Last night saw a handful of rather shy Lowestoft firefighters join 120 local ladies as they held a special charity Zumba event in aid of The Fire Fighters Charity.
Soon after 6pm the ladies started to arrive, kitted out in all sorts of fancy dress - from the Pink Ladies, through Christmas fairies to Wilma Flintstone!
Now you wouldn't think that a bunch of guys that will readily enter a burning building and scale ladders to rescue cats would be easily scared by the prospect of doing Zumba with so many lovely ladies. But the point was proved when we warily filtered into the appliance bay in readiness for, well we weren't really sure what...
First a quick photo opportunity as we held Helen Pybus in our arms for the cheque presentation. A few more pics and then the bells go and the Watch (one of which seemed only too happy at the prospect of getting out of Zumba) disappear off to a chimney fire in Europa Road. Impeccable timing...
But there was still plenty of us ready and eager (!*?) to get stuck into the Zumba routines.
Now it has to be said that doing Zumba in fire kit trousers adds a whole new dimension to getting fit. The temperature in there started to rise at an alarming rate!
Most of the firefighters stuck close together, fearing what I'm not sure. I decided that to jump right in was the best option and found the ladies to be very welcoming and helpful in trying to coach the right moves out of me... Still some way to go, I think.
The climax of the hour was the Can Can! Thankfully we didn't need to do the spilts to finish.
And then the warm down, with some music from The Full Monty (I think). Having done that for real last year I was hoping that this wasn't a set up to get us to remove certain items of clothing. It may have raised more money though with the ladies paying good money for us to put stuff back on again!
Bang on time, with the music fading, the Watch return to be greeted by some ever-so slightly knackered firefighters.
But what a great event. A huge thank you to Helen Pybus and her Lowestoft Zumba class for supporting The Fire Fighters Charity and raising a massive £640 for the charity.
