Hello gentle readers, some of you may have noticed Charlotte's absence -if you haven't shame on you!- for this, I, Bob have decided to tell you how our first day of the Ffresh film festival has gone.

Now of course I spent most of the event seeing through a hole in her mangy bag

but the whole thing looked fairly fun, and she allowed me to breathe every-now-and-again.

So, let’s start at the beginning!

To arrive at such a prestigious event, we had to make our way to Aberystwyth by a 4 hour train journey, by catching the 6:55 bus

and then proceeding to catch the 7:34 train, now whereas Charlotte spent most of the journey reading, I took the time to enjoy the scenery

and the scenery

and the scenery.

After 4 hours, millions of sheep, 2 changes, 1 dead sheep, awe-inspiring countryside, a lost sheep, SWG reminiscent forests, sheep on tracks, sheep, sheep and sheep, we arrived in Aberystwyth, which, being a seaside town, reminded me a lot of Portsmouth, which Charlotte would really like to visit again to test at.

Catching a bus to Y Gelli (the lovely little B&B we are staying at) we found that Pat -the owner- was not present, so we were unable to actually check in, but locked the suitcase away in a room. So catching the bus back we spotted Gamepark, the local independent retro games shop, had a look in there -unfortunately no Neo Geo games- then made our way up Penglais hill for a surprisingly steady steep walk -after much confusion on directions.

Arriving slightly earlier than we had expected we were surprised to find a free buffet lunch, with mysteriously filled sandwiches and orange juice in a can!!

For convenience reasons, a tannoy was in operation on the day, and informed us of a talk from an S4/C representative, which I had not originally intended to attend, but the concept was interesting, because apparently they are attempting to change their strategy; and I've got to say it did work, because I am not an avid watcher of the channel, but of what they showed us, it seemed rather fun. Not to mention the new 'idents' for the channel, one of which including the subway from Newport!

Next up; the IFSW showcase, we went to go see this purely for the connection reasons, its very interesting to see what people are proud of making at Newport... though unfortunately we were not shown the films intended, but were instead shown three recently made films from the documentary film course, which were interesting to say the least.
Then heading onto an equally strange film about a man's entry to CRUFTS then lastly a strange film involving a guy travelling to the North Pole to do some weird Santa ritual thing...

Then came the magical marvel of internet access!!!

Now onto 'A conversation with Nik Powell' what could be defined as the best experience of the event so far; the guy was a legend, really funny and has worked with some really cool people, and produced some really cool films.
I could seriously talk about this guy for hours! I love funny people.

He started off with a great anecdote of when he started out with Richard Branson with a record shop, and how being lazy is not good, and shortcuts only get you fined and arrested :P
The guy was full of such funny anecdotes, he was so cool, I could of just sit and listened to him go on all day if it would have been as funny throughout!

This guy distributed Evil Dead, and has produced quite a few of Neil Jordan's films along with Stephen Woolley (The famous Woolley)

After that great experience, we went back to the ‘viewing vault’ (computers) to watch some of the films we couldn't manage to watch in the screenings, but after having one computer not want to play DVDs, one not giving me sound, and somehow the last getting a blue screen error, I eventually got one to work and I watched all of one animation, before we went to go see the RTS screening and ceremony.

Which was great stuff! Not to mention the fact that all the winners of the RTS (royal television society) awards were all from Newport!

Tom won the best animation; which I think I remember seeing at an early stage on the animation boards, cute little animation, bit weird...

Murray mints and paw prints (which we saw earlier at the IFSW showcase) won best factual, and the winner of drama the absolutely fabulous Covent Garden Ladies by Rupert Rand, an absolutely stunning short film, worthy of television, the piece was an amazing capture of 17th century prostitution, and was just stunning, I hope to see it again sometime, or maybe find a copy of it somewhere. If you're reading this Rupert, you're film was amazing.

And that was the whole day... we did intend to watch the Stephen Frears Master class, but I'm not really a fan of directors... unless they write as well.
But the RTS ceremony ran a little long, so we missed it. We did intend to see the preview screening of the Illusionist, but unfortunately they had already shut the computer room down, and we did not intend to sit around for an hour and a half in the relatively empty art centre... so calling a taxi -of whom the driver hailed from Essex!! And got back here to humble Y Gelli to retire to the room and write this. Now I'm very tired let me sleep!

Tune in tomorrow night for (hopefully) pictures of the very pretty manor on the grounds of Y Gelli, the tale of day two and more amazing talks and lectures, with hopefully Blitz!!