I’m writing this post from my room in an old, elegant hotel on Broadway, New York. Spring sunshine, streaming in through the window is broken up by the wooden blinds, casting fragmented light and shadows across the smooth floor.

We arrived in New York yesterday. We’re here as part of the Reel Abilities Film Festival which screens films relating to disability right across the city. Our film, Me, My Mouth and I, which we made last year, was chosen to be in the programme.

Our film has been part of other festivals but this is the first time we’ve been invited to be involved as well. I’m really excited to share it with new audiences. We made it to provoke conversations, so it feels right that after each of the three screenings here I’ll lead a question and answer session.

The first screening is this evening and I can’t wait. My support worker Jen and I are here until Sunday, so that’s just five days. We’ve got a busy schedule but with lots of rest breaks included. Leftwing Idiot is with us, but he’s going to stay on in the US for a holiday after we leave.

One of the best bits about being back in New York is meeting up with friends who live here and in a few minutes I’m going to head downstairs to the lobby for my first catch-up session.

My tics are acclimatising to the city too, weirdly repeating the name of an American pharmacy chain over and over again. I would never have guessed the variety of ways you can say “Duane Reade” but it seems there are a lot!