Blog of Norman Ralph

Today was the fisrt day of Rationalist Week. It is also the second day of my end of holidays binge. It is nearly 6.30pm and I have just sat down in my own home for the first time since 10.30am yesterday!

I set out to pick up a kettle and some other bits ond bobs for Rationalist Week from Tesco, then spent the whole of Sunday afternoon helping set the tents and stuff up ready for opening today. It was hard work in the baking heat, but the six of us made relatively short work of what was basically a massive job. We put two 6m X 3m tents up, fetched the generator and tested it with the PA system and the cooking equipment, we put up all the displays and set out the 4 tables and 20 chairs. We ended up in the Old Bar for some liquid refreshment. I left at 12.30am with B!! I was very, very drunk.

My alarm went off at 8.30am this morning, I threw it across the room! At 9.45 I eventually rolled out of bed and down to the petrol station to get fuel for the generator. I then met Chris to start hauling the kit from Ellerslie down to outside the Union. This is not an easy task and has to be done twice every day, once in the morning to set up and once in the evening to pack away!

I spent the day helping out in the tent, sorting drinks, chatting to the various guests - including a Rabbi and a vicar!

I think the day went really well, apart from the minor mishap with the generator - which broke - we enjoyed a fairly decent turn out and got some good feedback as well as lively debate. I reckon we got about 30 people through the door, about half of which sat down and got involved in the speeches, talks and debates. We even ended up getting three new members! All in all, it was definitely a success. Even if it doesn’t get any busier we will have made enough of an impact to justify the expense and time. People are talking about us now.