For'tuna cookie vs great GG paint off

A GG dozen

What a great turn out it was on a cold but still night at GG Worthing with more than a handful of hardy participants who turned out for a run and good deed.

Thanks so much to the following GG heroes for your time , energy and banter tonight! Sue, Barbara, Ricky, Natacha, Steve,Daisy, Paul, Tamsin ( in her new black t'shirt ) Nick, John and Belinda. Special get well wishes to our very own Anne who had to pull out as she was feeling unwell :(

Tonight our task was at Lyndhurst Road hostel, a fairly recently converted 37 bed temporary accommodation hub on Lyndhurst Rd which goes a long way to reducing the increasing number of rough sleepers on the streets of Worthing. Our tasks this evening were to provide a healthy meal for around 20 residents together with painting a communal stair well converting it from the original brick to a creamy white colour.

Good times roll - It will be all white on the night

After a warm up run along the seafront and around the pier, I reflected just how lucky we are to have this on our doorstep with a stunning night shot of the foreshore from the pier.

We arrived at Lyndhurst Road where we were met by Mary and Chloe who outlined the tasks and provided us with the equipment for both the cooking and painting.

John, Belinda , Barbara , Steve, Natacha and Nick elected to paint whilst Paul, Ricky, Tamsin, Sue and Daisy headed to the kitchen to cook up a couple of healthy warming pasta bakes.

Both teams were as enthusiastic and resourceful as ever. With limited equipment especially in the kitchen it didn't hinder our teams and its amazing what can be achieved with so little. The painting team were especially lively. John described the evening in the following way.....

Great fun this evening- some of the best banter yet

Bake news

With the great GG paint off very much in full swing,in the kitchen there were challenging conditions with the progress on the pasta bakes.One of the biggest challenges was trying to locate a tin opener, the other was that the oven wasn't working. Both problems were resolved when Mary delivered a new supply of tins of tuna with ring pulls and the team deciding to use the grill instead of the oven.

The tasks were divided up evenly between the team and after the two huge saucepans of pasta finally boiled and cooked, one pot had tuna,sweetcorn and cheese added to it whilst the other was transformed into ,a tomato based bolognese tray bake topped with cheese and grilled until bubbled and brown. It smelt amazing and I'm sure it tasted just as good! Just as we left the residents starting coming down with their plates to tuck into the feast.

No paint no gain

Back to the paint off ! In the hallway/stairwell the progress really was inspirational. Longer in the kitchen meant longer painting and the team covered about 4 times the anticipated result. The paint drops on the floor were only overtaken by the amount of team banter tonight!

We have set ourselves up nicely for a return visit ( TBC) to complete painting the next level of stairs !

Time waits for no one

With longer time spent at the task than usual ( due to the slow boil of the pasta! ) we took a run back to base. Some headed straight off home whilst others stayed for some functional fitness drills comprising of squats, squat jumps, lunges, chest press ups, tricep dips and, guess what ?! 2 sets of 20 burpees! Stretching completed the session and before we knew it the evening was over for another week.

In other news

Many MANY congratulations to Duncan and Lucy who both got PB's at Gosport half marathon at the weekend with Lucy knocking off a whopping 18 mins from her previous best time and Duncan with an epic 1.36