Amy Harpin: Today was a Follow That Fire Engine rollercoaster, there were highs, there were lows, there were times when we didn\u2019t know how to feel, and times when it felt like the \u2018luck of the Irish\u2019 was definitely starting to rub off on us.<\/p>\n
We started the day in Bangor, a cooked breakfast was gratefully consumed (on the FTFE 360 Tour you never know where your next meal is coming from so it\u2019s best to fill your boots when you can).\u00a0 It was another scorching hot day and we were sad to say goodbye to the beautiful countryside, you can definitely see why Ireland is fondly known as the \u2018Emerald Isle\u2019, as we headed for Belfast City centre.<\/p>\n
After a few dubious manouvers, which the duty traffic warden assured us were fine, we met with Macmillan representatives at Belfast City Hall.\u00a0 We were there to open the \u2018Macmillan Wig Walk\u2019 which funnily enough is a walk, that you do wearing a wig.\u00a0 We were presented with two green wigs, two blue wigs and I received a special silver one, lucky girl.\u00a0 Dave and Chris weren\u2019t sure they signed up for \u2018wig wearing\u2019 when they agreed to come on the FTFE tour, but as soon as they put them on they looked very at home.<\/p>\n
There were probably several hundred people taking part in the wig walk.\u00a0 James took the opportunity to do some FTFE canvassing, explaining to the \u2018wigs\u2019 why we were there and wishing them good luck with the walk.\u00a0 Dave soon realised talking to the public doesn\u2019t come so naturally, his opening line being, \u2018have you heard about the fire engine trip?\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s OK Dave, Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day.<\/p>\n
At 12 o\u2019clock the \u2018wigs\u2019 congregated at the corner of City Hall, behind Matha, and it was \u2018on your marks, get set, HORN!\u2019 as we sounded the horn and the sea of green and blue wigs set off on their mission around Belfast.\u00a0 It really was a pleasure to be involved in such a great fund raiser.<\/p>\n
As we left Belfast we were lucky enough to attract a Follow That Fire Engine follower, we gave him a wave and the thumbs up, the Irish really are friendly\u2026\u00a0 unfortunately it was the Garda, pulling us over to make sure we turned off the blue lights, oops sorry.<\/p>\n
We were heading to Dublin to pick up the lovely Ailsa and meet the Mayoress of Dublin, Emer Costello.\u00a0 With four boys in the fire engine I can only describe the journey as \u2018windy\u2019.\u00a0 After meeting Ailsa at Dublin airport (yay, another girl!) we hit Dubln bang on time and managed to find the square that Dublin Council had arranged for us to meet the Mayoress, or had we? \u00a0Wolfe Tone Square was occupied by groups of, let\u2019s say, \u2018less than savoury characters\u2019 who had maybe overdone it a bit on the shandy\/sunshine combo.\u00a0 Was this really where the council would be sending their Lord Mayor?\u00a0 Apparently so.<\/p>\n
The Mayoress arrived and everyone, except Chris, was in the fire engine on the other side of the river (we had to spend ten minutes driving around Dublin just to get onto the other side of the square, to enable us to park up, such is Dublin\u2019s one way system!).\u00a0 A few nervous calls from Chris \u201cWhere are you?\u201d, \u201cWhere are you now?\u201d, and Chris could breathe a sigh of relief, as we pulled up to meet the Lord Mayor.\u00a0 She was very excited about the expedition and said she would be following us online.\u00a0 Whilst having official photographs taken, one of the less compos mentis locals decided to put his arm round the Lord Mayor and tell her how attractive she is. She took it very well and the chap in question was helped on his way by bodyguard Chris, doing his Phil Mitchell impression.\u00a0 As the Mayoress looked around Martha the said gentleman spent five minutes telling Steve how much he hated him, because he was English.\u00a0 As you can imagine, at this point we weren\u2019t feeling incredibly welcome in Dublin.<\/p>\n
As Mayoress left, a journalist from the Irish Times turned up to interview Steve, he\u2019s an old hand at that sort of thing now.\u00a0 When she\u2019d got what she needed we moved Martha to a street next to the shopping centre and started handing out flyers and trying to drum up some interest.\u00a0 We soon realised that a Sunday afternoon in Dublin City centre, when the sun\u2019s out, isn\u2019t the best time to capture people\u2019s imagination.\u00a0 And the type of interest we were attracting wasn\u2019t necessarily the type we wanted.\u00a0 Slightly deflated, and without a plan B, we were a bit stumped about what to do.\u00a0 Steve had been trying to get in touch with Dublin Fire Brigade but they weren\u2019t answering the phone.\u00a0 Steve\u2019s Uncle John and Uncle Tony were due to be arriving in 5 minutes, and at that moment FTFE and Dublin had nothing to offer them.\u00a0 It was then that an Ambulance pulled up behind us and Steve got out to ask their advice.\u00a0 In Dublin, fire fighters are also paramedics, so they all know each other, they advised us to turn up at the fire station unannounced and we would receive a warm welcome.\u00a0 This could be our lucky day!<\/p>\n
We picked up a very excited Uncle John and Uncle Tony along the way and as we tried to find the fire station we drove past City Hall again, and again, oh and there it is again.\u00a0 I think I mentioned Dublin\u2019s one way system, apparently it was introduced about 6 months ago, something our SatNav is unaware of.\u00a0 Eventually, after another impromptu tour of the city, we reached Dublin Fire Station, to be greeted by Steve\u2019s cousin Matt and three friends, all kitted out in FTFE gear.\u00a0 They just happened to be in Dublin this weekend and wanted to come and show their support.<\/p>\n
At this point it was time to say goodbye to Chris and Dave who were flying back to London, sad times but as they say, all good things must come to an end.\u00a0 They were being replaced by new blood; move over boys, its time for the \u2018Tony and John show\u2019!<\/p>\n
Parking Martha in the fire station was hilarious.\u00a0 Steve had a fire fighter on his right telling him to go left, and someone on his left telling him to go right, along with a few chaps at the back shouting \u201cwooooohhhh, WOOOOOaahhhh\u201d every time he started to reverse.\u00a0 Eventually we got parked and as the chat got going I thought I\u2019d best capture the moment on camera.\u00a0 Fire fighter Albert asked if I\u2019d like to \u201cgo up there, to take some pictures?\u201d.\u00a0 I thought he meant up into one of the buildings.\u00a0 The next thing I know I\u2019m shooting up 100ft in the air, on the crane ladder, looking and out over Dublin.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think that would be on the agenda when I woke up this morning!<\/p>\n
We stopped at the fire station for a nice cup of tea and were invited to a BBQ at the station that evening.\u00a0 So in the space of a couple of hours we\u2019d gone from feeling that Dublin was maybe a bit of a mistake (apart from the meeting with the Lord Mayor of course) to one of the best receptions of the tour so far.\u00a0 Thanks to Dublin Fire Brigade for saving the day!<\/p>\n
Amy Harpin<\/p>\n
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Amy Harpin: Today was a Follow That Fire Engine rollercoaster, there were highs, there were lows, there were times when we didn\u2019t know how to feel, and times when it felt like the \u2018luck of the Irish\u2019 was definitely starting to rub off on us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1614,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}