It was Valentine’s Day and we were hoping for a good crowd despite the rapidly dropping temperatures. Our night began with two Scotsmen, one in tartan trousers, who were glad of some hot drinks. They turned out to be band members of ‘The Stumble’ and they’d just played the Hub covering Fleetwood Mac songs.
Marcus, our homeless friend was camped out just along from us on Bird Street. He wandered over for a hot drink. He informed us that he had got rid of a big rat on his boat at Fradley but was now having trouble with his gas heater in the cold. What did he do? Smiling, he said, he put on an extra pair of socks.
Two volunteer walkabouts (male & female) reported that all was ‘all quiet on the western front’. A cold breeze had started up and someone said they could see white bits in the night air.
Could we pass the 10 cups of tea or coffee we had handed out so far? Two Nepalese waitresses from the Shokudo Japanese restaurant opposite came over to help us past that target. One kind passer-by refused a drink but pressed a financial donation into our hands. As midnight loomed our favourite customer, Bobby, turned up for his security shift: he had two cups of well-sugared tea and returned with some very welcomed hot chips shortly afterwards, although it was almost too cold to take off our gloves to eat them!
As we decided that it was time to pack up, things suddenly livened up. A group of lads arrived- one with some very fetching tattooed arms in just a T shirt. One volunteer suggested he had his ‘Beer shirt’ on but apparently there was another answer. He asked what’s better to take: cocaine or anti-depressant drugs? For him it was the former as the ‘hit’ lasted longer.
A 'higher power' was mentioned by a volunteer from his own experience of a miraculous healing but this was laughed at by those around him..
The team packed up and reflected that despite almost huddling together in order to keep the cold out, some lives had been shared and a few laughs had been had throughout the night. We shared out the few remaining heart-shaped sweets that had been brought along for Valentine’s Day, then headed for base and then home (dreaming of warm beds).