Exceedingly Good(Gym) Cakes...

Today's report brought to us by David

There were hundreds and thousands of GoodGymmers outside Highbury Pool before this evening's session...well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but 28 is impressive nonetheless. The fact that it had been advertised as involving a very short run, and then decorating cupcakes, is of course purely coincidental... It was nice to see some new faces to GoodGym in the (cake) mix though, and likewise good to see that this morning's drizzle had ceased - lemon or otherwise.

We had quick warm up and intro from Simon, where he told us the all-important cake-themed question for this evening's run - "Who would you choose to be stranded on a desert island with - Mary Berry, Paul Hollywood, or Mel&Sue?" We then set off on the short run up to Jenius Social Kitchen to meet Here To Islington, a community organisation which tomorrow will be hosting a tea for older people in the local area with lots of lovely cupcakes, which all needed decorating, and we were just the team to rise to the challenge. We were welcomed by the centre staff with open arms and - possibly for the first time in GoodGym history - disposable aprons. We all washed our hands, then split up into three groups as there were so many of us.

One group started off on the cupcakes, piping a range of different flavours of icing onto the cupcakes, freshly baked only a few hours previously, and then getting creative with all manner of brightly coloured sugary sprinkly bits, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and my favourite good old-fashioned glace cherries. The results were quite impressive; the fact that we managed to resist scoffing any of the creations there and then, perhaps even more so.

Another group were also able to put their creative talents to good use, making cupcake-themed greetings cards for tomorrow's guests to wish them an enjoyable day. I think that's a market that Hallmark and Clintons Cards have yet to pick up on, but maybe we'll be seeing them in the shops soon.

The third group donned their thinking caps to come up with a quiz to accompany the tea and cakes, which included a number of local-themed questions such as "What was the original name of Arsenal tube station?" Answers on a postcard, please.

We swapped over twice, so everyone had a chance to do each of the activities, with a lucky few even getting to decorate and sample a few extra pastries which weren't being saved for tomorrow. So, fuelled by either sugar or just a sense of well-being for having helped out, we left the centre and headed over Holloway Road to the Emirates Stadium for Simon's "Letter Relay Challenge". Essentially this was a relay race around the outside of the stadium, with the twist that at each of the entrances (lettered A through to S), the runner had to stop and do a number of squats before continuing - which quickly started to take its toll on people's knees.

After one more lap of the stadium for those who (French) fancied it, we headed back to Highbury Pool for some delectable biscuity treats for those who hadn't already got their sugar fix (thanks Simon!), and of course the results of the debate - Paul Hollywood got 4 votes, Mary Berry got 6, but everyone else opted for Mel&Sue which, makes them the winners! A few stretches finished off the evening - thankfully not involving sitting on the ground, or we'd all have ended up with a soggy bottom...

David

P.S. Check back for more photos later