SMELLY SNOW

FREAKIEST COINCIDENCE OF THE DAY: as I was cycling home this afternoon, it started snowing! From absolutely nowhere! The dude from Mount Vernon was completely right - it's the weirdest thing!

It's been unbelievably freezing here for a while now, so Max finally decided to get a winter coat and I met him in Macy's at lunchtime to consult. He found a really gorgeous cashmere one that was on sale and then the assistant told him a way of getting yet more money off, so he paid well under £100 for an amazing cashmere overcoat! And got a nice cashmere scarf and hat, to boot.

I'm desperate to follow suit, but all the ladies' winter coats have got belts and/or are short. I want a really nice black military-style cashmere overcoat with big buttons and a high collar, but it seems I'm not in step with this year's fashion, so have to make do with my weedy anorak.

Mark's speech went really well this morning, so tonight we went out to celebrate with him and his friend, once again basking in the cheap beer and awesome jukebox (I was able to listen to a Liz Phair song I haven't heard for yeeeears) at the Toledo Lounge.

Unfortunately I can't tell you what Mark's friend is called, because I only know him as the Orc. Mark made the mistake of mentioning to us that his friend is from the Orkney Isles and I latched onto this, gave the poor fellow a new moniker and am incapable of remembering his actual name.

Anyway, he was really fun and I hope he becomes a new DC friend, because it'd be good to hang out with him more. He works for the Treasury, I think, or maybe the Bank of England, so is based at the Embassy.

We had a heated discussion trying to name the five funniest films of all time and had real difficulty. I was at a particular disadvantage (and was shouted at a lot for it) because I automatically have to discount all those stupid 80s comedies like Airplane, because I don't find them very funny. And when those out-and-out comedies are out of the mix, there are very few true comedies left.

We all love the 'Zoolander's, 'Anchorman's and 'Old School's of this world, but together they make one really funny movie; none by itself qualifies for the top five.

We all like stuff like Ferris Beuller, Lebowski and Withnail, but those aren't pure comedies. When I sincerely put forward 'Role Models', Mark simply said he felt sorry for me. But it IS one of the top five comedies I've ever seen! It's brilliant! The only other definite contender for my top five was 'Monty Python & The Holy Grail', but the rest was a real struggle and I never managed five.