also visit  my personal website   |   Books (Dutch)   |   Expedition Kilimanjaro   |   Somebody Had To Do It  

Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
« Previous reportAll reportsNext report »
Thursday, 31 May 2001
KissFM --> Isleworth, London (UK)

So after only two hours of sleep Bam Bam woke me up at 5.22 in the morning. I had to be ready to go in ten minutes. I took a shower and got downstairs, jumped into his Land Cruiser and with breaking all the laws (drive over 90m/h, ignoring traffic lights), we got at the studio at 5.59.

At 6am the Bam Bam Breakfast Show would start!

While Bam Bam was into his rush as every deejay on air is, I met his producer Moley and his sidekick Streetboy. The producer of the show does really everything, he even parks the cars of Bam Bam and Streetboy at the garage nearby.

After some good hot coffee a big box with about 20 donuts in it got delivered at the studio. Breakfast time!

Just experiencing Bam Bam presenting this whole fully awarded show on the most popular radiostation in the UK was really breathtaking; he is sooo fast! And everything goes so up-tempo.

Around 8 o'clock he took me in his show and we had a great time talking and laughing about a lot of things.

And after I put the phonenumber of the studio on this website, phonecalls came in from other parts in England, but also from this lady from Niagara Falls in New York-state, who listened to the show through the internet!

The idea came up to give me away on the air, to my next host. You can even listen to the MP3-file right now, just to hear the whole thing (thanks to Ludo).

So whoever called to the studio could invite me to stay-for-a-day at their place! Man! You should have seen that phonedesk blinking, unbelievable. Finally it was the 27-year-old Heidi Wood ('hello I am blond and single') who got assigned to be my next hostess. It was a little embarrissing but also pretty funny.

After his show, at 10 am, Bam Bam got in different important meetings, so I settled myself behind one of the computers in the building and started to read my emails and write reports.

With only two hours of sleep, it was very difficult to see those other people working hard and very alive!

Around three o'clock Bam Bam and I got back to his home. In the car he came with his idea around his gift.

At his house he gave me two crates of alcohol and a big sign saying 'letmestayforaday.com', which of course were too heavy to carry with me on my way to my next hostess.

That was just part of the game. Because Robin Banks, the afternoon deejay at KissFM, would follow me on air as he told his listeners where I was standing. Everybody who was listening could give me a hitch, but no longer than 10 minutes. Then they had to drop me off again...

Bam Bam dropped me off at the M25, the big ring road surrounding the London area, and of course with a big smile at the side of the road going the wrong direction!

Robin would call me every 10 minutes to find out if I had a hitch and followed my whereabouts until I would arrive at Heidi's home in Isleworth.

Image me standing at the side of the road - in the middle of a traffic jam! - and everybody is smiling big time at me! Some were even blowing the horn, because they heard me speaking on the radio at the same time. But most of them where just very stuck in traffic.

Percey Bulluck was the first to pick me up. He was driving this small Ford stationcar and with all the alcohol, my backpack and me, his -appearantly- his dad had to find his place in the crowded back of the car. Afert ten minutes they had to put me off and I thanked them.

Within a few minutes another car stopt, this time Lalji gave me a ride. After he spoke with Robin Banks on air, he got a lot of phonecalls from friends and family who heard him on the radio. 'Yes, indeed, I have him in my car right now!'.

At the next stop, I was getting closer to Isleworth, Bazz was my next driver to load the crates of alcohol in my car to the next stop 10 minutes later.

Here I got the last hitch from a group of young guys driving around town just to find me! They were really happy to have found me and got their few seconds on the radio too. When we arrived at Heidi's street, she just got out with her car and we nearly crashed.

'Hi, I am Ramon, your guest for tonight'.

She was really suprised to have me come over to her place with this complete radio-show-hype-thing around it. The guys from my last hitch all got a drink at Heidi's house and I finally relaxed on her couch...

But this relaxing could not take long. She took me to a local pub with her car, where I also met her two great girlfriends. I cannot remember if it was Lesley or Heidi who can talk sooo tooo much. It's even hard to keep up with sometimes.

I had to tell my great story a couple of times to other friends of Heidi, who are like regular costumers in that pub. They had a great laugh about everything.

We had some nice dinner at this pub (steak with blue cabbage!) and after dinner we said goodbye and Heidi and me got back to her apartment in Isleworth.

Finally I could recover from my minimum sleeping and around 10pm Heidi placed a big mattress in the livingroom, because we had to wake up at 4.45am again, for something different...

Goodnight Isleworth, London!

Ramon.




The press about letmestayforaday.com today:

News25.co.za (in English):
"Travelling via the Internet"

MaarIv.co.il (in Hebrew):
"טנרטניא תואלימרת"



Follow my tracks on Ludo's map! It's in Dutch, but you'll see a lot!


« Previous reportAll reportsNext report »