Went straight from work to the Heelands Meeting Place to help set the hall up armed with the Labour Party membership forms given to me by Cllr Kevin Wilson to put out on each chair.
I met Andrew Pakes outside the meeting place along with Pete Marland who turned up by taxi, followed by the caretaker who opened the building up.
We all agreed to put the top table at the rear full length windows rather then the full length windows to the front to avoid any possible onlookers walking by, then we proceeded to get the chairs in a horse shoe formation out along also with Co-op Party membership forms (provided by Pete Marland) to be put out on each chair.
Pete asked me to ensure to direct latecomers to any spare seats at the end of the seating rows so I stood outside holding the door open welcoming every one in to the meeting, it got tricky with people parking along Glovers Lane and the local centre car park once the meeting place small car park was full.
Andrew Pete and Kevin were with me outside when Ed Milliband (open shirted and no tie) and his team arrived he shook us all by the hand, and then asked if there was a spare room he could use to put his tie on, which Andrew then escorted him to the room nearest the main hall, as I was still outside I saw the curtain pulled back where he must of been using the window as a reflection to make sure his tie was straight could of been quite a surreal sight if anyone at the point was walking by.
As I was still welcoming latecomers in and ensuring somehow that they could stand somewhere (as by that time all seats were taken and the room was filled to the max must of been 80 plus there in all) so I did not really have a chance to hear what Ed had to say, and I was constantly looking at the door in case any one else arrived (things got a bit tricky trying to help a lady in with her motorised scooter at one point.)
Ed was asked a range of questions on his bid for the Labour Leadership but one questioner stuck in my mind an 11 year old called Daniel who asked how the environment can be saved without damage to the economy and could he multi task, as an aside to this young Daniel bless him got very nervous at the start and could not get his question out and so Ed asked his name which he did so and he said it was a very good name as that was the name of his son which totally put him at his ease and away he went.
Ed took questions in blocks of 4 and kept taking more and more questions but his team were giving him looks to say time was up but he said he would carry on even though he would not be very popular with them.
Just before the meeting broke up I was asked to take the bucket and catch people before they were leaving for donations which I quite enjoyed with Ellie's help we raised over £140 (which she was counting on the floor after everyone left) Ed meanwhile was having photograhs taken and chatting with wellwishers.
As he was leaving he asked Andrew if he felt it went well and talked about the battlebus and how it wasn't very comfortable to travel in and his team often drove to meetings instead and were looking forward to get something to eat by now it was 9:30pm.
Once they left we all went out through the back door and through the bins area to the gate whiched opened out to the car park at least I did not have far to go home!
Afterwards my evening got really surreal, got home and there was a mailshot from Ed Milliband's Campaign Team, then switched on my mobile phone and there was a message left asking if I will be supporting Ed Milliband from his campaign's volunteer telephone bank what are the odds of that happening in one evening!
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