The William Hobbayne Charity looks after Hanwell folk for around 600 years. They raise money to support schools, help those who cannot afford to pay for accommodation, and assist the victims of domestic violence. While the work the charity does is serious, each season Hobbayne brings to the local community something fun and lighthearted. In the early Spring it's usually a fundraising quiz.

Cherian from GoodGym Barnet visited the William Hobbayne Centre for a second time to help Liuba, Sevan and Kash prepare the venue for the quiz and curry night. They started with setting up thr tables. This year's improvements involved new green tablecloths and new ambient lights which made the hall resemble an enchanted forest with glowing mushrooms!

With the first task completed, Sevan started wrapping naan breads in tin foil before heating them up in the oven, and the ladies began wrapping one hundred sets of knives and forks in napkins. Another improvement this year involved moving away from single-use cutlery (obtained by the Charity through donations) in favour of the steel option. Because the metal knives and forks had been most likely donated, almost all of them looked like they had come from a totally different set. That's called dine-versity!

The situation with the plates was quite different.

"You'd be glad to hear this year we have compostable plates" - June
"Did you say 'combustible'?" - Kash

Before taking a break ahead of the second task if the night, Liuba went to procure some ice for the drinks for the event, and Sevan did a shop run for snacks and drinks for toe GoodGymers, sponsored kindly by June from Hobbayne.

After setting up the hall and preparing for food service during an earlier task, team GoodGym were listening to the questions at When tonight's fundraising quiz at the Hobbayne Centre. When the quiz reached its half way point, the GoodGymers put aside their confusion at the quiz questions and strode into action, serving meals to the quizzers.

Curries, either chicken or chickpea, were plated up with rice by Steph and Cherian. Once the warm naan breads were added, they were ready to be delivered. Kash, Liuba and Sevan were calling table orders and taking plates to be served. "2 more chicken for my table", "3 veg for me please". All meals were on tables in record time, allowing the team to quickly eat their own curries before going back into the hall and clearing plates from tables.

The last things to do were to serve choc ices as dessert before they melted, then Kash and Steph boxed up the remaining rice and curries for people to take home. With the food service completed, it was time to chat and to wait until the start of the clean up task.

All great things come to an end and the Quiz night ends up with cleaning up nad putting everything away. Kitchen needed some cleaning and some of the pans needed more attention : dirty old pans!! The rice cooker was spotless, then the pan that had the chicken curry had a shiny spell, but the vegetarian pan needed a great old scrub and soak as very sticky. We also had the impression that drummers were here today : oh no its just Kash playing music with the lids. The crew then put away the tables and chairs in a jiffy. Rubbish put away and all looked as if nothing happened in the main hall or kitchen.

The four GoodGymers: Paul, Liuba, Sevan and Kash, returned to the Hobbayne Centre for the main session of the night: serving. They were joined by Mohamed and Scotswoman Chris. The latter had received a special invite from the charity after trasforming the not-so-Scottish attempts on ceilidh dances into an authentic experience last year.

The guests arrived early, so the Address to the Haggis performance commenced ten minutes ahead of schedule. The man who delivers the act each year recited Burn's poem and fiercely cut the haggis into pieces. The GoodGymers were ready to serve the food and queued in front of the kitchen. This year, their new system worked quite well, with the more popular meaty meals going out first and veggie versions being served on demand. Only the gluten-free options caused some confusion, but everyone got fed (including the servers) in the end, and even seconds were offered - although only vegetarian ones as the carnivore version ran out.

While Chris and Kash kept an eye on the guests finishing their meals to collect the dirty dishes, Paul and Mohamed helped prepare the traditional (at least in theory) Scottish dessert, cranachan. In the meantime, Sevan and Liuba took up the joyful task of pouring the whisky. The guests' devotion to the Scottish culture was tested as the toast was raised only after quite a long, although fascinating, talk about the life and heritage of Robert Burns.

Next in the event programme was the raffle. None of the GoodGymers was as lucky as Sevan last year - the hopes to win a free team pizza at The Green didn't materialise that night.

Finally, the highlight of the night arrived: our indispensable Chris calling the Scottish dances! With the assistance from Sevan and Kash and two ceilidh-savvy ladies from the community, Chris taught the Hanwell folk the steps for Gay Gordons, Dashing White Sergeant and Strip the Willow. With various results regarding the technique, everyone had fun and the ceilidh went even better than last year!

The GoodGymers have been already asked whether they are planning to show up at the Burns Night at Hobbayne in 2026. We think Chris is likely to become the lifelong star of the Burns Night, just like the well-respected performer addressing the haggis each year!

The clean up shift of many Hobbayne socials gets delayed by the ongoing partying of the attendees and today was no different. Everyone was having so much fun that they didn't want to go home. That included dancing GoodGymers too, who were shimmying along to classics like Dancing Queen and Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.

In between the dancing, there was clearing going on too, with all of the GoodGymers clearing tables, folding them away and whisking away vacated chairs before the people using them knew what had happened. It was a stealthy operation that eclipsed any sign that a Burns Night party had ever taken place.

What a difference a year makes. 12 months ago, GoodGym were setting up the annual Hobbayne Charity's Burns night by setting out tables and chairs, putting up Scottish looking decorations and hanging bunting.

This year, the hall had already been prepared earlier in the day, so the main set up task was to get cutlery on tables and count out shot glasses to be used in the evening. The paper cutlery was an eco-friendly improvement on last year's plastic versions and everyone was rolling up napkins with one of the paper forks, spoons and knives. Once 80 napkins had been loaded up... well, 80-ish, they were laid out at each place setting, ready for the attendees to tuck into the haggis that GoodGymers would be serving them.