Brace Your 'Elf' The Puns Are Coming - I 'Present' Ready Steady Cook

T'was a cold winters night

It was also an early start for our final task of the year cooking for the guests of a Worthing Churches homeless shelter. This task was the one I had been looking forward to for weeks but also the one I was most nervous about . I'm not sure why after all what could possibly go wrong? Cooking for 15 people with 8 of us in a kitchen and no idea what we were going to cook!

All was calm all was bright

The fabulous 5 of us set off all sporting eye catching hats on a freezing cold but beautiful winters night ( post run endorphins have already blocked out the cold memories! ) Michelle, Gill , Belinda, Roxy and I breezed through the 1 km warm up to a warmly decorated and cosy house in Byron Road where we were welcomed by Luke and Martin who pointed us in the direction of the kitchen.

Causing a stir in Byron Road

It really did feel like Chrismas with a huge box of fresh food ready for our ready steady cook task of turkey stir fry with an oriental kick ! The 5 of us set about chopping vegetables ( Makes a nice change from pruning ) and planning the running order of events We were quickly joined by Paul ( fresh from his travels) Tamsin and Anne.

A recipe for ..........success

A range cooker ,two big frying pans, a large saucepan , a huge deep baking tray , a selection of utensils plus an amazing team of cooks were all the ingredients we needed and 30 (ish) minutes later we were serving up our gastronomic delight onto individual plates ready for the taste testing by the residents.

Tree - mendous

It seems that our cooking skills went down very well and it was thumbs up and thanks all round form our hosts. After the usual photos we togged up with our warm weather gear and headed off for the mystery run with a few surprises in store!

There were stars in their eyes and lights fantastic

We ran along to Goring and in particular a house which has been beautifully decorated at the top of Sea Lane in aid of The Chestnut Tree House. After the obligatory 'oohs' and 'aahs' and a few photos we then set off for our homeward journey.

Surprise Surprise Carol singing

We couldn't resist a bit of doorbell ringing and a GG rendition of 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' outside my house . Wow we were good ! So good Nick went running upstairs to get money before he opened the door !

Running home for Christmas

We headed for the seafront where the group did some extended efforts along the seafront before heading back via Byron road where we waved an 'adios' to Tamsin and Paul before heading back to Splashpoint and, for some of us, the pub for Christmas drinks with our park run buddies featuring the debut appearance of Belinda's home made amazing park run mascot ( yet to be named ) but you saw it first here !

Although this is our last task of 'term' and we are officially broken up for the holidays we are, in fact meeting up next Monday at 6 pm for a pre Christmas social run followed by food ! Watch out for the weekly fitness email for the final arrangements.

Festive wishes and lots of GG cheers

Julia :)