polkadots and moonbeams

After this week's performance on Desert Island Discs I nominate "Kirsty - do you know your pretty face is going to hell" Morrissey, for making me laugh so early in the morning... And my next suggestion is Nikki from the Big Brother House a couple of years back... and in the chef's corner we should, of course, have Delia (and failing her Clarissa Dickson Wright)....

Christopher Lee.

Americans REALLY know how to do Halloween and put our puny attempts at trick-or-treating to shame... The owners of this house in Georgetown had to fight their way past a huge ghoul just to get into their house... and just look at all those pumpkins! All gone now I suppose... wonder what they do for Christmas...

I'm not going to be able to watch Downfall again that's for sure...

my sister... my little sister... making doves of peace and love for the world on the fourth plinth this evening.

Profound in so many ways...

Chelsea has the best hats but Tavistock has the best cakes. I spent more money at the Tavi show...

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo . Someone at work showed me this today - there's more like it on Eirik's lovely site.

Father Christmas-shaped Japanese rice crackers.... I can't quite bring myself to eat them...

Am noodling around on here (ooooohhh slideshow is cool) while I watch the US election coverage on telly. Jon Sopel seems to have found a coffee called Obama-chino in Virginia. Can't decide whether to go to bed now and wake up early to hear the historic result... or do I stay up and see the first results... or do I go to bed and listen to it on the radio all night but then I won't get any sleep and I have an early start at work tomorrow... Maybe I should run a poll? This is a Big Night.

Next month... whiskers on kittens.

This light bulb is costing more than fifty thousand pounds to replace. About a year ago it popped. I replaced it and the new one popped too, taking downstairs' electricity with it. So I replaced it and rang The Electrician. After a couple of hours in the cellar and under the hall floorboards The Electrician pointed out that I had Damp... enough Damp to fuse all the lights and present a small element of Danger . The Electrician disconnected the offending light fitting and told me to get a plumber. So a couple of weeks later The Plumber came and moved the washing machine to find so much Damp he couldn't get the machine back into its slot. He also found some dry rot, disconnected further electrical fittings and said that he had done all he could "in the circumstances" ... So The Architect came and said "the best thing to do is pull it all down and start again". The Surveyor agreed. And so The Project has begun...

The loooooonnnnggg drive back in the storms from Devon yesterday was lifted by a series of rainbows across the Salisbury plains... I'm pretty sure my car was right in the centre of the pot of gold at several points but sadly I am no richer.

Mazel Tov to the Taylor Doctorow household for introducing Poesy Emmeline Fibonnacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow to the whole wide world. Such a big name for such a very tiny and adorable person. I found this out when I got into work on Monday and it brought on one of those internet moments... Poesy was just a few hours old before everyone could see her, share the news, show other friends, comment, congratulate, say "aaaaahhhhhh"... and her picture will be there forever and ever. Methinks she might be the most-blogged-about-baby around. Life is good.

Not sure if this Venetian graffiti is actually graffiti... or whether it's a very obscure and artsy ad for some sort of aspirin... either way it was a cut above the rest. My 2008 New Year's Resolution is not to buy the Sunday papers - three Sundays in and I find I have much more time on my hands (hence this blog) and considerably less rubbish to recycle but I have a vague feeling I am missing something. Must. Be. Strong.

Spent yesterday buried underground in the Cabinet War Rooms . Much to think about of course but the thing that struck me most was that these people really SMOKED. Industrial-scale ashtrays everywhere, improvised lighters made out of red-hot phone cables and the maps aren't simply yellowing with age but with the leathery patina of nicotine. These were the people who had a Good War - men were men... women had to be single... adrenaline flowed like Niagara Falls and everybody smoked. More nostalgia when I got home as Led Zep's Madison Square concert was on telly and I hadn't seen it since I was a teenager. Robert Plant still the sexiest thing ever (even in puffed sleeves which I didn't notice in 1970-doodah) but Jimmy Page will always occupy a small corner of my heart...