Tuk-Tuk to the Road. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
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proposal to sponsor our flights, asking us what dates we wanted to fly, telling us they loved the idea, etc., etc. Now, 16 days before we leave, the company says no. Grrrr! But have no fear, for we’ve found some cheap flights via Kuala Lumpur on the afternoon of 20 May.
We have had some luck on the sponsorship front,however,with Liftshare and Activair. Both have kindly provided us with financial sponsorship in return for having logos on Ting Tong. The great thing about having Liftshare on board is the fact that they tick the Big Green Box. The next thing to consider is how we can make our trip carbon-neutral—perhaps Future Forests could sponsor us by planting enough trees to negate the effect of our trip on the environment.
On a rather different note, Jo and I would like to send all our thoughts and love to the families of two very special people: Rose and Livs. Both girls were great friends of ours and tragically are no longer with us. I know that they would have approved of our madcap three-wheeled adventure, and we will be thinking of them often over the next few months.
Only ten days to go until we get on a plane to Bangkok, and tuk tuk fever is setting in. I feel like I have written a thousand letters recently, telling people about our mission and asking them to support us and, more importantly, Mind. Luckily the response has been great and more and more cheques arrive daily. We’ve still got a massive amount of fundraising to do before we hit our £50 000 target, but I think a lot of people will donate when we are actually on the road. I guess our mission has to be begun to be believed. I still don’t believe it’s happening, so why should anyone else?
The past few days have been an astonishing testament to the power of cyberspace. A few weeks ago Jo got in touch with a guy called John who lives in Bangkok and runs www.khaosanroad.com. John put our story on his site’s home page and within 24 hours three more potential sponsors and several travel magazines and websites contacted us. One of these is Travelfish (www.travelfish.org), a brilliant site all about travelling in South East Asia. Ting Tong is now going to be sporting a Travelfish sticker, and a story about our mission will soon be gracing their pages. Gapyear.com (www.gapyear.com) also contacted us and is going to feature our blog on its site and help publicise the trip. Suddenly it feels like it’s all happening.
Mind Week starts this Saturday and then it’s our launch party on Wednesday. I’m vaguely terrified about the latter since between 6 and 7.30 p.m. Skype, one of our sponsors, has arranged a press launch at the Cobden Club for us and apparently there are journalists from the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Financial Times, handbag.com and various other publications coming along. Yikes! I used to find it hard enough to say anything at the South Bank Show departmental meetings, let alone open my mouth in front of an assortment of journalists.
I should be in bed getting a good night’s sleep to prepare for the hectic week ahead, but I am feeling sad right now. The trip is starting to feel very real and this next week is going to be a rush of acquiring more kit, fundraising, Skype press conference, launch party, etc. I feel like there’s too much to do and not enough time.
The reason I am feeling sad is because of my ferrets. The hardest thing for me is going to be leaving behind my 12 darling babies, knowing that if there is a problem I won’t be there to kiss and cuddle them. You might think I’m crazy, but if you’re an animal lover you’ll understand. Two of them are unwell at the moment: Zac has kidney failure and Pebbles has suddenly lost the use of her back legs and can’t go to the loo properly. It is quite likely that Zac will not be alive when I return, and Pebbles will probably have to be put to sleep next week if she doesn’t improve. Just writing this is making me cry.
I am at my mum and dad’s right now and am going to spend the day with them tomorrow, as it will be the last quality time I get with them before we leave.
Things seem to be taking off with regards to PR now, which is encouraging. I have done a couple of phone interviews today and was being asked loads of questions about my depression and self-harm and how it used to make me feel. It was strange to drag out old memories that I hadn’t visited for years. Why would I want to think how I felt when I used to cut myself or how my depression might have affected my family and friends? I didn’t expect it to bother me, but it has a little.
That’s another reason why my ferrets are so special to me. When I was really depressed they honestly were my lifesavers. Mum said that if I ever did anything, i.e. attempt suicide, then she would give my ferrets to the RSPCA. I know that she didn’t really mean it, but when I couldn’t handle any human affection my ferrets were always there to lick away my tears and comfort me in the middle of the night when I felt so desperate and scared. God, this is probably the most depressing blog to date, but it is just how I am feeling right now.
Anyway, I hope it is a sunny day tomorrow so that I can take off all my clothes and indulge my naturist tendencies in the back garden.
Could things get any more hectic, I wonder? With five days to go until we finally leave for Bangkok, Jo and I are running round like headless ferrets. This morning we’ve been getting together the final things for our launch party on Wednesday: organising the sound-checks with Santi, the sound engineer, talking to the singers and bands, finalising the guest list. Then there’s the Skype press launch to consider and the horrific thought of having to stand up in front of people and talk about what we are doing. I guess we had better get used to it.
Quite apart from the launch party, there’s equipment to be ordered and bought, insurance of the satellite modem to sort out, embassies to be written to, travellers’ cheques to be ordered. And to top it all, I’ve had a temperature for two days and have been lying in bed feeling utterly rubbish. Good timing, immune system!
With Mind Week and Lift Off just around the corner, it seems that the press are suddenly interested. Hannah, our PR guru at Skype, has been doing sterling work and it looks like our press launch on Wednesday might even have a few people there. Even the Sun is doing a piece (no, not Page 3, although I’m sure Jo would happily agree to any removal-of-clothing requests) in its health section, and Radio 5 Live apparently wants to do a series of interviews with us via Skype once we hit the road.
I hit Norwich yesterday in a bid to equip ourselves…and came back with tripods, digital cameras, a pink mobile phone, a cushty hoodie and some combat trousers. So lots more technology to get to grips with. Norfolk is looking so beautiful and verdant at the moment. I’m loath to leave. The cuckoo is out, the meadows are lush and the sky seems to get bluer by the day. It feels like the calm before the storm. In a weeks’ time, Jo and I will be in the maelstrom that is Bangkok—a hooting, sweating, filthy mêlée of people and traffic. Norfolk will seem a million miles away.
Back to bed now for more echinacea and super-vitamins. I need to get my strength back for the rigours of the week ahead.
I’m sitting here in Jo’s parents’ garden while she deposits her 12 ferrets around various parts of East Sussex, tapping away on the