It's been a while since I last did a Learn and Live presentation - back in May I think.
So it was with some trepidation (regular readers will know that I like to use a few long words in my posts, just to keep them on their toes. If I've lost you already, just click on the word for a detailed explanation...) that I headed off last night to Halesworth with Rachael 'Princess' O'Connell to make two presentations.
We arrived at Halesworth Fire Station with plenty of time to spare before the first 'gig'. I moved the pump out of the appliance bay and we started to transform the empty space into a makeshift lecture theatre / cinema.
It seemed that most of the Halesworth crew then turned up to see the presentation and to help with crowd control. Unfortunately, the crowd control part of the job description wasn't required. Even sending an old fashioned press gang into Halesworth didn't get us any takers!
So, the first presentation was kept in house with the Halesworth crew being our audience. Only one of them had seen the presentation so it was a good dress rehearsal for us.
The press gang went out again and this time managed to 'persuade' eight young people to come along to the station.
I'd asked Stuart Hostler, the Sub Officer at Halesworth, to do a short welcome including where the loos are, that refreshments were available and that this was an operational fire station and what to expect if they got a shout. Over then to Rachael for our introduction section and then me for the main part. I'd hardly got into my flow when the turnout printer (right next to me) sprang into life followed quickly by about ten alerters all going off! A short interlude followed while the crew got their fire kit on and legged it out to the pump.
By the time we got to the section of road safety videos the pump was back. The crew quietly filed in and watched from the back. We wrapped up shortly after that with positive comments coming from our audience.
We're back there again tonight. Hopefully there'll be a few more takers this time.