So here I am in Palm Springs, where I’m doing some research for my new novel.  It’s a hard job but somebody’s got to do it.  And it occurs to me that if you tell anyone you’re going to Palm Springs there’s a huge barrage of reactions, mostly very much against, apart from one of my Californian friends who has fond memories of cruising the streets every Spring Break.   This is actually my third visit, but it’s always somewhere I come to for convenience rather than choice.   For me it has a slight end of the world feel, maybe because it’s in a desert, flanked by the mountains, lush and arrid at the same time.  Walking down the main strip you can almost imagine another time, dust balls rolling down, or maybe I’m mixing my cowboy-film metaphors here.  It still feels a little bereft.. there are lots of empty shops with For Lease signs in the window, and some of the vintage clothes and furniture shops are looking a little more like what they used to be known as before wearing old stuff became so fashionable: second-hand or charity shops.  But the silver-haired folks in Starbucks are jolly and happily ordering tall lattes with a ton of squirted cream on the top, their baseball caps jauntily turned back to front.  The middle-aged gay couples strolling down the street look quietly content in matching white linen shirts and beige shorts.  The air-conditioning blasts tirelessly at PS’s most tasteful design emporium, Trina Turk and the shop assistant and I have an enthusiastic conversation about the abundance of great 1950s furniture.  And as I sit on the steps outside my hotel room, and watch the hummingbirds and see the dawn bathe the mountains  I remember why I came to PS - it’s better than being in the grey of London.  (that and I need a desert setting for the anti-hero of the book I’m working on). 

As for the important questions of the day?  Cats versus dogs, I prefer cats, but I like dogs, here’s a big shout going out to Samantha the puggle and Rose and Reuben from London!   McCain versus Obama?  Personally I think they’ve missed a trick in America, because if I could, I’d vote for the only candidate worth voting for: TINA FEY!!!