Back to work in Blighty!

Following the dizzying events in New York it's taken a few days for me to re-acclimatize to working from my studio in Southport. For a start there's the view through the window by my desk overlooking a cemetery -  dead dull in comparison to the Gotham City skyline of NY. If I want a 'cawfee' I have to make it myself in the kitchen; the nearest place 'to go' being The Salvation Army Coffee House which, even if it did do heavenly 'frothy coffee', doesn't open till ten in the morning. And then it's OH SO QUIET! From the city that never sleeps to the town I'm not sure is awake... I'm missing the street sounds; the HONKING and sirens and outbursts of cussing in New York vernacular; the 'Have a nice day' and the 'Thank you Ma'am'. I can just hear the neighbour's dog yapping and a milk float floating by...

But then again I've got a skyscraper of paperwork to attend to and some very promising follow-up meetings coming up. My Co-director, Stu, is off to see Milky Tea, the animation and interactive production company based in Liverpool on Thursday then the wonderful children's writer, Davey Moore, is coming over again on Friday. He's one of the writers on Rastamouse, the massive new CBeebies hit. I'm looking forward to telling him 'wagwan' since we saw each other last month. I know he's got some really exciting news!

Rastamouse Mania

 So I guess it's good to be back after all. I just need to wean myself back onto Yorkshire tea in my new I heart NY mug... Sigh.

Man oh Manhattan! Kidscreen was FUN!

The Kidscreen Summit was four days of intense networking, meetings, seminars, pitching and, we admit, maybe just a little partying, in the still partially frozen megatropolis of Manhattan.

 It was our first Kidscreen so we had had to orient ourselves swiftly across vast expanses of swirly Hilton carpet. Fortunately 'The Meeting Point' was a 15' SpongeBob-topped Doric column  - so easy to spot; empty tables to conduct our meetings less so...

It was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet lots of new producers, directors and broadcasters and we're hugely encouraged by their positive reaction to our work. As certain sessions were by online lottery prior to the event we considered ourselves VERY lucky to meet with 'THE MAN' everybody's been telling us we should meet, but who's virtually impossible to meet in the UK (apparently) as his schedule is so tight. Happily my alloted 10 mins with him went so well (He thought our stuff was great, in a nutshell) he urged me to contact him back in Blighty for a follow-up meeting together with his Head Of Development. I could have danced out of that 'speed pitch' session!

Lunching with Rick Clodfelter and Nicole Rivera from Cartoon Network on the final day was great fun. Sitting down to a fancy buffet with them to discover they're fellow Grey Gardens fans was DIVINE! Rick complemented me on my Vivienne Westwood outfit and said I looked, 'Very regal'. Nicole used my favourite word, 'bonkers' and I thought, 'These are people I'd like to drink gin out of jam-jars with...!' We swapped Facebook and Twitter accounts and I sent them some photos of me and my nine-year old dressed up as Big and Little Edie Beale. A fabulous and friendly end to the summit!