Mammouth Update from the Road!

Here is an update from our lovely roadie team, as we’ve had zero time to breathe it’s a 4 month all in oner! enjoy!

Tales from the road…

ok…where to start? I am not too sure. Therefore the following might be a ‘wee’ bit of a ramble (my Scottish slang sneaking its way in there). Well, we have had a brilliant four months of tour, shamelessly throwing flyers out the window of the van to confused onlookers would be one of our many proud awareness raising moments for I.C!  

In the southern parts we have visited the likes of Cambridge, where between screenings we rediscovered the joys of the free museum entry..including the Zoologoy Museum where we all agreed with the comment left by Helen aged 6 and three quaters that our ‘Favorut was the big sloth’. Also featured in the southern region of our travels was Oxford, Eton, and the wonderful Heathfield School. Lizzy is still raving about the reaction at Eton and after Heathfield us three Roadies were practically bouncing off the walls..their enthusiasm was awesome. So great in fact we went on a celebratory jaunt into Windsor to wave wildly at the Queen and get our photo taken with some policemen. We also gave some stirling I.C chat to the man working in the Fudge Kitchen on the high street..who in turn has officially (although you might not know it yet) renamed fudge to ‘Sweet Slabs of Justice’ in our honour! Some what overly confident in our happiness, Cameron insisted we film him jumping over a gate in the middle of the pedestrian high street. Underestimating the gate and its potential to swing out and subsequently ‘ruin his life’. Chris and I were practically crying with Laughter. Yes, I have it on film!!  

Lizzy (my big, although rather small in physical size Sister) and I were lucky enough to join forces during tour and visit our old school, King’s School Canterbury. The upper sixth weren’t even at the school when I left in 2005. Very strange and made me feel old..but to be fair probably made Lizzy feel like a granny being another school generation older!  

Further afield, the Roadies headed to Cardiff where the support for I.C is what can only described as ’off the chain’, we hung out with Lea a previous I.C intern at the London office and a “fabulous one at that” - quote Ami Anderson. As well as Adam, Trigg and Cosimo (Shout out to the boys of Cardiff..whoop whoop etc.etc.). Luckily Cardiff fell on a thursday so the post screening curry at 4.99 incl drink at the local ‘poons fell like putty into our hands..

We took part in Carmel College’s ‘One World Day’ and were a part of a jam packed day of events with a variety of other speakers from different organisations, which was fab!  We also headed to Birmingham where the students at Park View were getting involved in a T-shirt design competition to raise money. We are really looking forward to seeing the winning design guys! *Sigh…..Durham…Sigh*..just awesome! I smile when I think of Durham because of these two fabulous people: Fabiana and Adam. They pulled out all the stops to achieve a beyond successful screening at Durham Van Mildret College and it was brilliant. We knocked about with all the dressed up (and the not so dressed) society social groups heading out for a night on the town, who still gave up some of their time to come to the screening and speak to us! Fabiana and Adam are still doing amazing things around their university to get the word out and raise the profile of Invisible Children at Durham.  

Last but, definitely by no means least,.. we have the Scotland leg!! Cameron, the guardian of the van drove us around Scotland like a trooper..while Chris either sang/danced or snored in the passenger seat (equal percentage of the three I’d say) and I laughed outragiously at everything and anything. We caught up with all our wonderful contacts and Ambassadors such as those at Peebles High School, St Andrew’s University, St Margarets, Alva Academy, Carnoustie and Gordonstoun. At St Andrew’s the UGLY committee, whos continued support has been simply amazing, were ready for another onslaught of I.C merch and media with many new faces in the crowd too! At St Margarets we had a post screening sing along to ‘I got Soul’ which was definitely a Roadie moment to remember! At Carnoustie we were welcomed with fabulous news, they had not only raised money for us by putting on a charity concert but they had also been awarded a charity partnership award with Invisible Children!! We were so proud to accept the award and to have talked to all the students and teachers who were involved en masse at the RESCUE event in Edinburgh! At Gordonstoun some of the 6th form girls, headed up by Tolu and Daisy had organised a Masquerade ball and raised nearly £2000 for Invisible Children, again another very proud moment for the I.C Europe team and we had the honour of accepting the cheque at Sunday mornings assembly at the school. Later in the morning we held a screening for the 6th form. Having already seen the RESCUE we decided to screen Sunday, and I have to say it was one of the best screenings I have ever sat through. Everyone was so involved while watching the film, and I remember Cameron getting all emotional about it (haha..sorry but you did!). After the screening Gordonstoun 6th form went ‘Merch’ crazy and it was brilliant to get such an amazing level of support from every single person who attended the presentation!


Unfortunately when there are highs there are inevitably lows…a low which was undeniably caused by ME! So, about 20 minutes after I suggest I drive the first leg of the journey back from Elgin to Glasgow I manage to bump into another car, crack the radiator, have it towed and subsequently strand us in a 24hr Tesco’s where we attempted to pass the time waiting for Euan (I.C Biffy Clyro Tour Liason, your Legendary status deserves the bold sort of font!), who kindly offered to drive 5 hours from Glasgow to Elgin to pick us up. We got talking to Moira, a Tesco’s coffee shop worker who once hearing our sorry tale and without any hint of hesitation invited us back to her house to wait for Euan. We spent three long and what can only be described as uncomfortable hours sitting in Moira’s front room drinking tea, which she assured us had been made without the addition of white-powder. In fact she invited us to watch her make it just so we could make sure! Half expecting to start falling out of consciousness Cameron frantically dished out address details so that we could be easily located. Unfortunately Chris at this point had tonselitus and therefore missed this dramatic episode but he fondly recalls a paniced phone call from Cameron around half an hour before Euan arrived!! Euan a special shout out to you, your seedy sat nav and playing twenty questions all over Scotland!!    

All in, we have had far too many wetherspoons, Mc Donalds and Subways to count but our diet has some how resulted in dramatic weightloss on both the boys parts…the same cannot be said for myself. Why is this girls? I do not have the answer!