susanhickey.com

The bus conductor of life is the mythical character that suddenly announces "All Change" - a frequent occurrence in this industry! 

I’m really sorry for the delay in updating my blog the last few weeks. But it has been so busy, busy and even more busy that I’m not sure where to start! I have a feeling this could be quite a long entry….....

Ok, as you know I’m no longer presenting iBall but now have five separate projects started or starting!  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in pre production on one of them (except for time spent at MipTV in Cannes last week and chilling with BJ my dog) and I'll tell you all about everything as soon as my contract allows.

I’m particularly excited about this programme and look forward to writing about it as it’s happening. I promise to try and take as many photos as possible too!

You may remember me talking about a documentary I was presenting on Dolphins?! Well, I’m going to be heading back out to Tenerife to shortly to do more work on that. This time I’ll try and get some more underwater photos of the Dolphins – such incredible creatures!

I had a great evening at Soho House recently. I met up with my friend Frank Rehwaldt. Frank and I worked together a couple of years ago on Channel4’s thisisaknife show and will hopefully be working on another project together in the near future. Frank hails from sunny California but apparently LIKES grey skies so splits his time between LA and London. He’s produced extremely successful shows in the US from Big Brother to the Osbournes, Rich Girls etc and also been the screenwriter on several other shows. Here’s a piccy of the lovely Frank….

A few weeks ago I was invited to meet Gary Chippington (Director of presenter led programming) and Ian Lamarra, a senior producer, both at Tiger Aspect – one of the UK’s biggest and most successful production companies. We had a great meeting and fingers crossed – we’ll be working together in the future.

As I mentioned, last week was MipTV in Cannes. As usual it was filled with stacks of meetings and the obligitary attendance of parties – so I was feeling a little worse for wear come Friday! The week started with a bang when I met up with party creator extraordinaire Mr Andy Grumbridge – he’s a very talented guy (and top bloke) who is Director of Digital Media for Virgin Radio (having been poached from Channel 4 last summer to head up their online side) – fun does tend to be his middle name!  We ended up having a very messy night ably aided and abetted by Andy Taylor (of All3media) with his wife Lara and John Nolan (NorthOneTelevision)!

It was also great to meet up with Jim Manson and Fiona Sanderson (the managing directors of the Luxury Channel) www.theluxurychannel.tv. They are creating incredible documentaries to be shown on CNBC around the world and online, having a niche audience of the top earners around the world who are looking for something extra special. I’m looking forward to seeing them both again very soon in London.

On Thursday I met up for dinner with Ashley Highfield and a few of his BBC mates at Tantra. http://www.worldsbestbars.com/city/cannes/le-loft-cannes.htm

Ashley has been headline news this week as he has just resigned from his job as Director of Future Media & Technology at the BBC to take over as CEO of Project Kangaroo - an initiative planned by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to encourage further take-up of online video. So good luck Ashley!

I’m going to try and update this blog every week so stay tuned for all the news that I will be sharing as soon as I can. Thanks again for all your kind emails - I really appreciate them.

Love

Susan x 

Ok. Now I really think I understand the perils of being a tour guide. After the surprise meeting with Ronnie Johnson and his son George at Nice airport (see previous Blog entry) I deferred to Ronnie's request for some suggestions for things to do whilst in the Cote d'Azur. Yesterday a few of us took Ronnie and George to Mandelieu, which is on the coast about 5 km West of Cannes. One of Mandelieu's most imposing sights is Chateau de la Napoule (http://www.chateau-lanapoule.com/)

which (as you can see from the photo) looks like a Castle, but is in fact an international center for nurturing talent and artists from all nations. As you can probably tell from the photo Ronnie took on his mobile, the weather was glorious and the views as you walk along the beach are stunning. This is one of my favourite walks - miles of beautiful coastline - the perfect place to gather my thoughts away from my busy schedule in London. As you hug the coastline the beaches are punctuated by amazing coves and rockpools. In the summer the beaches can become pretty packed with sun worshippers down here, so it's worth exploring the coast to look for these type of inlets that are hidden gems and far from the maddening crowd! So long as you're prepared for the (sometimes steep) walk from the clifftop pathways down to the beaches, you can be rewarded by relative seclusion - with little risk of  frisbees, footballs, beach balls, toddlers or God knows what else disturbing your reverie! Factor in the absence of obese older gentleman in miniscule yellow g-strings and some of the less pleasant sights of those women who really shouldn't go topless, arm yourself with a coolbox with suitable refreshment and you have the recipe for a perfect relaxing day. The water is warm enough to spend as much time as you want in it - so great for either a healthy long swim or just to cool down from the heat.

Here's a picture of Ronnie and George on the beach near the port just before we went for lunch. Also I included this photo of George doing his "Centurian" pose or as he later explained his Christiano Ronaldo look - the one the Man Utd star displays after yet another impressive footballing feat! This was followed by a hilarious lunch at the splendid Collins Bar, during which we somehow decided that a game of tennis would prove the perfect afternoon tonic to our culinary indulgence!

Cue a dash to Go-Sports (a huge sports store) to purchase shorts for Ronnie and George and a new grip for one of the spare racquets - then......... off to Opio to the Tennis centre! 

We arrived at the tennis club (http://www.tennis-club-plaine-vignal.com/index-gb.htm) and managed to book a court. We then made our way to the alloted slot navigating the club's bar despite Ronnie's protests that a "loosener" might be in order! We then proceeded to play a form of tennis (the sort post-Wimbledon Brits play for two weeks after the tournament) which involved participants coming on and off court to make up doubles teams with winner stays on. We somehow managed to sustain this for an hour before Ronnie announced it was refreshment time and promptly headed off to the bar! After gathering the tennis balls that had ended up in trees, bushes and other courts we 'repaired to the bar' ourselves. The door to the bar was much like the changing room in a Mr Benn program as we found ourselves stepping into a surreal kind of time warp. A breed of British ex-pats were loudly opining about the state of the UK and how awful the French were - in an endless and futile self-defeating argument! This scenario can often be found in the South of France and can prove to be amusing to listen to. Inevitably though, the propagators of this type of rhetoric generally seek to enlist support from other English speaking bystanders and sure enough, despite the fact we were wrapped up in our own cosy little group, a drunk 'Colonial' with a ruddy complexion strolled over to engage us in conversation. Amongst us were some highly erudite, smart and open-minded individuals who quickly dismissed The Colonel (as we nicknamed him) and his negative monologue and sent him back to his fellow drinkers to while away the rest of the afternoon. This left us in peace to plan the rest of the day, quickly coming to the conclusion that we should meet again in Cannes for the evening entertainment................!

For the second week running, my Air France flight back to the UK to shoot iBall was cancelled - AAAUGH!!! After protracted telephone conversations I decided that the offered flight option of traveling to Birmingham via Lyon wasn't much help to me! My initial anger was exacerbated by the guy on the phone who was one of those condescending "we're-doing-you-such-a-favour" types! Anyway I've had to end up buying a last minute (expensive) flight on Easyjet to make sure I can get to the studio in order to keep our filming schedule. We've got a busy week coming up focussing on BSkyB, Torotrak, Hornby and Gold. Not to mention an interview with somebody yet to be confirmed for our Friday show. Throw in a couple of socials with mates from Capital Radio and then Valentines night and it's going to be pretty full on all round! I'll try to update my Blog as much as possible from now on - subject to my filming schedule of course. Also thanks for all your messages of support guys - much appreciated!