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 web with the help of our new Inmarsat BGAN. That’s a satellite modem in lay terms. All this technology is beyond me. Basically our BGAN means we can hook up to the net anywhere, as long as the unit can ‘see the sky’ and talk to the nearest available satellite. And to think that a few years ago I could hardly send an email.
Neither of us has really started packing properly and there is equipment strewn all over the house—GPS units, the BGAN, DV tapes, cameras, water filters, maps, guide books (I think we need a special bookshelf in Ting Tong to accommodate our fleet of weighty travel tomes), insect repellent,WD40, Ultraseal, solar panels…it’s amazing all the weird and wonderful things we have to take with us. Luckily, Jo’s pa Bob is coming to see us off in Bangers so we can give him some of our equipment and thus avoid being stung for excess baggage.
Wednesday was possibly the maddest day of my life—here’s how it went:
| 7 a.m. | Drag ourselves out of bed. Jo and I are both rubbish in the mornings. |
| 7.30 a.m. | Live interview with BBC Southern Counties Radio. |
| 8 a.m. | BBC breakfast reporter and cameraman rock up to do a piece on us and Skype for the news. |
| 10.30 a.m. | Meet Colin Cameron from the Financial Times for an interview. He’s doing a piece in the November How to Spend It magazine on ‘adventure philanthropists’. |
| 12 p.m. | Haircut. Essential! |
| 5.30 p.m. | Get to the Cobden Club for our Skype Press launch. Jo’s forgotten to wear a bra and they want us to wear white Skype T-shirts. |
| 6 p.m. | Press launch. |
| 8 p.m. | Our Tuk Off launch party starts. |
| 2 a.m. | Bed…yawn! |
I’m still feeling grotty and have a filthy cold, which is not ideal.
Thanks again to everyone who has helped us so far. You’re all amazing, and none of this would have been possible without you.
