Dom Pannell's Blog

COC 2007 - Day One

Well, that went smoothly.

No hassles. That's it. Very little to report. Centre 2 functioned well today.

I started at 7am (OK, 7.10am... I was late!) and by half-past had kitted myself out with a walkie-talkie and was manning the main gate ready for the general volunteers who start at 7.45. Actually, it's the only entrance, so all guests, volunteers and deliveries come through the same door (there are alternative fire exits).

While I was helping drivers unload their deliveries, the 100 or so other volunteers were busying themselves putting final touches to the rest of the centre, so that it was ready to receive guests at 2pm.

We made a particular effort to ensure that surrounding streets did not suffer from litter caused by guests (or anyone else for that matter) and teams of volunteers, wearing gloriously vibrant yellow Crisis tabards roamed the area picking up rubbish. Luckily there was no evidence of any groups hanging round.

Unusually, the centre was very quiet and we only had 35 people queuing up to come inside by the time we opened. This wasn't the case at the other 'open' centre on the City Road, which had reached capacity by 3.30pm and had to shut its doors. As a consequence, a couple of dozen guests came over, taking us closer to full capacity.

The most excitement was caused when a delivery of fridges and freezers arrived and had to be unloaded - an industrial-strength freezer was extremely heavy and just one inch short of being too large to fit through the building's doors, but after a major effort, a team of volunteers man-handled it up to the kitchen on the fourth floor.

The mood was light-hearted and there weren't any real incidents of any sort.

Roll on Day Two.

I won a prize this week

for being the best dressed bloke at a 1920's themed fancy dress party.

Here I am. Dashing or what?

It was held at the Soho Revue Bar, which I thought was a wonderful venue. Mind you, as it was hosted by my beloved employer, there was a free bar...

Crisis Open Christmas 2007

So it starts tomorrow - actually later today.

I have now visited Centre 2, where I'll be based for the next 8 days, to have a look around and get my bearings.

It's 10 Maltravers Street, close to Embankment tube station. In the past it has been the home of the HMCS as well as a mixture of consultancies and other businesses.

On the plus side, there's a manned reception area, the building is centrally heated and is in pretty good nick. Here's a photo of the main day area as it was being set up.

On the downside, there's a manned reception area, the building is centrally heated and it's split over five floors with no lift - at least it will be good for people's cardio fitness... There's one floor for services (medical, housing advice, dependency, clothing, hairdressing, etc), one that will be a general day area with cinema, another for dining, one that has been fitted with showers and finally a floor for volunteers to take breaks between tasks.

There's also quite a low limit on the number of guests we can allow in the building at any one time (150) and since I'll be heading up the welcoming committee at the main (only) entrance for at least the first half of the week, it falls to me to tell people they can't come in. Nice.

I'll try to post more during the week, paying special attention to what is served to eat* but now, I'd best head to bed - I have to be up in five hours...

*for Graham and Sheelagh's benefit

Laptop woes episode 43

The keyboard isn't working properly

Blogging less often as a result

Santacon UK 2007

Santacon UK 2007 was yesterday

I'll write it up with photos shortly-while you're waiting go here to see really funny Santa photos

It was fun!

Hard luck Hatton

It seems that 2007 is a year of British near misses.

Ho hum.

Two posts removed

I've removed a couple of posts relating to Crisis Open Christmas (COC).

This is because Crisis contacted me and asked me to do this. Apparently, while nobody is questioning the veracity of the posts, the presence of the content was not helping negotiations aimed at securing centres for COC 2007.

Obviously, I wish to support Crisis in their aims, so I agreed to pull the posts.

Note to those who posted comments, specifically Adam, Samantha, Jenni and Lydia - your points were taken on board by me and (I trust) others who read them. I apologise that by removing my posts, I also removed what you said.