Cath in Cannes? Can Cath go to Cannes in a van? A womannes in a van going to Cannes? You bet Cath Cannes!

Sorry it’s taken a while to get my first blog up – Internet connections and various other obstacles have crossed my path…
So over to me! I am still in enormous shock at the prospect of going to Cannes! I don’t think I shall truly believe it is happening until I am across the channel. I have been reading over Jamie’s blogs and watching the podcasts and I CANNOT WAIT!
How quickly life can change. Two months ago I had no job and was pretty miserable. Now I have a fabulous job at a product design company, a wonderful part time job in a pub, and will be all things Cannes in a Van for the next couple of months. Crazy!
So how did I get to be going on this adventure? I’ll start at the very beginning…
I first heard about CiaV through my lovely friend Mia (thank you x). I only met her for the first time in October, shortly after I’d moved to London, following four years of studying film in Cambridge and then Norwich. I didn’t have a job and things were generally not too great. I told her I wanted to work in film. She told me about CiaV. I joined the Facebook group. I started writing an email, but never got around to sending it. Last Thursday I got a Facebook group message from CiaV saying a new crew member was needed to go down to Cannes in the van, this time running on vegetable oil. Did anyone want to go? I was on my way out to the cinema (how fitting), so quickly fired back a message to Andy telling him I would love to and that I would email him later. I sent him a long email with my life story and told him of my love of film. We met up on Monday after work. Had a coffee, went to the pub. Four hours of animated talk later, I was sitting on the 55 on the way back home, rocking and grinning ridiculously imagining myself in five weeks time, in Cannes.
I can barely contain my excitement and delight! It’s going to be an incredible experience. Leaving London in a bright yellow van, knowing we have a 24 hour drive ahead of us driving from one end of a country to another, getting closer to our destination, arriving, seeing a new place, being in the sun, by the sea and beach, speaking French, drinking wine, eating French bread, and carambars, the possibility of seeing some stars, the certainty of seeing a mountain of films, and of things going wonderfully right and dreadfully wrong. Ultimately, being involved with something that I am so totally blown away about doing, and doing it with people who feel the same way. Andy has the most incredible passion and I feel honoured that he wants me on board. We’ve been in contact a lot this week on the phone and by email and are immersing ourselves in films this weekend. Hard to believe I have only met him once…already feel I have known him for years.
Naturally I also have a few niggling worries.
1. Driving a big van. I am quite scared about this prospect, even though I have been driving for 12 years. My careful driving has been a source of much amusement to my friends so I am sure this will delight them no end.
2. Tunnels. I have always been quite terrified that tunnels are going to collapse on me. I used to close my eyes when I went through tunnels and was struck by petrifying horror when I realised I would have to keep my eyes open to look at the road when I first had to drive through one. The channel tunnel is a particularly large tunnel which goes under quite a large stretch of water, which scares me - a lot.
3. French youths. When I was 11 my mum drove down to Spain with my brother and I for the summer holidays. On the first day of driving something terrible happened. We stopped at some traffic lights in Le Mans and three youths came over to wash our windscreen. My window was open and one of them reached through and stole my computer game! It was one of those little hand held games before Gameboys were around. I was utterly distraught. The lights changed, we pulled into a nearby petrol station, some guy who had seen what happened called the police. They arrived very quickly, and after a frantic chase across some fields dragged two of the boys back and made them apologise to my mum. One of them swore at her and got a huge whack from the policeman. Ha! I was still sporadically crying about it by the time we got to Spain two days later. I’m not sure I will ever fully recover from this trauma.
But, these are the things that are going to make the trip all the more challenging and memorable. And I’m sure there will be far more challenging events that happen over the next couple of months (in particular, the transformation of myself from pale and pasty in London, to glitz and glamour in Cannes!). I’m ready for it all.

Cath x