VAMPIRES & EXORCISTS

GROSSEST THING ABOUT THIS TIME OF YEAR: the ground is littered with really pretty-looking pink berries. But beware! Their prettiness is at odds with the foul smell they give off, especially when burst. They're called ginkgo berries, but I call them stinko berries, because they make the pavements smell of sick and poo and sweat and death all rolled into one, pretty pink berry. A very embarrassing smell to carry around if you step in them (which is tricky to avoid, as they're EVERYWHERE!)

Today was my final day the pesky exorcism job!! I'm so relieved and am not sad to see the back of the project. I got kind of into it by the end, as I very rarely got hold of anyone, so mostly just spent my time leaving messages on countless answerphones, which is easy enough. I didn't actually find anyone in the end, but have put out lots of feelers, so hopefully someone will want to do the documentary and get in touch with the producer.

Not only was the work horrid (as well as yet more re-mortgaging shenanigans), but now it's over, there's nothing between me and Christmas! Yippeeeee! I can't wait and am so enjoying the fact that Christmas started here about a month ago, with twinkly lights, Christmas music everywhere and dark, cosy nights. And of course many houses and front yards have been decked out with seasonal goodies. I've yet to encounter that real hardcore suburban frenzy of lights that films like 'Home Alone' would have you believe exists, but hopefully it's just a matter of time.

Because I had to work my final half day today, Kate took herself off to Mount Vernon this morning and then we went to see 'Twilight' together, to celebrate my finishing work and finally being a free woman.

We knew the film was going to suck, but are both big Buffy fans, so figured we'd give it a go. Kate has read a couple of the books in the series, but had to give up after the second one and resort to reading plot summaries on Wikipedia, so despairing was she of the terrible writing and characterisation of the teen protagonist Bella, who keeps melodramatically declaring that she will DIE if not allowed to be with her true love - a vampire called Edward.

Sure enough, the film did suck. Robert Pattinson as Edwards was pretty charismatic and handsome, but his makeup was really inconsistent and I found Kristen Stewart's 'naturalistic' umming and erring before every sentence really annoying.

More annoying, however, were the other people in the cinema. Loads of people were just openly talking throughout the film and the guy in front of us spent the whole time sending texts from his phone. I was just annoyed by the glowing white screen in the darkness, but Kate had the misfortune of being actually able to read the texts and see that they were gross and pornographic. What was he doing in a cinema?!

We had a really nice time tonight at a bar on 18th St called Bourbon, which we've never been to before, but which looks nice from the outside and is part of my determination to try new places, having fallen into something of a rutt of where we hang out.

We met up with Oliver and his friend/Max's colleague Zoe, who's really fun. It was a great night; Kate got on well with Zoe and Oliver and we had really tasty, quite cheap food and the bar is just like my perfect bar - dark and modern with a nice laid-back atmosphere. I'm so pleased we branched out!

There was a girl at the bar in Bourbon who had the coolest hair and I've decided that's what I want to look like. Though she may've got a bit disconcerted by everyone looking around to check out her hair, so I could get a second (and third, fourth, fifth) opinion. It was short and choppy and blonde and she looked like a cool Swedish pixie. I'm not sure I could carry off blonde, but I reckon I might give it a go. With no job to have to look professional for, I figure why not?!