1) 8th March 2025.
It was a fairly quiet evening in the city centre this Saturday. Our team had good conversations with a variety of people enjoying a good night out. We were asked about how Late Night Listeners operated by a group of Rugby players. They were from Derby and keen to set up something similar in that city. We greeted Caroline on our walkabout. She is often there on her own on Saturdays and cuts a lonely picture. As usual there were those insisting on paying for their hot drinks and making grateful donations despite our protestations. This gave us opportunities to explain why we were there though and that we were all volunteers. The dispensing of drinks and clearing up was aided this night by the use of brand new drip trays for the pump flasks. Hot chips from Bobby was an added bonus to end the mild night that turned chillier after midnight.
2) 28th March 2025
Continuing the exploits of five volunteers looking to serve their local community on the night time streets of leafy Lichfield, the team launched off into a relatively Spring-like late evening. As the night kicked into gear, it became very evident that the mood of the night-time public was also somewhat muted and, and dare we say it, even tranquil?
Reactions towards us (as the night proved to evidence) was a mixture of the complimentary, surprise that there was such a thing as us and blatant thank you's for who we are, what we do and for giving up our own time in order to do it. We are always humbled by people's heartfelt appreciation. In addition, we were the recipients of one person's gratitude as they emptied their purse of coins into our hands while not even wanting a drink or anything in return... We are constantly amazed at the generosity of the general public.
It was a bit of a surprise (and slightly amusing) to us that, after the Council had erected signs along the pedestrian area stating that there was to be no parking 'at any time', in front of us was a big white transit van and parked opposite him a row of cars. The van we decided belonged to a DJ who was servicing a party upstairs at The Kitchen & Brewhouse and the cars mostly belonged to 'Just Eat' type delivery guys, although a big 4x4 parked right in front of us turned out to be the car of a couple of people who were at said party. It all came to a bit of an impasse when the police asked us if we knew who the white van belonged to - we duly voiced our suspicions and they promptly entered the party venue to get the 'white-van man' to move his white van as the Police's van could not get through! We are really hoping that once the right of entry to the pedestrian area by motorists who often use it as a convenient 'car park', is limited to those who hold a key fob or have legitimate reasons to park there, then the safer and more hassle-free the area would become... rant over!!
A couple of visitors to the City (specifically to sample the delights of Tom Shepherd's UPSTAIRS restaurant) from Shropshire way were intrigued as to what we were all doing and went on to add to the accolades and to question why other towns and Cities don't have a community service like LNL. As we had BID coordinator, Paul stop by at the same time, the couple were treated to a brief verbal tour guide of all the best bits the City has to offer.
A gentleman decked out in 'snapback' hat and carrying two bottles of beer barged his way behind us and, in a rather abrasive and uncalled for manor, threw our plastic First Aid kit out of the way of the door behind us whilst mumbling as to what we were doing in front of his premises. Turned out that he is the owner of the Tattoo Parlour which we set up in front of for each shift. After fumbling around for a while (under the startled and somewhat awkward gaze of five, hi-viz jacketed people) he eventually found his keys and went in. We decided he wasn't going to get any future business from us after that rather ill-mannered promotional introduction!
A very much kinder man called Brad wanted to buy us all something from Millenium Chicken, we did say to him that via our wonderful security guy, Bobby, we were always offered a box of chips towards the end of the night... well blow me if he doesn't come out with a large Margherita pizza and insists we all have a slice... we are so grateful that he is grateful!
Towards the end of our shift, as we packed down, two ladies came by, again, wanting to know what we did and let us know how awesome we were and the difference we were making to people's lives!! To be fair, they were a little on the 'merry' side as they duly informed us of their roles working for the NHS and that this was a night out for them to let it all out! - bless their hearts!
All of a sudden it was that time again when our regular pattern emerges..... Bobby, chips, packdown PLUS the sudden realisation that we all lose an hour's sleep when we get home, but hey, that's just how we roll!