.....and so it transpired to be, yet another moderate tabard-wearing night-time for our team of 5...and it is amazing how many things that are so vital to the balance of our everyday functioning come in fives. Just think about it! Five toes on one foot, five vowels in the English alphabet (A, E, I, O, U), five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell)...five Late Night Listeners!!
It was a fairly lively night on the City's streets that we stepped out into, due mainly to the Tribute Band Festival in nearby Beacon Park just in the throes of coming to an end thus creating more human through-traffic than normal. One gentleman, who appeared to us to be homeless due to the number of bags he had with him, requested a coffee from us which he drank standing behind a nearby tree. A little later he came back for another, then later, another, then another, then another. When he approached the table for his sixth cup, it was suggested that he had probably had enough as we needed the coffee for other people throughout the night.... at this, he went back to the tree, picked up his bags and walked off into the night.... we were left hoping we had not offended him.
A couple of ladies came past and chatted with us before deciding they would wait for the taxi queue to reduce a bit and so sat themselves in our chairs. The one lady was quite open and spoke bluntly (well as bluntly as one who has had a few to drink might speak!), her friend spent some time trying to rebuke her for some of her blunt comments.... us? ...we were really quite used to this kind of conversation.
Another young lady (who, by her own admission, had also had a lot to drink) stopped to have a coffee. She initially was concerned that she had been pushed in one of the bars/pubs she had been in and seemed angry about that but then her wrath turned on people she was calling 'fascists' because they were in favour of Nigel Farage "anyone who votes for him is a fascist" she went on, trying to draw us into giving our views on the subject. When people's views on politics are mixed with alcohol, you just know it's going to be a heady outcome...and that is when the "Listeners' part of our name becomes emphasised! Her friend, who was needing to get home to her baby, was very insistent on her getting in a taxi NOW... which was a bit of a relief for us.
There was a minor bit of a do at the Millenium Chicken (our hot chips suppliers) which appeared to involve a young lady and her child (not sure of all the details). Simon was the stand-in security guy for our Bobby who was still on his holibobs, and he seemed to deal quite quickly with the incident and calmed things down. Local Councillor (and supporter of the LNL), Doug P stopped by for a brief chat... which was kinda encouraging.
A lovely group of young people who had been to the festival stopped by saying they can't believe we just give everything out for free. We do so often find that the most polite and respectful people tend to be the younger people! There was an extraordinary amount of financial generosity towards us throughout the night, with one person giving us a significant donation just because we were wearing Hi-Viz tabards... go figure!! Another affable lad called Sam stopped for a drink and realising what we did (Listening), proceeded to tell one of the team that he had been at the festival and had accidentally backed into a guy behind him who became very aggressive and an altercation ensued....he was about to give details when we had a rush of people wanting drinks and he had to go...shame! One of our team members went in to get our regular order of complimentary chips and as we were beginning to pack up, a young lady called Emily approached one of the team to ask how she could volunteer with us. It turned out she was starting her first year at Uni in September and wanted to do some volunteering alongside that. She was very insistent that she would be in touch with us and was duly presented with a LNL card with contact details on... We are always slightly skeptical about people who come up to us to ask about volunteering when they have had a drink or three as we have yet to have one remember in the days following to contact us as they said they would... we won't write her off but we also won't hold our breath too long.
"Time for bed" said Zebedee (mostly understandable by those of a certain age)