This Monday was open mic night at the ChoirWithNoName singing over a Karaoke track or around the piano! Members were invited to suggest their favorite hits and bring instruments to play and perform their songs of choice, including Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush.

In the kitchen there was another music to play 🙃.

For this community mission, GoodGym’s Amanda stepped up as lead chef for the first time at ChoirWithNoName. She headed the kitchen alongside Sonam and me, with Lindsey and Anne-Mari rounding out our volunteer cooking team.

On the menu tonight: Potato and Spinach Gateau. It was a total race against the clock to peel, slice, and bake crispy potatoes while sautéing a mountain of onions, mushrooms, and spinach. Meanwhile, Amanda was a powerhouse, whipping up both vegan and vegetarian versions of the béchamel sauce.

I’ll admit, procuring and cooking food for 50 people was a first for me — but what an incredible, rewarding Good challenge! Many volunteers and members commented on how tasty the cooked meal was - DELICIOUSly Good :-). We were also proud to have successfully sourced several essential ingredients from surplus food via Olio. While the effort left us completely exhausted, Sonam somehow still had the energy to run all the way home!

"And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get Him to swap our places

Be runnin' up that road, Be runnin' up that hill, Be runnin' up that building (yo)

Say, if I only could, oh".

From Kate Bush's song, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).

This was my first Goodgym Brighton session, and I was chuffed to be joined by Samantha and Christine, who were at their first Goodgym session ever! Welcome both, it was lovely to meet you! Stefan was also there on arrival, as an old hand at the task.

We were there to help chef John prepare a Lancashire hotpot for about 60 guests tomorrow afternoon.

The three of us established that none of us are gifted in the kitchen, but with John as our leader we were soon up to speed peeling and chopping veg, browning off meat, stirring and even helping bake an almond cake. We were rewarded with pastries from the farmer's market to help fuel the hard work.

The time flew as we chatted away, and when we headed off everything was ship shape and ready for the feast tomorrow.