Hello. We’re back home now, suffering with a severe case of Cannes-Flu. Any tips for a remedy? This was my first year and I don’t think my liver was quite ready for it. It is very strange being back in Noho trying to brainstorm again, on a more normal time-frame compared to the craziness of the competition. I’ve attached a picture of us celebrating on the beach, having handed in the final film, and catching up on the news before we started back at work…

Anyway, like at the end of a school trip, we thought we’d write a little list of some things we learned out here that we didn’t expect to…

1. The Nigerians and their gods. On the first night, at the Young Lions party, we were chatting to them about how they come up with their ideas. They said that any creative idea they have is simply God speaking to them. They don’t just go for a run when they have creative block, or mess around on Facebook, no;  they sit and wait until God is ready to speak. I (Lolly) was shocked – as an atheist I have to wonder where mine come from?

2. If you go to a posh party at a lovely villa up in the hills, don’t expect to ever come home again. There are NO cabs in the hills past 1 am. None whatsover. And none of the numbers work. At all. Expect to stay over and get a cab in the morning, as I did, narrowly avoiding missing my train home.

3. It’s going to be very strange going back to normality, and not having everything we do be documented. We got so used to being able to comment to the camera about what was going on, it’s now quite odd just being Lolly and Nat, brainstorming on our own, not suddenly finding an MTV lens in our face every five minutes! But I actually like it, it’s calmer…

4. Being up against 30 other talented teams from all around the world, all of them speaking different languages, it really was incredible that they all had to think and write in English, despite being from Nigeria, Agentina, all over… We were impressed, and more than a little humbled by their talent and their linguistic prowess. Seeing some of the final ideas that got entered, it really became clear that language is kind of irrelevant when it comes to ideas; that the greatest ideas are universal. I’m not saying anything new there, I know. I guess that’s what the Lions festival as a whole is all about. Either way, we’re definitely going back next year, so we’ll see you in the gutter bar. Or the I can’t believe it’s not gutter bar.

Lolly & Nat x

Oh and p.s. my visa card actually worked in the ATM. Thanks Lloyds, sorry I was a little harsh before.