Voluntary interview.

The highlight of the day wasn't the ironing but was the appointment at one of the selection centres for work as a volunteer for the Hull City of Culture 2017. The one I attended was held in the Ice Arena and there were slots of one hour for groups of fifteen through out the day. After finding my way upstairs my name was found on the list. You had to apply to be a volunteer months ago and write quite a comprehensive application, the details of what I had written I had mainly forgotten. You also had to choose one of the days and select a time slot, all electronically.

Hull Ice Arena, home of Hull Pirates Ice Hockey team.

My motivation for signing up and offering my services was that I am proud of where we live. I think it is distinctive and worthy more recognition outside of the immediate area. When I have mentioned that Hull is City of Culture 2017, as I have frequently at locks etc, I have suffered the usual comments along the lines of 'Hull, City of Culture, don't make me laugh!' It is that that I am hoping to dispel with those outside Hull. The City has lacked investment for many years. In fact I believe there are still two bombsites in the city that have laid undeveloped since the WWII. When I first moved back here with my Hull born and bred parents 38 years ago there were many more vacant sites making it look like the Luftwaffe and just left! In fact it would have looked a lot worse as it had the worse bombing of anywhere outside of London with something like 80% of the building damaged and not habitable. (Please don't quote me on that though).

This is the National Pictute Theatre on Beverley Road in Hull. It was bombed in March 1941 and still stands empty with the Swan pub next to it. There are plans to have it made into a memorial museum to the civilian dead etc of WWII. Lets hope that it can be made into something that will remain in use for a long time to come.

When we were shortlisted for the award of the Year of Culture. I felt that Hull would get the most out of winning it as it was a great way to restore the faith in the place. Kids seemed to have no aspirations for them selves or there place, adults were accepting and not thrusting. I am hoping that next year will make the citizens realise what can be done and take a hand in achieving things.

After the check in there was tea and biscuits and a chat with fellow applicants and with 'Pioneer Volunteers' who helped us through the process. First thing was to try on the 'uniforms, polo shirt, shorts, trousers, jacket and cap. They were all in black and the actual colours wont be revealed until later in the year. I have my fingers crossed that it wont be pink or similar!!! Once all that was recorded it was off to have your photo taken. This makes me think that I must be already selected, but no. Following that I had an interview with a young lass that went through my application and told what was going on and then asked about when I was available and what were my interests and what I would like to have a go at. It seems there is more training and extra training if you want it for all sorts of things. There is a little dilemma here as we have to balance wanting to volunteer for plenty of things and still get away on the boat. We have both blocked out July to September so we will be away then and we had already decided that we would explore 'up north' next year to make it easier to get home when required. After that it was back to check out to ensure that we had done everything we were supposed to. It seems that we will learn our fate by July 2nd and it could all start in September for the run in  to the big Year it's self.