No, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a Harry Potter fan...

Yessss! It's Thursday night and I'm not back at work until Tuesday morning. (Bank holidays and time off in lieu really do come in handy when you're short on the old annual leave.) That's four days of freedom, baby! Or, at least it would be if I didn't feel so icky. As previously posted, I thought I felt a bit funny after The Meal That Was Not Good on Monday (and I thought it might just be because I know my friend was also ill after said meal), but now I'm not so sure. For starters, I haven't actually been ill - and I'm sure something would have made a technicolour appearance had it been food related. No, I'm just feeling - well, icky is the only way to describe it. Run down and sickly and headachey and a bit poorly in general. I hope it goes off soon as there's a food fayre in town tomorrow and being a bit of a food-obsessive, I'd really like to go.

Anyway. Something which put me in a better mood instantly today was seeing a trailer for the next Harry Potter film, due out in July. The trailer is probably nothing new and existed online for ages, but it's sent me into a tizz and now I want to read Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince again, just to make sure I remember the story properly and see what bits they've cut out of it. I'll probably end up reading the seventh book as well for good measure - a) to refresh my head about where the story is going and b) because that's my favourite of the books. Eeeee it's so exciting! Oh, hush now. Yes I know I'm heading for 30 years of age but that says nothing.

And on another completely different note, this also cheered me up no end today:

Cats really do rule the internet.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

OK, we've had a flurry of snow (not a lot, and it didn't last very long - but enough to render half the office unable to come into work); it's cold and icy outside; our Christmas tree is standing proud and bedecked with twinkly trinkets in the newly-decorated lounge (after an ordeal and a half trying to get the damned thing to fit in its stand - neither of us had the sense to take a tape measure with us when selecting a tree - that'd be too easy); I've started the Christmas shopping (online - I can't face the shops just yet but may have to at some point) and have more festive gatherings to attend than I can shake a stick at. Christmas is here.

What could possibly make me feel even more Christmassy than I already do? Christmas films, of course! After a viewing of Home Alone today I'm all warm and fuzzy inside and hungry for more holiday cheer. So I've dug out these old favourites for more festive film fun this week:

• Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: Essentially the same plot in each (self-explanatory if you haven't seen them - an obnoxious but cute and resourceful child being left alone by mistake over the holidays), but so so Christmassy. I want to live in Kevin McCallister's house. And fantastic seasonal soundtracks - Chuck Berry's 'Run Rudolph Run', Brenda Lee's 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree', Bobby Helms' 'Jingle Bell Rock'...they're all here.
• It's a Wonderful Life: The quintessential feel-good film, you can watch this at any time of the year to lift your spirits. James Stewart is perfect in the role of his life - suicidal family man George Bailey who is shown what life would be like had he never existed by a trainee angel named Clarence. It sounds bleak and desperate - but you'll have to watch the uplifting ending for yourself.
  
• The Muppet Christmas Carol: Just genius. The retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol by Kermit, Gonzo and co. Full to bursting of sing-along songs (look out for the singing vegetables in the opening number - all together now "There goes Mr. humbug, there goes Mr. Grim...if they gave a prize for being mean, the winner would be HIM!") and muppet humour, plus a camp performance of Ebeneezer Scrooge by Michael Caine.
  
• Scrooged: An underrated gem. A very 80s version of A Christmas Carol, with Bill Murray taking sarcasm to a new level as the Scrooge of the story, TV network president Frank Cross. Has a very sugary ending but I don't care - the one-liners and Carol Kane's Ghost of Christmas Present are worth it alone.
  
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: Bizarre and typically Tim Burton - Jack Skellington, the King of Halloweentown, discovers a portal to Christmas Town and takes over - kidnapping Santa and delivering his own scary presents to bewildered children. But he finds the true meaning of Christmas and sets out to make amends. Creepy and Christmassy.
  
• Gremlins: Not really a Christmas film in its theme, but set at Christmas and has a brilliant Phil Spector-Motowny soundtrack featuring Darlene Love et all. Quite gruesome in places (the death-by-kitchen-appliances scene for some of the pesky critters springs to mind) but hilarious and filled with blink-and-you-miss-them moments.
  

I'm off to snuggle up on the sofa with the cat, a blanket and some hot chocolate. Bliss. I may never go out again.

Trick or treat (or not)...

I'm too grumpy to write today. Not only did I fall asleep on the sofa mid-way into film three of my five-stops odyssey (Carrie. I dozed off just as Chris, Billy and gang broke into the pig pen for phase one of their stunt, and dreamt of that hideous glow-in-the-dark plastic Jesus in Carrie's closet), but not one single little person dressed in scary garb came a-calling, and this morning the awful truth dawned on me as I picked bits of popcorn and wrappers out of my hair that I'd eaten waaaaay too much Halloween chocolate and polished off a tad too much Tia Maria. Meh. I'm going to have to take the remaining sweets into work just so anyone but me can finish them.

And I'm depressed that every retailer in the world has now seemingly upped the advertising ante. Almost every commercial I've seen so far today has in some way or another related to Christmas. Whether its 'perfect gift ideas' (I wouldn't, however, call X-Factor rejects peddling more cover versions and seasonal tunes a perfect gift idea); Christmas scented air fresheners (more like pine trees and mulled wine smells, not the aroma of turkey carcass as I first thought); sofas with guaranteed before-Yule deliveries; every damned advert has had either jingly bells Christmas music or snowflake graphics and grinning idiots in Santa hats. And you just know that ALL the shops are going to be sickeningly bedecked with all their festive tat. The supermarkets have had Halloween and Christmas aisles running parallel for weeks.

It's the first day of November. NOVEMBER! We haven't even had bonfire night yet. I don't want to be made to feel guilty for not having started any Christmas shopping yet. Ooh I'm going to make something with my pumpkin remains before I throw something at the TV. Which may just happen if I hear those unmistakable strains of The Snowman or see that singing muppet, Aled flamin' Jones, presenting something inane. Hopefully whipping up a kitchen storm may remove my loathing.

It also may not.

Something wicked this way comes...

Okay, I have a bowl of mini-chocolaty things so tiny that if they weren't packaged, they'd be invisible; a carved pumpkin which may look like roadkill, but I've named him Eric and hope he's happy with my rubbish orange-scented tea light candles which actually smell more like petrol that anything citrussy; a black cat (who happens to be asleep, but never mind) and a pile of scary DVDs. I think I'm all set for Halloween. But what are these scary flicks, you may ask? (You may not be asking, of course, but I'm going to tell you anyway.) Well, some of them aren't so scary. But I class them as seasonal fun. And it wouldn't be Halloween without them.

• Halloween - well, obviously this one has to make an appearance. It'd be rude not to invite the original and best stalk n slash (in my opinion) along. With its tinkly soundtrack and baddie with a spray-painted mask, it's creepy with a capital C. See if you can spot the director's cigarette smoke in the shot where Michael hides behind the hedge. Always makes me smile.
• Arsenic and Old Lace - an oldie, but a goodie. Newlywed Cary Grant takes his missus to meet his two kindly old spinster aunts, only to discover they are in fact homicidal maniacs and who have been bumping off their gentlemen callers and hiding the bodies around the house. Much screwball hilarity ensues.
• Sleepy Hollow - I *heart* Tim Burton. You can spot one of his movies at 50 paces - they're all so visually stunning and weird. A strange little village is being terrorised by The Headless Horseman, so Johnny Depp is sent to employ order to this nonsense and solve the mystery. Christopher Walken plays the Horseman, complete with delightful filed-into-points teeth. And there's a lovely not-for-the-squeamish autopsy scene.
• Carrie - a bit contrived it may be, but I love the Stephen King book and I love the film. Those girls were so evil to her! Carrie's mother is a truly terrifying religious nutcase and I won't spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it, but my cousin almost wet herself when we stealthily watched this together as 10 year olds.
• Hocus Pocus - my last, and highly embarrassing entry to this list. The kid from Eerie, Indiana (remember that? It rocked) accidentally brings back three hanged Salem witches from the dead to the modern day, where they try to steal the souls of children on Halloween in order to stay alive. You couldn't get much camper than Bette Midler (complete with a token song and dance routine), pre-SATC Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy (the overtly happy nun from Sister Act) as the three witches, but it's lots of Disney fun.

Right, I'm armed with popcorn and off to the sofa. I just hope I get SOME little trick or treaters knocking on my door to take these sweets off my hands. Jeeezus, I sound like the gingerbread house witch in Hansel and Gretel.