1) Wearing hot pink. I don’t know why this made me feel more lively but it did.
2) Using my (also) hot pink weights. I’m not the world’s biggest pink fan, but I did do 12 curly arm excercises. Then I did a bridge, and what in my head is ‘another yoga position’.
3) Finishing off the Valentine’s day pinot grigiot. It was just one glass!
4) Watching a documentary about Pompeii which did not nearly send me to sleep at all.
5) Reading ‘LA Confidential’.
6) Thinking up new ice-creams to suggest on Scoops noticeboard. Scoops is absolutely my pudding-based obsession right now.
7) Sorting out more clothes for the swap party, when that happens. Ah, weird black satin skirt, you do nothing whatsoever for my bum.
8) Noticing weird bumps on my wrists and wondering if a bug has laid it’s eggs under my skin and whether they’ll grow Alien style. Reassured by Stephen that this is unlikely in California.
9) Making lists (voila)
10) Browsing the internet for a pattern to make when my craft-savvy aunt visits and teaches me how to MAKE CLOTHES.

Right by my house there’s an Astroburger, a decent diner chain that does quality burgers, great rice pudding and as it turns out, pretty brilliant pumpkin pie. Denny’s on the other hand does a predictably artificial tasting pie, overloaded with sweetness. House of Pies probably do my favourite (I suppose that makes sense – if they don’t win at pies, who can?)

But I need to try more, I tell you. Any suggestions? Anyone seen any pumpkin pie sneaking into England lately?

Here’s my friend Kayla with John Crier – Duckie! At a screening of Pretty in Pink at the New Beverly. It was the last screening from a week of programming set by Diablo Cody, and it was fantastic fun though I’m pretty sure I was the only audience member who hadn’t seen the movie before.

It’s a film full of mad home-made creations that the heroine hobbles together with her sewing machine out of Goodwill finds and so I was absentmindedly noting the 80s outfits and crazy creations throughout the film, UNTIL the big reveal; the pretty pink dress itself. The audience knows that it’s going to be a combination of two prom dresses that she’s going to adapt herself… and… it’s horrific – just the ugliest, baggiest dress possible. Much worse than the two donated dress it’s ostensibly crafted out of. I’m wondering if this is the worst craft-disaster in a popular film? And whether it’s charming, because the film is full of not terribly attractive people and not terribly sane outfits, which is very sweet, or whether it’s just a thoroughly odd choice by whoever did the costuming. She is definitely NOT pretty in pink…

One of my favourite places in LA is the eerie, uncanny Museum of Jurassic Technology located in Culver City. I think I read that it has won an award as a work of art, and once you visit, it’s easy to see why. Locked behind a large steel door that gives it a perpetually closed look, upon first entering you watch a very bizarre video on the ‘Jurassic age’ and then meander through a series of strange and wonderous exhibits which include a room based around Napolean; a display of model trailer parks; a room dedicated to old wives tale cures made in sculpture form and a display of cat’s cradles. Phones dot the walls and make strange noises. Lifting the receiver of one you hear odd wailings that turn out to be the voice of the opera singer whose story you later encounter, another will be the barking of a dog.

The whole place, in fact, feels like an episode of ‘Round the Twist’ come to life – you feel that at any minute you might get sucked into one of the exhibits. The wonder of the place is unchanged when you finally emerge into a small room at the end where tea and biscuits are served, for free. A large brass tea urn sits in the middle and a large, lean greyhound does the rounds. I haven’t quite worked out what the inspiration or purpose of this museum is, but it feeds into my love of gothic novels somehow – it’s unnerving and endlessly fascinating. I recommend anyone who visits LA to go there, a zillion miles from the fakery and plastic sunshine one might associate with the city.

I still want my internet back!

It’s fantastic. It was justTrader Joe’s banana bread mix and I bought it on a complete whim – you just add eggs and oil and water. And the packet is a very friendly yellow.

Anyway! No more neglecting craftiness. I’ll have myself four nicely stitched place mats by next week or else.

I love that LA is a film town. I don’t love it because I want to be an actress; and although I love writing, I don’t love it because I hold ambitions of being the author of a screenplay. Nope, I love it because of the weird and wonderful films you can see, and the equally fascinating places you can watch them.

The Silent Movie Theatre is located at 611 Fairfax and it shows the bizarre and wondeful, such as ‘Stunt Rock’. It has folding down chairs – but sofas at the front, if you’re early; posters of starlets mounted on the walls, and cupcakes (the smores cupcake disappointed me somewhat though) and buttered popcorn for sale in the lobby. Best of all, it has a rowdy, we’re-all-in-for-a-good time atmosphere that permeates throughout. This time, the director was even there to do a Q & A and tell hilarious anecdotes…

And I have to add, that after the late night showing of ‘Stunt Rock’ (stunts, and rock) we were invited to an post-viewing party on the theatre’s patio. And by we, I don’t mean a few friends; nope – the whole audience milled about outside drinking beers under the heat lamps. I have to say that the Silent Movie Theatre is truly an adventure all by itself. Where else can you see world champion rubeks cube solvers performing? Ah, but that’s another tale…