Meryl, Caleb, Tori and Michael returned from their Tribe Tour 2002 to Germany and the UK in Febraury.
This week we have a special diary from Hannah Crisp in the U.K who won a competition to meet the cast while they were in London.
It was a rainy Friday in January and I had just been playing sports in the dark for hours and hours on end! I was quite obviously not in such a good mood and I sat in the car cold and miserable.
As I sat listening to some music trying to warm up my mum started yelling at me. She said that I took up too much of her time! This confused me slightly because I wasn’t sure exactly what had caused this. She then told me that she’d have to take Tuesday week off work too to fuss around my needs. At this point I actually thought my mum had gone mad- I was at school that day!! So I asked her exactly what she meant.
In an angry tone she told me that she’d had a “disturbing” phone call from a woman named Niki that afternoon. I listened intently as she carried on, and then with a big smile on her face she told me that I had been requested to go and have lunch with the Tribe Cast at the Rainforest Café after winning the Channel 5 Tribe menu competition a few weeks back!! From then on I looked forward to the moment I would meet them!!
On the Tuesday, living near London anyway, I didn’t need to wake to early, unlike the other winner, Sophie who travelled for hours from Leeds. So I dropped my jealous sister off at school, and said goodbye as she reminded me to get autographs for her. As our train time grew nearer my Mum and I got ready to travel to Kings Cross where a taxi was going to be waiting. When we arrived we were a little unsure of where to wait due to road works in the area, and so we stood for around half and hour in the cold, excitedly waiting. Then we received a call from Channel 5 telling us we were in the wrong place!
Running late, yet still happy to be there, Sophie and myself got talking about our menus and getting to know each other so that we felt more comfortable in the restaurant. We were assured that the cast were running late too, but even so when we got there we could see the cast waiting at the table, and they looked to be enjoying themselves.
As we approached the table Michael stood up and introduced himself, which prompted Meryl to tell him we probably already knew who he was! Then Caleb and Tori moved up so we could sit with the cast and we set about ordering our food. They were all really nice and we were immediately talking about the Tribe and series 4 as they actually haven’t seen the series and don’t remember what they filmed! As the meal went on the conversation rolled along and to be honest, there was more a problem with whether to choose “mojo bones” or “tiki chicken” than with what to say.
Everyone was in a really gleeful mood- Mikey was having a fight with himself over which glass had coke & which had Pepsi, Meryl and Saranne (the cast chaperone) were having a talk about movie stars they liked, Tori talked about Atlantis High and Caleb tried to keep mine and Sophie’s chaperones happy too!!
The best bit was seeing the cast out of tribe characters. I got to see a little bit more about the real person and their relationships with one another – they are truly the best of friends! Michael and Meryl were having friendly little fights across the table, and at one point Meryl tried to involve me to solve the debate- does Michael look like a choirboy?!
As the main course finished, Michael got us dessert menus, insistent that we all had one! Then Tori nearly got lost taking the wrong door at the toilets.
When we had finally finished eating we all headed out to the bar, where the cast signed autographs and took pictures. We all got quite blinded as we had Saranne, my mum, Sophie’s mum and a Channel 5 photographer taking pictures of us! Then Sophie had to catch her train while I waited a little longer with the cast.
They told me how much they were really enjoying the tour before we finally went upstairs to leave. In true celebrity style, there was a people carrier with blacked out windows waiting for the cast to drive them to the hotel, and I said my final goodbyes, hugging each cast member and thanking them for a great day.
Now it’s passed, I can still remember it vividly because I know it was a day I will never forget.
Hannah Crisp
14, London UK