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!