Curry up, let's have one for the Globe

There were very prompt arrivals from the GoodGym quintet at the Cranbrook Estate Community Centre, right in time to assist with setup and ongoing support of the Globe Community Centre's celebration event this evening.

We were met there by the lovely team and wandered in to the sound of some soft jazz as the band for the evening warmed up.

After a quick round of introductions were were set to serving chai to the many guests as they flooded in for the evening of inspiring entertainment. Also on offer as a starter were an abundance of vegan sausage rolls and vegan steak bakes which went down very well!

There was a lot of interest from the attendees about GoodGym and as we hustled and bustled preparing and serving refreshments we fielded lots of questions and got to meet a couple of the task owners from previous Group Runs that we had done locally, which was most pleasant.

The main event was a sumptuous home made curry that volunteer Michael had spent all day preparing. We had a cracking conveyor belt system to plate these up with self-appointed pickle Goddess Liz starting off each plate with a spoonful of lime pickle, followed by me dispensing a healthy amount of infused rice before Isabelle finally furnished the plates with a scoop of curry and a dollop of daal before serving them up through the hatch.

After everyone was sated and seated, we collected up the cutlery and crockery, ready to be cleaned and rehoused. This was when we learned the true extent of Rebecca's relentless work ethic as she tirelessly washed up plate after plate without protest, shunning offers of assistance/relief along the way, all the while smiling and laughing with the rest of us.

As this was going on, in the event itself there were a delightful succession of inspiring speakers - introducing and explaining much of the good work done by the community which was very well received. At various points we were able to sample some of these talks, and in particular Dharmesh was on hand to contribute to and enjoy some of the robust rounds of applause after the speakers.

As the event wound down, and people were enjoying homemade cake and an abundance of doughnuts, we helped to quickly restore the hall to how it was at the start of the evening, much to the appreciation of the Globe team.

A thoroughly enjoyable event to have helped with, with a very tasty free dinner being the icing on the cake.