Just back from a glorious three-week holiday in California. Anything much happen while I was away?

In truth, we followed the disastrous fall-out from the Brexit referendum in mounting disbelief.

As politician after politician bumbled and crumbled, it felt like we were watching some spoof telly drama. Britain out of Europe? A new PM? We were fully expecting to wake up one morning and find the Queen had abdicated in disgust, packed a hefty supply of headscarves and moved permanently to Balmoral. (It could still happen, watch this space).

The fact that it felt like a mockumentary worthy of anything The Thick of It could throw at us probably had something to do with our location. In Hollywood, the world revolves around television and the movies. Everything and everyone looks slightly familiar, as if you might have seen it on the big screen or in a box set.

Everyone watches movies, talks about movies, wants to write movies or star in movies. People read scripts in Starbucks, practise lines as they jog through the canyon, and tour guides at the big studio theme parks give it their all just in case a major producer is walking by on the back lot at the same time, poised to pluck them from obscurity straight on to the silver screen.

It’s infectious, too. In recent years, my cinema-going has consisted mainly of whatever Pixar’s latest animated epic is, but it hasn’t always been that way.

My fond memories of movie-watching stretch all the way back to the first films I ever saw in the old East Kilbride cinema, where you had to queue round the block to get in. Thrills from Indiana Jones, tears at Annie, much hilarity with the Muppets – and later, in my angst-ridden teen years, the joy of the Brat Pack – Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, The Lost Boys….

For a while, I was the ‘film critic’ for the local newspaper, which meant I got to spend Wednesday mornings in the plush seats, with tea and biscuits, on my own, watching brilliant blockbusters just before they were released – Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shawshank Redemption, Apollo 13….

I have fond memories, too of the GFT, where I discovered the delights of world cinema and started a love affair with Baz Luhrmann which has lasted ever since.

Being in Hollywood, even for a brief time, reminded how good it is to go to a good movie. So I’ve decided I’m heading back to the cinema – and there’s not a lost fish, talking dog or Disney princess in sight….