As the weather starts to turn from the Med climate of June/July and Aug to the traditionally British Autumn temperatures, our team break out the, by now iconic, orange Hi-Vis jackets that many late night City visitors have come to know (and to be fair, respect). Well itself City was already in full swing by the time we arrived to set up shop.
There appeared to be a lot of (mostly younger) people hanging around by the Brewhouse and Kitchen in cowboy themed attire (hats, boots etc). As a couple of them approached our table for a drink, we were informed that it was someone's mum's significant birthday and the party was about to begin in the Brewhouse's upstairs room - trouble was one of the party goers had not got the email about the fancy dress theme so had turned up in their regular Saturday night drinking apparel. But, all was not lost as our creative team members got on the case and proceeded to create a cowboy hat out of one of our vomit bowls and some elastic that ties our flip flops together - talk about Blue Peter inspiration! And so Keiran, (the lad in question), could go to the ball...er I mean party after all. He went away an extremely happy partygoer.
Speaking of flip flops, we seemed to be giving out more than usual this particular night, each recipient expressing almost overwhelming gratitude to be able to walk in relative comfort once more. The newly refurbed and newly opened, Bar Home (previously the popular dance place, Walkabouts), seemed a bit on the quiet side until much later when a small queues began to form.
It was looking to be a very lively night with the observation that a lot more younger people seemed to be about (a trend we have noticed over the last three LNL shifts). We DO like the young people that approach our table, they are almost always polite and generally can't believe that we do what we do as volunteers. Three lads came up for drinks who were on the cusp (age-wise) of not being eligible to legally get into a pub (though I guess it wasn't that they never tried - just casting my mind back to being their age and doing just that)... it does seem that many of the pubs in the City have adopted either an over 21 or over 25 age limit policy which obviously has an impact on the 'just turned 18 year olds' who feel they have waited all this time to be able to legally drink and then struggle to find a place that will let them in....it is a bit of a social conundrum!
At a later point we heard a crashing sound coming from the corner of St John Street and The Friary, a young lad on a 'dirt' bike had clipped a bollard and gone over bike and driver parting company on the road... the people all standing around that area, unhelpfully, jeered, cheered, laughed and took photos of the lad's misfortune. One of our team went over to see if he was ok, as did a young lady. The rider was clearly embarrassed and desperately turning his engine over trying to get it started again.... we did notice that he had dropped an unopened six-pack of beers a bit further back (one wonders if he wasn't driving one-handed and clutching the beers in the other hand!!) after wheeling the bike over to the other side of the road and out of the glare of his mostly, mocking audience - and with the help of someone else, he managed to get it started again and rode off back down The Friary and, to our amazement, with no lights on!
A young gentleman came over to us and said what we were doing was wonderful (or words to that effect) and that he worked in Birmingham helping out others less fortunate than him. He insisted on giving us a quite generous donation...some people have such kind hearts!!
One of the males in our team had offered to watch the car belonging to the DJ doing the Cowboy themed party at the Brewhouse, whilst he brought his gear down bit by bit. This same team member, later on, was caused to intervene in a potentially aggressive spat between a man and one of the homeless guys who had placed himself not far from Bar Home. The situation was gently defused by our team member (later joined by another of the team for support) and the homeless guy packed up his stuff and left, whilst we allowed the other fellow to express what had made him so angry.
Another young adult stopped by and sat in one of our chairs for some time, having his coffee. He was curious about what we did and why and a lengthy conversation ensued, where he spoke of living with his mum in Alrewas, his short time in the army, his current role within the Care Industry and generally about us looking out for each other.
Our complimentary chips arrived and so did a number of folk requiring coffees, which we duly served whilst beginning to pack stuff away....another night of Listening over!