Hot & Duffy

The birds are too tired to sing, there's an eerie rustling of a lacklustre wind in the trees and a dog on the other side of Horseshoe Canyon hasn't stop barking in high pitched yelps since about 6am. Outside, one can tell already that it's going to be too hot to do much of anything today. It's almost as if we're on a small Carribbean island, waiting for the hurricane to come in. Russell Brand, my latest obsession (I know, I'm late to the party, but with armed with the zeal of a born-again, I dance away, blind), was asked what it was like to make a film in Hawaii and he said "It's like being hit over the head with a rainbow." Yesterday, I drove back along Mulholland from Westwood in the late afternoon as tourists were pulling there Sapphire Blue Sebrings to the side of the road and having their pictures taken against the setting sun, and I realized that this is a place that people consider exotic, and that I shouldn't take it foregranted, as one does at 5pm in rush hour traffic. It was wonderful to see people out there revelling in it. But after a couple of days of a hundred degree temperatures, its pleasures wane a little. That could be the spoiled brat statement of the century, but as I padded out in shorts and flip-flops to run to the gas station this morning for milk for the tea and the warm air pocket hit me directly in the face, I could've been in Vegas or Curacao, lounging by the water with a tall drink, instead of listening to this incessant yapping dog (even my dogs are bored of it, and snoring) and imagining how my hydrangeas will wilt as the day progresses.

Last night, Mr Smith and I went to see Duffy at the El Rey. She has miles of smiles and charm to spare. There is nothing not to like about Duffy. She is absolutely adorable. "Nice weather you're having" she said or "you brought the weather with you" and I sort of wish she had. That's what we need now, a nice rainy, cold summer day in England, with the smell of freshly cut grass, and new potatoes with mint for supper, and maybe some asparagus from the garden.

Update 9:00am: It's 9:00am and already 94 degrees in Van Nuys.