Wow! What an epic afternoon. We had a team of 7 GoodGymers who turned up to spend the afternoon at Farley Community Centre to help make sure that the Christmas Dinner for senior residents went off with lots of festive cheer. It was great fun and lovely to see the older folk really enjoying themselves.

Yasin, Gill and Derrick were first to arrive, and soon got busy getting the hall ready: setting up tables, getting out the chairs, sweeping etc. Dee and Mayra joined the team and helped to finish off laying up the place settings and getting ready to serve the food. Once service started it was all hands on deck to make sure that all 50 guests were served a cracking three course dinner as swiftly as possible, so we were pleased that Freddy arrived to help out too.

There was time for the GoodGymers to enjoy a lunch themselves and Omar and Gill even got involved in the dancing (well who can resist a bit of Reggae?) before starting the mammoth task of clearing up the dishes while the party goers enjoyed their bingo and raffle. Omar excelled himself as the most efficient pot washer in the GoodGym team.

By 5 o'clock we had cleared the hall, wiped the tables and swept the floor, leaving it all immaculate. Vera was so pleased with our efforts that we were all given a box of biscuits as a thank you, and as the night drew in we all set off on foot for home.

Four of our GoodGym team were put to work in the kitchen at Farley Community Centre this evening under the watchful eye of Vera - who is leading on providing a Christmas dinner for 60 senior residents tomorrow.

Armed with peelers and knives we had a mountain of veg to prepare but it didn’t take long before the ingredients for the vegetable soup were in the cauldron boiling away. Then it was prep for the main course. Everything needed peeling - carrots, parsnips, sprouts and lots of potatoes. And though some of the potatoes were big enough to be bakers we were prepping for roasties and mash so no jackets were required. We hope the meal is a great success tomorrow.