Info Tour Blog # 4
MANCHESTER:
We arrived in Manchester right after our Liverpool talk and had a lovely couple of nights at the Equinox co-op with some good friends.
The meeting itself fell victim to some great competition, there were 2 or 3 other important meetings on, student elections were in full swing and the OKasional Café Social Centre was also open and showing a film, but nevertheless we managed to attract around a dozen people which provided a good discussion and potential plans to do more in future. We visited the OKasional Café after, to hang out with some Manchester activists, leave some TSN information and also more importantly, to play table tennis outside.
Our evening was completed by a dip in a makeshift hot tub which appeared to be made out of the bottom half of a Giant’s watering can but it was of course very relaxing and we went to bed happy.
EDINBURGH:
We set off pretty early for Scotland, as it was a long drive. It was the day that we would meet Yamuna’s half-way replacement, Aidan, who was arriving a couple of days before Yamuna sadly departs so he can learn the ropes (we have become a well-oiled info tour machine).
The talk in Edinburgh took place at the Church of Saint Augustine. There was a good balance of people who had actually been at Dale Farm, people who were interested in getting involved, and even a few who currently work with Travellers and wanted to voice their support and find out about what TSN are doing. We had a good discussion after the talk which focused on the Scottish laws regarding Gypsy, Roma and Travellers. A good time was had by all that evening and we left the next morning early to Glasgow to seek out (more) deep fried foods and a very special board game…
GLASGOW:
Jenni and Jacob at the Glasgow meeting...
Exciting times for the new kid on the proverbial TSN info tour block as Aidan steps in to write his first entry for the blog… We arrived in Glasgow extra early today in order that members of the crew could get their much-needed fix of the totally awesome if slightly imperialistic board game “Settlers of Catan” which involves players competing for resources in order to colonise the Island fastest. After eating a small pile of various fried food from the takeaway (standard practice both on this tour and in Glasgow) and doing varied amounts of admin work we headed off to the meeting in Glasgow’s Kinning Park area.
The meeting itself was fairly small, though very active, with people sharing their experiences and interactions of the local Roma community and a small group coming together to discuss things that could be done in the local area to help with localised racism towards these communities. Emails were shared, and a further local meeting is planned, with some people particularly keen to organise something for Roma Nation day on 8th April.
It’s Deep Fried Pizza For Breakfast today before we head to the Toon.
