I wake up at five. The sirens never stop but the rain finally has and the sun is shining. Outside my window a tree pushes it's way up to the 5th floor.
Now the clouds have lifted, the view from the roof looks north to Gramercy and East over Brooklyn Bridge.
After a leisurely breakfast at Cafe Orlin on the next block I have an hour to kill before registration at Village East Cinema so I snake my way around the backstreets between 1st and 3rd Avenues.
This place doesn't seem to really get going till lunchtime. Most of the backstreet shops have their shutters down.
I love the multi-culturism, people talking in every language. There also a load of crazy people wandering the streets. Everyone walks on by but I can't help stopping in my tracks and smiling at the madness. There's lots of homeless, and homes of cardboard on street corners. I've already given away a few dollars.
The Village East Cinema is on 3rd Avenue but it's less than 10 minutes walk. There's already a crowd gathering inside - mostly filmmakers and the people who are in the films - an Apache Indian and Texans walking around in Stetson hats and cowboy (and girl) boots.
I've got a prime slot for Live Before You Die 8:25 tonight on screen 3 - one of the bigger screens just before a feature which is sure to draw a crowd. Pony is up on Saturday night at 11pm Saturday on another big screen.
The first film of the festival O Grast Haj Ame is about Manoush gypsies in Hungary - I'm not sure if the translator got the subtitles wrong or its local veterinary practice but it contained the line "I put an onion into his ass and the winds come, so I save my horse".
After watching a beautiful film about reigning Quarter Horses, I manage to score a 2 day pass for Winston and drop it off at the apartment for him.
The streets are getting busy and as I walk past a bookstall on the side of the road I notice a boxed set of the Foxfire books. If you don't know them they are counter culture gold dust. We have some of the set at home but here's an immaculate set of Foxfire 4, 5 and 6. The lady says she's sorry to sell them but I tell her they are going to a home in England where they will be looked after and she smiles.
It's only day 2 and I already have presents sorted for Flo and Tash and I'm going home happy with the Foxfire books, whether my films win or not.
I'm speaking on a panel of International directors at 5:30. Sat next to me is a jockey turned filmmaker from, of all places, Wensleydale. Nathan and his DoP, Dave are on my level so after the talk we get a beer. Nathan still rides every day on Grand National winner Many Clouds.
There's some amazing films here. Black Turf - a true story about the black jockeys from the last century - and some really interesting people. They are all interested in the plight of Fell Ponies in Cumbria and I'm surprised how many people know the breed.
Then before I know it my short film Live Before You Die is on and it's a full house - even Winston has made it dressed (obviously) as Jon Snow Game Of Thrones. At the end I overhear people on the row behind and all over saying "Wow" and a Belgian director I'd met at the launch party asks me if the footage was shot in the 60's?
I hook up again with Nathan and Dave for a few beers in a bar on 2nd Avenue. Nathan says Live Before You Die is like the surfing film Dark Side of the Lens. I take that as a real compliment. If you haven't seen Dark Side of the Lens yet - watch it - today!
It's midnight so I head home, the streets are alive but I've had enough.
Home.
Bed.