Wah-Wah World Premiere

Richard E. Grant and co!!!!!

The Edinburgh International Film Festival began today with the world premiere of Wah-Wah - a mostly autobiographical film written and directed by the legend that is Richard E. Grant about his childhood in Swaziland.

And he was there!!! As you can so clearly see in this wonderful picture. He gave a nice little speech at the start introducing the other main members of the cast. Then he buggered off to probably go celebrate a great film, to much applause from us all.

The film was excellent. It tells the story of Grant, aged 12-15, trying to cope with his father who turned to alcoholism after his mother left them (superbly frightening drunk-acting from Gabriel Byrne. Now we know why Grant doesn't touch alcohol.) On top of that there's the conflict created by his father's second wife (played brilliantly by Emily Watson). Very, very moving (I was promised by the EIFF art directory that I would cry and he was right) but with lots of funny moments too (mostly Watson's brilliant mocking of British upper class, which is where the title comes from, her character describing it as a load of "Wah-Wah").

If the standard's this high for all the festival films I want to see at least one a day!!

Flat-moving in tomorrow though!!!

"Home"

Time to get this thing back on the road!

I've been home for about 3 weeks now and to be honest it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The journey home was just surreal - the last trip over the Bay Bridge, last sight of California, hearing all those British accents again queueing up to go home after holidays. It was all a bit scary really, not really knowing what to expect or how I felt about going home. It was a truly fantastic year and I suppose I was just sad it was the end.

Drew of course could be relied upon for some distraction, arriving at the airport minutes before last check-in time, barely packed and having "crashed" his rental car on the way, with Phoebe in tow trying her best to get him successfully out of the country! Anyway, we did make it onto the plane, reunited with Tim of the Mountains and his newly sprouted facial hair.

After playing with Virgin's fantastic in-flight entertainment system which lets you send e-mails and text messages at extortionate rates, it was straight into British culture to prepare us for home - Father Ted, Little Britain and Virgin's guide to London (which bizarrelly talks about going to Krispy Kremes Donut Shop in Harrods as one of the top things to do - something I think most people would associate more with America).

Before I knew it, we were at Heathrow - queues, crowds, lots of people who I'm sure were putting on silly English accents and some very nice sandwiches. Called my Mum to let her know I was back in the country, which was lucky as she thought I wasn't back until the next day. Then a quick flight up to Edinburgh and drive to Haddington and I was home, greeted by a very happy Sadie (dog) and an almost typically indifferent Poppy (cat). Family happy too of course.

Spent the first week settling in to Haddington, walking Sadie and seeing friends from school. Also enjoying all those British things like tea, curries, fish and chips, Neighbours and trying to avoid Big Brother on the telly. And failing to organize cross-Scotland get-togethers (eventually managed this once Declan came up with his car). But Haddington got a bit boring after a while.

So then it was into full flat-hunting mode. Tom, Declan and I were the core team. We also tried to persuade Lewis to live with us but he was having none of it so we settled on just the three of us. We spent an intense week looking at lots of places (and drinking lots of tea at Tom's friends' flat between viewings). They were mostly rubbish - kitchens made out of cupboards, tiny rooms, missing carpets, etc. It must be so demoralising trying to sell these places to people! We were eventually successful and found a nice big place in Marchmont - the really studenty area of Edinburgh. Moving in on the 18th, the same day Germans Marco, Nico, Till, and Christian and Americans Julie and Vena are all coming to visit, as well as probably most of the rest of the UK interns. Should be very chaotic and lots of fun!! Just to make it even more so, we're holding out flat-warming party on the 19th. We're really asking for trouble aren't we? As long as the landlord doesn't pay us a visit and think we're subletting to about 10 people!

The festival has now hit Edinburgh. The place is totally buzzing with tourists, street performers and flyer-hander-outers. All good fun. I love this time of year. Went to see ventriliquist David Strassman last week which was excellent (maybe I'll write a review) and going to go in tomorrow for "Fringe Sunday" in the Meadows or Holyrood Park - I can't remember which it's at. Will try and meet up with some Edinburgh folk for that too, maybe go see a show in the evening. Also on the agenda for next week (not sure how much of this can actually possibly happen):

• see something with my family
• start work (www.beautysleuth.co.uk - honestly. That's what the company I used to work for has turned in to!)
• Stuart's birthday on Monday
• golf in Stirling with ex-flatmates Alan, James and Ryan
• and of course all that moving in, welcoming of visitors and flat-partying.

Great!