So far I have had champagne on Hogmanay, pancakes on Pancake Day, talked to Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper at a Silver Linings Playbook Q&A, started flossing, watched a bajillion movies, and started thinking of goals for the year.

That is about as productive as I get!

Mini sparklers are where it’s at.

Isn’t he cute? I mean… terrifying! You can’t see from the picture but he’s also kind of glittery. I upped the spook-factor with some window clings on the bay windows behind baby Jack the pumpkin. I got witches and bats and black cats and stars and a haunted house. They look awesome.

I just need to find my purple bat plushie from last year and we’re ready to monster mash!

It’s only the 27th of October and I nabbed the very last pumpkin in Sainsburys. This runty guy was all on his own, I couldn’t leave him there, so I shall transform him into a fearsome monster for Halloween. I had to buy tea-lights because he’s too small for a regular candle. That cup is the smallest size Starbucks serve!

I think I’m gonna have to keep it pretty simple since this is my first time carving a jack-o-lantern on my own, and he’s so ickle. No room for fine detail! It’s time to craft a plan of action while I finish listening to the new Taylor Swift album.

For some reason, only known to crazy peeps like me, I’ve decided to give National Novel Writing Month a go. With working full-time, and studying part-time and already having a novel first draft which needs to be revised surely this is a bad, no good, terrible idea? Oh, well!

When you’re not too sturdy; I haunt you, you hurt me.

I love Teen Wolf so much it hurts inside! I did everything in my power to avoid liking it… most notably not watching it. But, I caved, and I fell. Hard. If you have not watched this show: WATCH THIS SHOW. Almost every character is delightful in their own way but Lydia by far outshines them all.

She’s pretty, but she’s also a maths genius! And even though all of her friends are supernatural creatures or hunting supernatural creatures or befriending supernatural creatures… she’s not. Because everyone is too stupid to clue her in to what is happening, even though Lydia and Stiles are clearly the only sensible ones on the entire show!

I am literally pining for this show’s return. Which won’t be until like, forever, or next summer if you want to get technical about it. Whatever.

I got to see an early screening of Frankenweenie last night, followed up by a Q&A with producer, Allison Abbate, who was a delight. She had such interesting things to tell about producing animation, particularly with relevance to full-length stop-motion features. Plus, she worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas which automatically gives her a big stamp of approval in my book!

I’ve been urging everyone I know to go see Frankenweenie. It looks beautiful, the story is so Tim Burton — creepy yet heart-warming — and the voice cast is great. Atticus Shaffer is just as hilarious, and slightly off-putting, as he is in The Middle.

And that is all I have to say on that matter.

My birthday weekend started off with a very merry trip to the zoo. Zoo Lates at London Zoo to be precise. There was cake and carousels and facepainting and the best damn mac and cheese ever. There were also cute animals. I even brought a little friend home with me.

We met Ricky the Rockhopper penguin. He’s a bit of a celeb apparently. I can see why! Look at those yellow head feathers.

The butterfly tent was the warmest place in the whole zoo. They had these crazy chains dangling at the doors to stop the poor things escaping out into the cold, cold world. I could have taken a nap in there.

Whenever there are big cats you know I’m there. I actually didn’t get to see any tigers this year which was muchos disappointing. I do love them so. But this beauty graced us with their presence… and my face was painted like a snow leopard so I guess we got our fill of the kitties after all.

I wish Willow could have met the meerkats. She could have done her adorbs impression of them sitting upright. She likes to do that on the sofa when she feels like having a little lean on someone. Crazy dog!

These were just some of the cuties I got to see. The rain held off so it wasn’t a hardship being outside, running around from one enclosure to the next. Plus that delectable mac and cheese I mentioned kept our strength up!