Burnsing Up The Dancefloor

The GoodGym crew arrived at the Hobbayne Centre tentatively after Wednesday's abandoned Community Mission. We were all glad to see the lights on and doors open... there was definitely something happening tonight.

Madhan had arrived first followed by Chris, who it was great to have back with us for tonights task. Kash and I found them sitting at our own volunteer table. That made us feel special, what a luxury!

There wasn't anything for us to do yet. Our work would start at 8pm after the Address to the Haggis, a famous Burns poem, was recited. When it was and the haggis was cut, we jumped into action. We picked up plates of regular lamb haggis and it's veggie version, dishing them out to the attendees as fast as they came out of the kitchen. We danced around the floor, threading ourselves between tables to ensure that everyone was well fed.

Once the plates were out, we turned into bar staff, lining up shot glasses to be filled with home prepared bramble whisky and for the less adventurous, Johnnie Walker. As soon as that was done we laid out another 80 bowls to be filled with cranachan, a traditional Scottish dessert. Our relaxing start to the evening was a distant memory as we were bustling about behind the scenes.

We cleared plates from the tables and then served the drinks, ready for a toast to Robbie Burns, the main man this evening. Once toasted, we were back to the serving trolleys for dessert.

After everyone had drank and eaten it was time to prepare the dancefloor, so we folded up some tables and removed chairs, ready for the party to begin.

To our surprise, it was announced by the MC that GoodGym would be stars of the ceilidh. We were put on the spot, nevertheless, we all stepped up to set the dance floor on fire.

After 3 dances, we left the guests to dance the night away to some pop classics and went back to tidying tables and cleaning behind the scenes. We'd been told that 10:30 was a hard stop, but that time came and went without any sign of the DJ or guests packing up and heading home. Luckily we all said that we could commit a bit more of our Saturday evenings and we packed up the hall with the help of some guests while others were still dancing the night away. Both of those things are signs of a great community and a great community event.

GoodGym received a huge cheer from all of the attendees for our hard work, then we made our way home with takeaway haggis, ready to enjoy for a midnight snack or breakfast the next morning.