The week end in a very relaxed way with an early finish from work. I did a little pottering then saw my Mum & my sister and had a good gossip with tea and biscuits.

Then in the evening I went to see Jan & Barry, who I don't seem to have seen for ages! Jan made a lovely liver & bacon hotpot with dumplings, which I guess means that winter is upon us. But with food that gorgeous I'm glad it's winter! I drank too much so what followed is now a bit of a blur, although I do seem to remember that everyone on Eastenders and Coronation Street were either mad, gay or ginger, but unusually not all three. There was also some Steely Dan and enough Pulp for me to wish they'd get back together. And I came home with huge bag of sloes, enough to make sufficient gin to see me through the winter! But right now my throbbing head finds the idea of alcohol quite disturbing. Lovely to see you both! xxx

Now the summer is over it's safe to head back out to the cinema because all the brainless blockbusters have gone and there's interesting stuff to see!

I'm just back from seeing Moon, which I've wanted to see ever since I saw the stunning poster for it:



Obviously it's sci-fi, which is not my favourite thing, but the reviews were good so I risked it, and I'm so glad I did because it's magnificent!

The plot seems quite simple - there is one man on the moon for three years at a time to man a plant that harvests Helium3, which is sent back to earth as the new miracle fuel. When the film starts he has only two weeks to go before he gets sent home but things begin to unravel: he starts seeing things and getting paranoid. And after that it's hard to say more without giving the plot away. It's nicely done and I certainly didn't guess what was happening. It's just creepy enoough to make me look behind me as I walked back to the car park, so job done!

It stars Sam Rockwell who I've loved ever since I saw him bare his arse in Lawn Dogs. He's done loads of interesting stuff since then, sometimes even with bis clothes on, so you're bound to have seen him! He's great in this too, and at the risk of sounding shallow looks great in his spaceman jumpsuit!

The film is directed by David Bowie's son, who started his life as Zowie, which is a stupid name ffor a boy. For a while he was known as Joe, then bizarrely he changed his name to Duncan. Apologies if you or a loved one are called Duncan but I don't get it: you have the chance to rename yourself and you pick Duncan?! It's beyond me... Anyway, he's clearly a very talented young man. I never really liked his father but clearly his space obsession has rubbed off on him. Thankfully this is better than any film Dame David has put his name too!

It's always interesting to learn something new about yourself. Today I learnt that the promise of Dame Shirley Bassey was enough to turn me into an insane person.

I discovered quite by accident that she will be performing at the Electric Proms next month, at the Roundhouse in Camden which is top of my list of venues I want to go to.

It also turns out she has a new album coming out soon, one of those ones where a living legend works with younger artists - you know the kind of thing, everyone does one if they live long enough! I knew the Pet Shop Boys had written a song for her: The Performance of my Life, which I expect will be epic and more than a little bit camp. It also turns out that the lovely Richard Hawley has written one, as has Rufus Wainwright! The prospect of seeing her do any of those live was too good to miss!

So at 8am I log into the appropriate website and nothing happens. Eventually I get a new message: Your request is currently in a queue. Hang on a minute, a queue? Do you see what they've done there - a queue sounds orderly, like one person standing behind each other in the Post Office where everyone will get their turn eventually. Now I might not be Bill Gates but I'm guessing that's not how the internet works. In my head it's like the population of China all crowding against the Great Wall, where a magic door randomly appears and lets one person through then moves someone else - that's not a queue, that's madness!

So I went to work without a ticket and sulked. I came home at lunchtime and discovered that Richard Hawley would be supporting her so went back for another look. Miraculously tickets were available! Except they weren't - as soon as you put any details in the website crashed and you got a message to ring them instead. But the phone was overloaded and didn't work.

Surely Shirley isn't that popular? Well no - Robbie Williams is also appearing at the same place earlier in the week. His first gig in 3 years, in a small venue, for £25 - and still the ticket seller were surprised by the amount of people who wanted tickets. Truly seetickets.com are the biggest bunch of f*ckwits known to man.

What amazes me most is that I thought I only had a passing interest in her, but the promises of something slightly unsual got me excited. And then hugely disappointed. So I'll have to make do with listening to the performance on the radio and wait for the album, but in the meantime let's enjoy a classic:

Last night I went to the Cambridge Film Festival. It's now in its 29th year and I think I've been promising myself I'd go for the last 15, but have somehow never got round to it. Usually the great films would be coming to a local cinema in the future and the other stuff doesn't always appeal, like this year which is heavy on German and Polish cinema, neither of which sounded like a fun night out!

How ironic though that in the end I didn't come to see a film at all but two TV plays. But they weren't just any old plays, they were a pair of Alan Bennett plays about spies, which I've previously loved as a double bill in the theatre.

The first one was An Englishman Abroad, a true story about how the actress Coral Browne met Guy Burgess in Moscow. It stars Alan Bates, who is one of those actor I just don't like, but in this he's charming, funny and just a little bit vulnerable and is just excellent! The couple share a dinner of tomatoes and grapefruit and gossip, then she comes back to Britain to buy him a suit.

The second one was even better - A Question of Attribution, starring James Fox as Sir Anthony Blunt just before he is unmasked as a spy. The high point is a long scene where he talks with the Queen, played by the amazing Prunella Scales, about fakes and forgeries. The dialogue is magnificent and she is even better than Helen Mirren as the Queen.

So a real treat of an evening out! I do love Alan Bennett, I don't think he's ever done anything less than fantastic.

I was in a bit of an odd mood today, although I'm not entirely sure why. I think I was slightly disappointed with what I'd got done yesterday and had a nagging urge to get the gardening done.

I should have seen the 24 year old in the afternoon but I cancelled and came home to plant yet another plant - I can't stay away from the garden centre! Unfortunately I didn't think he'd like being stood up for some weeding so I told him I wasn't feeling well and was going back to bed. How annoying that he drove past my house - although God knows how as he doesn't drive! He sent me a text saying, "Just driven past your house..." where the "..." clearly meant, "and you weren't there when you said you'd be you big fat liar." So I added another lie to it by saying I was in Tesco and haven't heard anything since. Oops.

Still, the garden looks tidy so I'm pleased with that. God knows what I'm going to do about the 24 year old though....