As I often do for my posts I am going to dip once more into my past and remember yet another one of my remarkable experiences.

It was a winter's night in 1994, so probably only a month or two before that experience that nearly saw me succumb to hypothermia when my body was screaming that it needed to sleep in that sudden and unexpected snowstorm for which I was totally inadequately dressed for.

However, that was yet to come and it wasn't my only cold experience of that winter.

In a nutshell, what had happened was that two of my friends suddenly found themselves homeless and I was powerless to do anything about it, while my sympathies clearly lay with them. One of them was Mark, who had literally saved my life that time by dragging me off the train line. Incidentally, he called me on Friday night completely randomly and out of the blue and it was the first time we had spoken for the best part of twenty years with us being in different lives and environments nowadays. Made my day tbh.

The other, Shane, was of a similar age. The fact was that for whatever reason they had burnt their bridges in our hometown, but I had some contacts in another town that might be able to help them out. I couldn't leave them on the streets and besides we wanted to be on a 6am bus. The bus would then take almost two hours and we would see what happened from there.

The two guys had all their worldly possessions in a couple of small bags but also had two large duvets and a sleeping bag. Very late into the evening we walked the 2-3 miles into the city centre and I distinctly remember Shane carrying one of the duvets on his head almost like a turban. It made him almost twice as tall as he actually was. In the circumstances it was hilarious. By the time we got to the city centre the pubs were closed and it was almost deserted and so we quickly headed to the outdoor market area that would at least provide some shelter above our heads. We grabbed a stall each and tried to settle down. I had the sleeping bag and the other guys and a duvet each. It was already very cold and getting colder. We also felt incredibly vulnerable so each of us was armed with a can of deodorant and a lighter so we could improvise a flamethrower should the need arise. Pepper spray might have been a better option, but you work with what you have.

Sounds like MacGyver!

So there we were trying to get to sleep and all that was happening was that we were getting colder and colder. The covers we had seemed to make no difference whatsoever, but undoubtedly if we hadn't had them it would have been even colder. Sleep was elusive and so we just lay there freezing, but inevitably it must have caught us out and we all fell sleep.

Suddenly, I was awoken by a bright light in my eyes. Stunned, it took me a moment to figure out what was going on. A couple of police officers were checking us out. It was a very good job we didn't use our improvised flamethrowers! They asked if we were okay and I remember saying we were very cold, before asking them if they could arrest us. A warm cell would have been a better option. They said they couldn't because we weren't breaking any laws and so I asked what time it was and it was about 4am.

I honestly can't remember if we went back to sleep again that night, but whatever happened we were definitely alert and awake by 5.30 as the market traders arrived and started setting up. We dragged ourselves to the nearby bus station (literally 100 metres away) and as soon as we could we got on the bus. 

We slept for the entire journey, but fortunately where we were going was the end stop and so there was no chance of us missing it. Shane and Mark got themselves sorted out, but their landing turned out to be a tornado among my friends, but that is not my story to tell.

Once they were sorted I returned home, and almost certainly slept on the bus back too. I later found out that it was -13c that night, which by UK standards is very cold! Incidentally, the photo is the right place, but maybe 20 years before we slept there!

As always stay safe and well (and may I say warm too) my friends.