thought was that good, but who seems very nice. I felt very proud, but worry that I may've corroded Maxy's professionalism by tagging along and taking photos like this, like a proud parent at a dance show.

It's been a crummy rainy day, so we spent the rest of the day indoors, despite an invite to dinner and a poker game at Anne's flat tonight.

We attempted to enjoy 'Marie Antoinette', which was on TV, but couldn't even make it through to the end of the film, because it was soooo boring. It looks so pretty and the soundtrack is cool, but there's no dialogue, and not in a cool Mary Pickford way, just in an extended-fashion-shoot way. So we bailed on that early and watched 'Waiting For Guffman', which is by the same people who did 'Spinal Tap' and 'Best In Show' and all those movies, and is meant to be a comedy classic. What I saw of it on either side of my impromptu nap was certainly pretty funny, but not a patch on Spinal Tap.

To complete the day of battening down the hatches against a dark and stormy sky, we got thai takeout and watched a chick flick - 'Catch & Release'. Much like 'Marie Antoinette', I had high hopes for it, as it stars Jennifer Garner, who's my hero (hang on, she's not in 'MA' - I just had high hopes for that, too), but it sucked as well.

Fortunately 'Mad Men's Jon Hamm presenting 'Saturday Night Live' afterwards more than made up for it. He is HILARIOUS!! So so funny, especially in 'Don Draper's Guide To Picking Up Women' and with his inexplicably excellent James Mason impression (I fear these links might not work in the UK - sorryyy). He's hot, too.

THE BBC THAT STOLE HALLOWEEN

DISASTER OF THE MONTH: We've had to cancel our Halloween party! Despite presumably having had the election in their diary for some time, the BBC have only now decided to have a rehearsal til late next Friday and all next weekend, so it was with a heavy heart that I returned all our haunted house tat to Target and sent back our KICKASS costumes. *sniff*

Having given them an after hours tour of Georgetown and its deserted mall, I took Jacqui and Joanna back there for a proper 'ladies who lunch' day on Tuesday. I love Georgetown - it's definitely my favourite place in DC and fortunately J&J liked it, too.

Unfortunately I forgot my mobile, which left us with the intriguing challenge of tracking down a payphone, as Jacqui and Joanna were due to go to stay with Michael and Marie after our shopping spree and had to coordinate timings.

I hadn't really noticed the complete lack of payphones on the street until we desperately needed one. We eventually tracked one down in the mall, now famous for the previous night's adventures, but it was quite a challenge and one that will ensure I never leave my mobile at home again!

After lunch at Nathan's, which is fast becoming one of only two places I ever eat in Georgetown, and a seemingly interminable length of time spent in the majestic, 3-storey Anthropologie, Jacqui and Joanna left, bound for Michael and Marie's in Chevy Chase.

With our house guests safely stowed in the 'burbs, I set about finally making the most of our membership at the YMCA gym down the road, which we joined shortly after arriving here, but have rarely used since. I'm determined to get fit! So I went for an orientation of the 7-floor facility on Wednesday and am sure me and the gym are going to become firm friends.

That afternoon, I went to help sort clothes at my church, ahead of a big 'Rummage Sale' they're having on Saturday. It was absolutely exhausting and endless work - there was an unbelievable amount of stuff, much of which was really fancy. In fact, there was a whole fancy section, where the Dior fur coats and designer handbags were being put! The sheer volume of things to be sorted almost crushed even my love of order and sorting, but I was cheered along by an amusingly dry old lady who was one of the other two volunteers there.

In the evening, as if a day of gym and volunteering wasn't enough excitement, Anne and I headed to PaperSource in Georgetown (a gigantic stationery emporium that is one of my favourite shops in all the world) for a card-making class!

It was so fun. I was like a kid in a stationery shop (in that stationery shops were my favourite shops when I was little, especially the one Dad had an account at!). The two-hour class taught us creative ways to make Christmas cards and allowed us to use all the cool tools that PaperSource sells, which was a canny trick, because I promptly wanted to buy them all for myself at the end of the class!

It was SO cool - there was a tool for rounding the corners of your card, so it looks dead classy, loads of punches and stamps and even an embossing machine which, once you'd stamped a shape on a card and then sprinkled it with embossing powder, dried the powder to a sheeny, raised finish, making the card look really professional! I was in my element.

Yesterday, I had a nice webcam chat with my friend Lissa, trying desperately hard to not be pleased that she's unemployed at the moment, so permitting daytime webchats, and then went for my first proper workout at the gym, using their fancy system which makes the equipment tell me what I should be doing and what machine to move onto next. Oh yes, me and the gym are going to be firm friends (except the whole thing was slightly unsatisfying, so maybe not).

In the evening, we were due for dinner with Jacqui and Joanna at Michael and Marie's house, but unfortunately Marie wasn't there, because she'd had to go to Canada to look after a sick relative. Almost equally unfortunately, the delicious brownies I painstakingly made for dessert took a nosedive between the tin and the cooling rack (right). I was a bit upset.

The upside of this culinary disaster however, is that I discovered an amazing deli right next to the metro, that's open until like, 9pm, and sells many a fancy dinner party gift, so it's good to know I have an alternative to last-minute baking frenzies.

Dinner was really nice - Michael smoked a whole chicken in a weirdy barbecue egg contraption. He's not very well at all, so it was sad to see him less than his usual cheery self, but he still made the evening really fun.

Today I mostly just tried to do a bit of work on the online election project I've got (that's kind of slipped by the wayside quite a lot recently!) and catch up on emails before Max and I had a big supernoodle* this evening. Yup, that's right - he didn't have to work late after all! We could've had our party...

* this term relates to a period of time spent in one's loosest and comfiest clothing, sometimes under a blanket, sometimes not, sometimes gorging oneself on Mikey Ikeys, sometimes not, but always on the sofa, watching telly and generally relaxing.

VIDEO: WHY I HEART HELLO SAFERIDE

HELLO, SAFERIDE

MY NEW BEST FRIEND: Mr Squizzle! Every day I'm at my desk, I spend ages watching, what I assume is the same squirrel each time, dashing along the neighbours' wall and up and down the trees in front of the window. The other day, Mr Squizzle fell out of a tree, which was pretty harrowing to watch and may suggest the one that's been back since isn't him, but still, it's nice to have a daily visitor.

This week marks the beginning of a super-busy time for us; my TV work couldn't have ended at a better time.

This week, my great friend from home, Jacqui, came to stay with her sister-in-law Joanna, then next week(!) is the election, then Mum and Dad come to stay, then we go to LA for Thanksgiving with Tom and Bambi, then Kate comes to stay, then it's Christmas and Richard and Judy are coming over. Yikes!

While waiting for Jacqui and Joanna to arrive this morning (they were driving down from Canada - like Thelma & Louise, but hopefully wrapped up a bit warmer), I was tidying up my desk and idly looked over a flyer we got from the Swedish Embassy, with a view to throwing it away. Only to discover... my favourite band in all the world (Hello Saferide) was playing a free concert at the embassy this very evening!!

The initial giddiness of excitement gave way to dispair, as I realised that I couldn't possibly abandon Jacqui and Joanna to go to the gig and it wouldn't be fair to drag my guests to a concert by a band they'd never heard of. But when I called Max for moral support - how could two such fun things land on the same day? - he pointed out that of all the grown ups who are likely to want to go to a random gig at the Swedish Embassy, Jacqui and Joanna are easily the most likely, so I should ask them and just see what they say.

Still unsure, but with a glimmer of hope alive, I tried to find more info about timings and stuff, but when the Swedish Embassy website fell pitifully short, I checked the Hello Saferide website, only to discover - must. breathe. - that Hello Saferide have a new album out!!!! Wonder of wonders.

A brief pause for some background: Hello Saferide are a Swedish band who Max and I saw quite by chance at the Latitude festival last year. I liked the sound of their description in the festival catalogue, so we went to see them purely on spec and within minutes I was weeping tears of joy, so brilliant was their music and so beautiful their lyrics. I promptly snapped up all their recordings - an excellent album ('Introducing Hello Saferide') and two EPs - and have listened to little else since.

The band lineup seems to change a lot, but the one constant - not unlike Evan Dando in the Lemonheads - is the singer/songwriter Annika Norlin, who manages to delve into my head, extract my deepest thoughts, express them in a more articulate and witty way than I could ever imagine and then set them to the most excellent pop music either so upbeat that you you bounce off the walls of whichever room you're dancing around, or so moving that you sit in a corner sobbing, wondering how a stranger can 'get you' so well.

So that's Hello Saferide. Back to this morning. I obviously bought the new album online immediately and listened to it constantly until Jacqui and Joanna arrived this afternoon.

The album did nothing to dissuade me that me and Annika would be the best of friends if we were to meet - lots of the new songs sound like a mix between Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay, one of them talks about how 'God Only Knows' by the Beach Boys is her favourite song and in the sleeve notes, she thanks someone for lending her 'The Wire'. Good grief.

It was great to see Jacqui and Joanna, looking as glamorous as ever, despite having driven from Canada. They made the foolish mistake of saying they wanted to experience our world here in DC and do whatever it is we would normally be doing. So I sheepishly mentioned the gig and they loved the idea!! Yeeeaaaaayyyy!!!

I took them for a walk around the neighbourhood, stopping off for some ice cream to satisfy Joanna's sweet tooth (and like a good host, I joined her. Such a hardship) at a place on 18th St called Maggie Moos, where they mix awesome flavours just like that place in LA, where it looked like the lady was making sushi. Mmmm, ice cream.

For dinner, I drove the ladies into Georgetown, picking Maxy up on our way. Jacqui was quite convinced I was going to kill us all, as she's got it into her head that I'm a bad driver (thanks, Kel). I hope she and the New Hampshire state trooper never meet... In the words of Rainman, I'm an excellent driver!

A few gasps and white knuckles later, we parked up in a multi-storey (which becomes relevant later) and headed to the trusty Kafe Leopold for supper. There was no-one there, but we created our own atmosphere, thanks to some hearty cocktails (I had a far too minty blueberry mojito - most disappointing).

We then hotfooted it to the Swedish Embassy, via the Georgetown waterfront, which has been opened up after lots of construction and was really nice to walk along, albeit very quickly, to ensure we didn't miss my beloved Hello Saferide.

As ever, Jacqui and Joanna were excellent sports and were up for going right to the front of the crowd waiting for HS to come on stage. There weren't very many people there at all and so it was really easy to get right to the front and we had loads of space around us - so civilised, the Swedish.

It was almost too exciting for words when the band came on. We were right at the front and I swear Annika was looking right at me a bunch of times, perhaps spotting a potential new BFF (Best Friend Forever, Mum and Dad)... I was mightily relieved that I'd bought their album that day, as their entire set was all new material.

Jacqui and Joanna loved it and were rapt, much to my relief and glee. I came over all faint at one point and had to go to the bathroom, but was determined not to miss anymore, so soldiered back in for the end of the set, when they encored with 'The Quiz', one of their old songs about her interviewing a potential new boyfriend about whether he does stuff like talk in the middle of Seinfeld and what records he likes.

Awesome.

The funniest thing was I think the only person as into it as me was was a really old white-haired man standing in the front row, taking photos on his mobile phone and grinning from ear to ear.

After the gig, we were milling around and I noticed that the white-haired fanboy had cornered Annika and was chatting to her and so I wanted to go over and say hello and say I like 'The Wire' too and aren't the Beach Boys great and let's be BFF, but I came over all British and shy. After much goading from Jacqui, Max and Joanna, I plucked up the courage to go over to her, just as she disappeared behind a door, leaving old man grinning from ear to ear. Grrr.

With me floating along on a cloud of Saferide cheer, we headed back to the car, only to discover that the way we came out of the multi-storey car park was closed. We walked around and around, trying to find a way in, until eventually I went into a bar to ask and was told we had to walk through the bar, into the mall that the bar was attached to, go down in the lift, walk to some other lifts and they would take us to the car park!

So the four of us filed through this bar, then found ourselves spat out into the fancy Georgetown mall, which was all closed up. Resisting the temptation to fulfill my 'Mannequin'-inspired fantasy of spending the night in a mall, trying on all the clothes, sleeping in a tent and, in strict adherence to the film, hangliding through the empty halls, I led the merry band on this ridiculous odyssey up and down in several lifts, until we finally found the car park and the car, only to find that I'd left the window of the car open!! I was mortified and had to stop letting myself think what might've happened, because it made me feel sick.

What a night!

PHOTOS: MONUMENTS

Click HERE for photos of our day wandering around the DC monuments

MONU-MENTAL

It was such a beautifully stunning day when I got home from church that we decided to make a second attempt at walking to the Old Post Office building, to look at the view from the top.

The weather was gorgeous and it was lovely to wander through the DC streets in the sunny sunshine.

The view from the top of the Post Office was pretty good and really made me realise just how small DC is.

the FBI (in the foreground, on the left) and Capitol

As it was such a lovely day, we walked from the Post Office to the Mall, then along to the Washington Monument and on to the Lincoln Memorial. It was so much fun to wander around, taking photos, because everything looked gorgeous in the autumn sunshine.

the Lincoln Memorial, reminding me of stately homes from Jane Austen novels

the Washington Monument and Capitol

I was particularly excited to see the Korean Memorial, which I hadn't seen before, and found enormously moving - quite the best war memorial I've ever seen, for evoking the war it commemorates.

The Korean War Memorial

As the sun went down, we decided to head to the cinema, to see what was on and arrived just in time for 'Rachel Getting Married', which we've both been really wanting to see. Much has been made of Anne Hathaway's amazing, against-type performance as the recovering drug addict who sabotages her sister's wedding with her inadvertently self-obsessed ways, but I wasn't blown away by her or the movie. I figure you put dark eyeliner on anyone and get them to play someone coming out of rehab, they're going to be kind of the same as how Anne Hathaway played it. And the whole film was just so thrilled with its bohemian aesthetic that the prolonged party scenes felt really self-indulgent.

Rosemarie DeWitt was brilliant as Rachel and their father was played by an amazing actor, who Max has since found out is a Tony-award winning stage actor called Bill Irwin, who trained as a clown and was the first person to be awarded a five-year McArthur Fellowship, aka the Genius award, which is a huge money prize given to people who are just exceptional - you don't apply for it or anything. Cool.

SATURDAY SUPERSTORES

We were meant to be going to a Renaissance Festival with Patrick and Leanna today, but then we realised that we'd be paying lots of money that we don't have to go to a mock up of the country we come from.

So we sacked that and went shopping.

Yes, I know we have no money BUT we went to Alexandria, to the Gap Outlet store, where everything's basically free! Unfortunately my accountant must've called ahead, because when we got there, there was disappointingly little of interest to me and by no means did I repeat the wondrous pre-Costa Rica haul.

On our way home, we stopped off at the massive mall at Pentagon City, to try to find Max a winter coat and some trainers, but were told in no uncertain terms that it's too early for winter coats(!!) and couldn't find anywhere that sold anything other than sporty geek trainers.

My hankering for bargains was satisfied at Express, where I picked up some things for not very much, and then we headed to Target, to stock up on goodies for our Halloween party.

We've (actually, I suspect it's just 'I've') decided to really get into the Halloween spirit this year. It's a really big deal in America and front yards everywhere are bedecked with ghouls and ghosts and pumpkins, so we're throwing an old-school scary party and turning our flat into a haunted house.

The tradition in America is for girls to use fancy dress parties at Halloween as an opportunity to dress like a slut (see here), but we have stipulated that we want ghosts, vampires, brides of Frankenstein and maybe the odd Sarah Palin dressed as Tina Fey. Once Alison had clarified that 'fancy dress' doesn't mean black tie, I think everyone was on board.

So, because Target were having a sale, we headed there to stock up on pumpkin fairy lights, bouncy eyeballs, a cool strobe light you can put inside your pumpkin (Jean Michel Jarre, eat your heart out!) and creepy crawlies to strew about the place. We did however resist the tombstone multipack, despite it being terribly good value!

On the way home, we followed a lead on a skater trainers shop off U St, which was in a scary neighbourhood, but which furnished Max with some very smart new trainers, to replace the ones he left in a taxi ages ago, when it was raining really hard.

Tonight, Anne and Hugh came over to chill out, eat pizza and watch 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', which is pretty much my dream evening. Although it was tinged with sadness, because Anne's moving out! Her and Megan's landlord has insisted they sign a year's lease and Megan's pretty sure her and Jonathan will want to move in together sooner than a year's time and Anne doesn't want to find another flatmate when that happens, so she's moving out to find somewhere by herself! I'm bereft! Fortunately, she's looking in this area and even saw a place today on our street, but it won't be the same as having her just next door.

The evening was further tinged with sadness, or rather annoyance, when it transpired that Hugh - the fortysomething screenwriting student - likes to narrate the film that he's watching! So throughout the movie, which is far from subtle or nuanced, with absolutely no subtext or hidden meaning, Hugh would be explaining what was going on! But not even in a highbrow screenwriting student way, just in a kind of stupid childlike way! Grrr.

LAND OF THE NOT-SO-FREE

MOST RIDICULOUS OCTOBER BEHAVIOUR THIS WEEK: I had to put the air con on yesterday! It's been so sunny!

Ok, I really need the dollar to go back to being really weak now, please. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. I thought the American economy was in crisis - doesn't that mean its currency is worth very little in the world?

Apparently not. Or at least if it does, then the pound is much bigger trouble. When we got here, it was 1.98 dollars to the pound, hence our absurd amount of eating out, seeing two movies in a day, waltzing off on weekend trips and generally never wanting to go back to the UK so long as I could spend £100 at the Gap outlet store in return for an entirely new wardrobe. Times were good.

Now, just as my regular work dries up, the dollar is 1.42 to the pound!! So whereas before, the £1000 we get paid into our Bank of America account every month used to equate to nearly $2000, we're now only getting $1500 or so. Uncool.

Not a lot has happened this week, other than me finishing off my TV work (that's the end of my five week contract) and the last presidential debate, on Wednesday. It was nice to get Max at home for the morning again, and then I walked him to work as it was freakishly sunny that day.

I found the debate enormously tense, with McCain and Obama sitting right in each other's faces, and got really frustrated that Obama just sat there and took McCain's slurs, without really standing up for himself. Sometimes I want him to unleash the full extent of his intelligence and articulation in banging McCain to rights for the lies that he tells about him.

Anyway, seems like taking the high road does work after all, as Obama is unanimously considered to've won this debate, giving him a clean sweep against McCain. Ha.

Also on Wednesday, I read about this awesome tool from Google, which helps prevent you from sending emails when you're drunk, by making you undertake a simple arithmetic test if you try to send an email after a certain time of night. Brilliant!

It was bliss to have the day off today and catch up on emails and things. I even treated myself to an afternoon DVD - something I've hardly done, despite it being top of my list of things to do while having no job to go to - and watched 'Red Eye'. I had to see it during the day because Max said he was too frightened to watch it, but in fact it wasn't that scary. Rachel McAdams is great - I wish she made more films.

Then tonight we made dinner here for Max's colleague John and his wife Susie and they bought gorgeous Louis along, too. I hadn't met John before, but had heard lots about him from Max, cos they used to work together before Max joined the news website, so it was good to put a face to the name and he seems really nice. I still don't get hugely warm vibes from Susie, but really like her and would like to be friends and of course love little Louis. Awwwww.

PHOTOS: NEW ENGLAND

Click HERE for photos of our trip to New Hampshire, Boston and Marblehead.

MARBLEHEAD

CHECK OUT JIM & ELAINE'S AMAZING HOUSE: click here to watch video

Fortunately we weren't kept awake by noise from the sports bar downstairs and got up early to go and explore Boston a bit before being collected by Max's dad's cousin Jim, to go and spend the weekend with him and his wife Elaine at their house in Marblehead, just outside Boston.

It was another gorgeous day and even the leaves in Boston were beautiful oranges and reds, prompting the question was it worth going all that way to New Hampshire to peep at leaves?!

My liking for Boston grew as we wandered through pretty little streets to the big park in the middle of the city and then into the kind of Georgetown-esque neighbourhood of Beacon Hill, with pretty houses and cobbled lanes.

We saw the Cheers bar on our way back to the hotel, but couldn't linger long, because we were running late for Jim.

Jim and Elaine are really fun and we had a great weekend with them. Jim is a professor of political statistics (or something) at Harvard and Elaine used to be a professional potter but now makes jewellry. Their house is incredible - they spent two years completely refurbishing it with astonishing good taste and amazing vision. They have a floating staircase in the middle of the downstairs, with the steps wedged in panes of glass, and everything is ultra-modern and minimalist but also manages to be deliciously homely and comfortable and warm, too.

The house is right on the water in Marblehead, which is one of the oldest towns in all of the US and just a short drive outside of Boston.

the view from Jim and Elaine's front porch

There's something incredibly calming about being at Jim and Elaine's - it feels like a real sanctuary where everything is peaceful and easy-going. It helps that Jim and Elaine are both really laid back, but there's something about being able to see the sea from all their huge windows and not having any traffic whizzing past that makes it a lovely place to just relax.

After lunch, we went for a wander around Marblehead, which is a beautifully quaint town, with lots of houses made from wood slats that have been painted bright colours and little winding streets that suit walking more than dashing around in a massive car.

Again, the leaves were beautiful and we popped in to the local museum to see 'The Spirit of '76', a painting depicting the Americans beating the British that is apparently a big deal.

Jim regailed us with stories of local life as we walked up to a park that overlooked the Marblehead shoreline, telling us one story about how the chopped up body of someone's wife was found by a fisherman just off one of the islands nearby. The thing that caused most consternation amongst the locals wasn't the brutality of murder, but that foolish culprit had disposed of his wife's remains on entirely the wrong side of the island! Everyone knows that if you want to dump your wife's body, you dump it on the other side, where the water is deeper and the tide doesn't get too low! What worried Elaine is the number of people who'd clearly thought long and hard about how they were going to dispose of their wife's body!

On our way back to the house, we visited Jim and Elaine's lobsterman, who'd been saving some lobster specially for us, in his trap. So we went and got super-fresh lobster from the sea, while talking to him about how hard he's been hit by the troubled economy and how, despite being a life-long Republican, he'll be voting for Obama, as he's the only one who seems to know how to handle the crisis.

After drinks on the front terrace,watching the sun go down, we cooked the lobster (they were alive as they went into the pot! Gnarly) and sat with the sea just outside the window, enjoying a nice long supper of chatting, drinking and eating. Max got to hear lots about his grandfather, who died before Max was born. It was particularly nice for Max to also hear about his granny before her husband died, as when Max knew her, she had depression (not that mini-Max was aware of that) and really wasn't herself.

We also talked lots about Jim and Elaine's son Adam, who Max had been pals with when they were little, but who had since developed schizophrenia and saw his life take a very different path from the super-high achieving path it was on. When I first met Elaine, at a wedding shortly after Max and I first got together, I remember her being at her wit's end and in a real state about Adam. But now, he's married, found good medication, has a job and is even working to overturn legislation concerning mental illness in Rhode Island, so they're really happy and relieved.

We had such a nice evening of intimate conversation and delicious food and slept the sleep of the dead in a massive bed, before lurching to the sunny front terrace for some breakfast while basking in the sun and watching the world go by, accompanied at all times by Priscilla - Jim and Elaine's excellent dog. She has the temprement of a cat - really calm and fond of basking in the sun and only occasionally in need of the odd pat, rather than dashing around like a mad thing, as is more typical of dogs.

After lunch, we were going to go to Salem, which is just up the road, but there wasn't time, so we took another turn around Marblehead, hearing all about Jim and Elaine's ridiculous struggles with the local Historic Society, who carefully monitored their renovations and seeing the house where they used to live, which Max visited when he was younger.

(not Jim and Elaine's old house, but another pretty Marblehead home)

By the time we got back to Boston airport, it felt like we'd been away for ages, far longer than a weekend, and the horrible Baltimore/speeding ticket fiascoes were a gleefully distant memory. We got back to DC feeling refreshed and relaxed and longing to go back to Marblehead!

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

Only when I took my first sip of bellini at supper did our anniversary get any better than its inauspicious beginnings!

After our extortionate taxi ride, we got our flight to Boston, where the weather was just stunning and the city looked lovely from the plane - right on the sea with pretty lighthouses and houses.

Using the internet at the airport, we worked out that we wanted to drive up into the White Mountains to peep at the leaves, so got our rental car and headed off to New Hampshire, with the help of trusty GPS.

Our dreamy drive got off to a rocky start, when we unexpectedly hit a toll and had absolutely no cash. The man was very mean and shouted at us, but gave us an envelope which we could post in with the money we owed in it.

So off we went, desperately trying to remain upbeat on what had so far been a rather unpleasant adventure.

Fortunately the astounding array of leaves that we drove through on our way to the mountains was enough to cheer us up. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, other than on a Laura Ashley dress I had when I was little - an extraordinary tapestry of vivid reds, oranges, yellows and greens. They say that the colour of the leaves moves north to south, so things just got more beautiful the further north we drove.

We stopped for lunch in Concord, the state capital of New Hampshire which is a really pretty little town, a bit like a large version of Wareham. Fortunately people were a lot more friendly there than in Boston and we had a nice break.

Keen to get a move on and get to the mountains, while also being a bit distracted by the beautiful foliage, I whizzed us along in the car, merrily singing along to Coldplay (I do excellent 'oo-ee-oo' backing bits on Viva La Vida), until I spotted a state trooper standing in the hard shoulder, pointing at our car and shouting.

Now then, I'm not a massive speeder - I don't do hundreds of miles an hour in a 30 mph limit. But I do find 80 mph a nice natural speed to go at on a 3-lane road - fast enough to get somewhere, but not so crazy-fast that I feel I can't react if something goes wrong. I really hate going slow.

Unfortunately I hadn't really registered that, despite being on a road as big as a British motorway (and unfortunately going downhill, too), the speed limit was 65 mph. So it was understandable that I'd been picked off by the state trooper. And I was pretty resigned to it - I've never been caught speeding before, either here or at home, so figured my time was bound to come at some point.

So the state trooper was shouting 'pull over' and pointing at me, so I pulled onto the central reservation bit. It looked like that's where he was pointing and plus, with him being on foot on the hard shoulder, by the time I pulled across two lanes of traffic and got onto the hard shoulder, I'd be half a mile away from him.

But apparently this was not what he wanted. He went LOOPY, just screaming at the top of his voice, 'GET OUTTA THERE. GET OVER HERE. NOOOOOWWW', pointing to the hard shoulder.

So, from a standing start, I treacherously pulled across three lanes of whizzing cars, to the hard shoulder.

But this still wasn't good enough for shouty state trooper man! I thought he might actually burst a blood vessel as he shouted, 'GET OFF THERE. GET YOUR WHEELS OFF THE ROAD. NOOOOOOWWW - THIS IS THE EMERGENCY LANE - WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? GET YOUR WHEELS OFF THE ROAD NOOOOOOOWWW!!'.

Usually, if an authority figure was shouting that loudly at me, I'd be on the verge of tears and may even fear for my life. But this dude's reaction was so totally over the top and he seemed to be taking it so very personally that I'd broken his precious speed limit, that I found myself weirdly calm and kind of just marvelling at the whole experience.

Once the state trooper finally got me where he wanted me, he came over to the car and started screaming at me, asking where on earth I learned to drive. Putting on my best bemused British accent, I said, 'oh well, Britain actually', to which he screamed, 'WHEEERRE??' (it didn't surprise me that he hadn't heard of Britain) and when I repeated myself he - without removing his sunglasses or resisting every state trooper cliche you've ever heard of - said, 'Well welcome to America - you've got yourself a ticket'.

Turns out I was going 83 mph in a 65 mph area, so I figured that was fair enough. Buster Bloodvessel then took my licence away, hung out at his car for ages and came back and issued me with a 'summons', which confused me until he explained it's a ticket but if I don't pay it, then I have to go to court and they'll track me down in Britain and take my licence off me.

Safe in the knowledge that that dude was going to have a far more miserable life than me, if he got that upset by tourists speeding, I drove off, asking Max to look at how much the ticket was for. Emily and Anne had both told me that speeding fines are really low out here and you have to go really fast to get anything over $100.

So imagine my dismay when Max said I owed $250!! The combination of the shouty man and thinking of a) how little money I have and b) how much I'd spent on the appalling hotel that hadn't even served the purpose I was hoping it would, made me cry and I was convinced this would be the worst weekend ever.

Desperately trying to zen out, we made our way - very slowly and below the speed limit - to the White Mountains. I hate going slow. But fortunately the Kancamagus Scenic Byway was worth all the trouble.

The scenery was breathtaking and we found ourselves stopping every few minutes to take photos of yet more stunning views of beautiful leaves set against crisp blue skies. It was gorgeous, driving along tree-lined roads and stopping whenever we felt like it.

The folks up in the White Mountains are already very ready for Halloween, especially in the small village of Ammonoosuc, where I stopped to take a photo of a cool mailbox that was decorated for halloween, only to look up and find a scary child in dungarees just standing in the middle of the driveway, staring at me. It was exactly like something out of a Stephen King book.

Beating a hasty retreat from Creepsville, we soon realised that we had bitten off way too much than we could chew - certainly within legal speed limits - in order to get back to Boston for our 8pm dinner reservation.

So the afternoon became a slightly frantic rush to complete the drive and get back to town in time. However, it being our anniversary, we had to get out of the car and kick leaves. When Max and I got together (10.10.02), he invited me out on a date to kick leaves in Hyde Park. I thought this sounded like the most romantic thing ever and was very excited by this chap. Things got even more exciting when we met in the park and kicked leaves and then he went to lie his overcoat down for us to sit on, but not before reaching into the pocket and through the torn lining into the actual coat itself, to pull out a bottle of champagne and two glasses, saying, "will you be my girlfriend?". Awesome. And the rest is history! So we figured that, with New England leaves being all pretty at this time of year, we'd indulge in a bit of leaf-kicking up there.

So we got out at Sabbaday Falls and frolicked in the thick carpet of multi-coloured leaves, before admiring the waterfall and getting back into the car to hotfoot it back to Boston, sticking to the pesky speed limit, of course.

We were in a real hurry when we finally got back to Boston airport to return the car and were so grateful to the man there for being the first nice person we'd met all day, by not charging us for the petrol that was missing from the tank.

We weren't grateful however to his colleague, who recommended we get a taxi to our hotel if we were in a hurry, only to order one that didn't turn up for aaaaages. And then when it did, the dude didn't know where he was going (I'm not sure he'd been to Boston before), and had to keep calling into his controller for directions!!

Having called the fancy restaurant and put back our reservation by half an hour, we got to our hotel, which seemed ok, but kind of pokey for the megabucks we were paying and above a sports bar that was showing a crunch Red Soxx game, so I feared for our chances of getting any sleep - I worried it'd be Baltimore all over again.

Anyway, we got changed into our glad rags and then ran out of the door. Literally. We had to run through the streets of Boston (which, incidentally, looks really really nice - I immediately liked it, just as I immediately liked New York - it felt like a really cool city) to the restaurant.

On our way, I saw a guy sitting on the steps of the library, working on is MacBook, which I thought said a lot about how genteel Boston must be as a city, that someone is so unafraid of getting mugged that he'll brandish his fancy laptop in full view on the street on a Friday night. But then we rounded the corner and on the steps on the other side were some homeless people, so it would seem that not all Bostonians are as well off.

The restaurant (another recommendation from Jean's boyfriend, Joe) was at the top of a 52 storey tower block, which we could see from far off, but took ages to get to. And then when we did get there, we seemed to have to go through a shopping mall to get into it, which felt very funny in our fancy clothes and really frustrating, as we were dashing through this labyrinthine mall, desperately trying to find the elusive restaurant.

We eventually found the lift and got up to the top floor, but were so late for our reservation that we'd missed out on a table by the window, so sat miles away from the window, with me slightly wondering if anything was going to go right this weekend.

Fortunately the first sip of bellini righted all wrongs and, with the alcohol flowing freely for the rest of the night, we had a really fun, relaxed evening. A man proposed to his girlfriend while we were eating, which was exciting - I've never seen that happen before - and brought back fond memories of when Max proposed on a beach in Sweden exactly three years ago to the day. *swoon*.

After our lishy supper, we repaired to the bar for digestifs and listened to an excellent jazz band, while finally getting to sit by the window and look out at the amazing view. We realised, in not actually knowing Boston at all, the view was slightly lost on us anyway, so it was no great disaster that we didn't get to dine by the window.

A TERRIBLE START

Oh, the tangled webs we weave! What started out as a good intentioned anniversary surprise ended up as a bit of a logistical nightmare.

Max got back to DC as I was getting my haircut. Obviously the ideal situation would've been to go straight to Baltimore, to make the most of the hotel and get an early night. But Anne was in class all afternoon and had our luggage, so we had to wait for her to finish college at 8.30pm!

En route to meet Anne, we had supper at Ben's Chili Bowl - a real DC institution that is apparently Bill Cosby's favourite restaurant. It's on U St, where there was the most beautiful sunset as we were going inside.

On discovering that we're British, the guy behind the counter started talking to us about British cartoons, explaining that he loves 'Danger Mouse', which was a little random. In a pitifully white middle class attempt to sound cool, I started talking about the music producer and Gnarls Barkley dude, Danger Mouse, but it was lost on the assistant and I just shuffled off feeling lame.

Poor Maxy, knackered after 24 hours of travelling and stressful interviewing, he then had to schlep with me all the way to Anne's college, at the end of the metro line. Then we had to hang around for ages for Anne to pick us up, before heading into Baltimore, where we got lost and finally got the hotel at about 9.30pm. Ugh. What a waste of time, effort and money.

Things only got worse when we got to our room, which was the most shoddy looking penthouse suite I've ever seen. It was just gross and tatty and made me sad that I was spending so much money on it. But we hurriedly got into bed to watch a bit of TV before getting an early night, trying to ignore our surroundings.

Unfortunately the surroundings became very hard to ignore when someone in a nearby room used their bathroom, filling our room with the loudest grinding sounds, like in a very old house with bad pipes, and actually shaking the taps in our bathroom!

Having specifically requested a quiet room, I went back down to the front desk and asked for a different room. The concierge lady was so unhelpful it wasn't true, just giving me another key and leaving us to find the new room and get our luggage there, while assuring us that that room would be quiet.

So we got to the new room, jumped into bed and... were deafened by noise coming from outside! The room was above some kind of huge outlet for a fan or generator or AC unit or something - really loud machinery right outside our window, such that we couldn't hear the telly unless we turned it up really high.

By this time, I was nearing the end of my tether, so Maxy manfully went back down to the desk and got the concierge lady to actually come with him and check out any new room she suggested we take, to be sure we'd get a quiet one.

Eventually we were put in a different room and there was still noise from other rooms, but by then it was about 11pm and we were exhausted and just wanted to sleep, so gave up the unequal struggle.

As we were checking out in the morning, I asked for some kind of refund and was told that only the manager could do that and that he wasn't there! Aaaarggh. And then we got a taxi to the airport which was over $20 more than the hotel said it would be.

What a rotten start to our anniversary weekend!

KENNETH KENDAL

Ugh. Googlemaps SUCKS!!

I spent Monday working (this is my fourth of five weeks working for the TV company back in London) and generally getting depressed about the credit crunch.

Then I got to hang with Maxy on Tuesday morning, as he had to go in late to cover the second presidential debate and of course yesterday, he went to Maine.

Things were still very up in the air as to exactly where in Maine he was going to go when he boarded his plane, then when he arrived in Maine, he got a message saying he could interview George Mitchell - the democratic former Senate majority leader (and former chairman of Disney. Fact.), so headed up to the Obama HQ in Bangor, from Portland where he flew into.

Max called to ask me to get him a hotel in Bangor and mentioned that he was just going to get a taxi all the way up to Bangor. I sensed that he was doing this basically to spite his boss for not letting me drive Max around and knew it'd cost hundreds of dollars to get a taxi for a 3 hour journey, so found a bus that went from Portland to Bangor instead.

Then I had to find the Obama HQ in Bangor and book a hotel as nearby as possible, which all went very well.

I took ridiculous pleasure in being Max's Ground Control, really pleased that I was able to do something well and efficiently and give Max all the info he needed. I've been finding my TV development work quite tough lately and do quite wish I could have a really mechanical job like that - you know you've done a good job when a hotel is booked and a nifty transport plan is hatched, rather than the really subjective and unpredictable nature of writing a proposal well, or having a good idea. I like things a bit more cleancut than that. I think that's why my favourite ever job was waitressing and bartending - it's very clear when you've done a good job.

Anyway, with Max safely stowed on a bus to Bangor and a hotel room waiting for him, I carried on with my work, but then when Max got to Bangor, had to play Kenneth Kendal to Max's Anneka Rice, as he had to find a gun shop to go interview someone at after his meeting with the Democrat man.

So I rocked googlemaps, emailing Maxy exact directions to what sounded like a very Palin-y gunshop. Unfortunately it turned out that googlemaps was woefully wrong and Max called me from what looked on googlemaps like a road of shops, but was in fact a deserted lane that went on forever, with only trees and signs about moose on it.

Eventually Max was able to get a cab and found another gunshop - the one I was sending him to apparently didn't exist.

I then had to spend hours online and on the phone to the tourist information centre, trying to find a way on public transport that Max could get to another part of Maine today, then down to Portland in time for his flight. Again, Max was planning to get a taxi, but as Defender of the Licence Fee Payers, I was determined to find a better way. Turns out Maine is probably the state least well-served by public transport in the whole country.

Once again, googlemaps let me down this morning, when I tried to direct Max to another gunshop, but little did I know that that was far from the only disaster that would befall us today...

Because Max was due to get into Baltimore airport at 9pm tonight, then we're due to fly out of the same airport at 7.30am tomorrow morning, I decided to kick off our anniversary weekend with a surprise: I'd meet Max at the airport tonight and whisk him off to a fancy hotel in Baltimore for the night, then we wouldn't have to get up so early to get to the airport tomorrow and he wouldn't be exhausted from all the heinous travelling.

It was the perfect plan. Anne even offered to drive me to the airport, pick Max up and take us to the hotel. Sweet! And Joe - Jean's boyfriend - recommended a really nice-looking hotel, which was reeeeally expensive, but looked worth it.

So Anne collected our suitcase this morning and drove off to college, where I have to meet her later and then we'll drive to the airport together.

I had a blissful day off work today so I had a fun webcam chat with my friend Kat, before getting ready for the big weekend. While I was chatting to Kat, not only did Alison and Patrick call from their office for 'Ask The Brit' (a weekly event where Alison puts her phone on speakerphone and her, Patrick and a couple of colleagues quiz me about all things British. Last week, it was what do we call English muffins, this week it was about whether anyone is allowed to own a swan. Fortunately Kat knew what I didn't, that the Queen owns all swans), but Max also called, saying that his flight from Portland had been delayed for hours, but that he had managed to get himself onto a flight that not only left earlier, but gets into DC direct, rather than Baltimore! He arrives during my hairdresser's appointment and shortly before my manicure and legwax!

My plans are going to have to dramatically change...