Coffee and Cakes hits the spot!

There is a good chance that there was a surge in demand for power in the Cheshire area the Sunday before last, as there was such a lot of baking going on.  Gillian and I, along with many of our work colleagues were preparing for the Cuban Wheels second cake sale fundraiser which took place in the Sports Cafe at Umbro head office on Monday.

We made £242.38 from the first sale back in May.  This was our target.

Gillian and Mandy setting out the cakes and preserves

We were overwhelmed with the number of donations - it took 4 of us (massive thanks to Mandy and Louise for all your help) an hour to set up the stall, lay out the cakes and label them all with prices.  Before we knew it, we had a queue of eager customers.  It took a while for the money to start changing hands though - there was so much choice, people couldn't decide what to have!

Sultana scones, biscuits, choc chip cookies, gingerbread, coffee cake, lemon cake, banana loaf, crispy cakes, cupcakes, chocolate lollipops, rocky road, battenburg, macaroons and much more.  A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO BAKED FOR US.

Thanks also to our colleagues in The Sports Cafe for their support.  50% of all tea and coffee sales for the morning were donated to our fundraising.

It was a lot of fun with people coming up in groups for coffee and cake throughout the morning, holding informal meetings, or just catching up with colleagues over a cuppa whilst raising money for Women v Cancer.

Yet again, it was practically a sell out, with Gillian's preserves flying off the shelf, and a desperate shortage of lemon drizzle cake (must make at least 2 next time!).

A tally up of the takings revealed that out target was well an truly smashed, with a final total of £414.00.  Fantastic!

Thank you again to everyone who supported the sale and helped to make it such a success.

Tatton Cycletta

It is rare for me to experience 6am on a Sunday morning.  I am usually asleep.
Yesterday was different.  Gillian and I,  along with our friend Emma, took part in our first official cycle event - a 55km route starting from Tatton Park in Cheshire, which is one of a series of women only cycle races in beautiful locations.  Click here for more info on future events..

I was woken by the radio alarm playing The Cure, and it was with uncharacteristic enthusiasm that I got up and danced to the shower, past my bike and gear which were prepared, labelled and ready to go in the hallway.  After a quick breakfast Chris managed to manipulate my bike into the car without having to dismantle anything and we were on our way at 7:30 in thick fog.

The event was incredibly well organised, and by 8:30 we had parked up, unloaded the wheels and found Gillian and Emma.  Nerves were setting in now as we waited for our wave to start.

Emma, me and Gillian - ready to go

Garmin ready - waiting to go

The fog was still pretty thick when we set off and it wasn't long before our hands were completely numb with the cold.  Still the scenery was stunning and we soon forgot about the cold as we were cycling down beautiful tree lined roads with the sun desperately trying to break through the fog.

On our way - very high viz!

We thought it would take us over 3.5 hours to finish so we were delighted to cross the line in 2:48:25 (including pit stop time!).  Feels great to have our first cycle under our belt.  We have done the distance we will cover on our first day in Cuba, so just the other 4 days to work on now!

Medals all round