Wow! What an amazing event we attended today.

We'd had short notice about a lunch being served for about 120 older members of the community and the organisers were hoping that GoodGym could provide some additional volunteers to help with the set up, serve drinks and meals, and tidy up afterwards.

I was leading from Task Force but unfortunately couldn't get out of work for the start of the task. But Kamal kindly agreed to liaise with Vera (the organiser) and the other GoodGymers, so that they were all able to make their way to Futures House in time to start setting up the hall. I was really greatful that he was happy to deputise for me in my absence.

By the time I arrived the GoodGym Team had got the room set up beautifully with festive table settings, crackers and all. We even had a guest appearance by Bakari, who has helped out on a couple of GoodGym tasks in the summer but who we have yet to persuade to sign up and become an official GoodGym member. And it was nice to see Fredy and Abdulkarim too who I haven't seen for a while. Of course Musa and Mohammad were there too and working hard as usual. I was impressed to see the team serving drinks and dishing up soup to the assembled crowd. Although I think some of the GoodGymers were a little surprised to see that, although senior citizens, some of the guests were pretty partial to a glass or two of various beverages, and white wine spritzers seemed to be going down a storm. I was also amused to see the number of people who were very excited to be offered a snowball. I seemed to be given mixology duties and was soon mixing up the Advocaat and lemonade concoction, as well as G&Ts, whisky macs and the odd vodka orange and soda. And of course there was a vast array of soft drinks too.

Once the soup dishes were cleared we were then kept busy serving up the main courses and dishes of vegetables to the folk. It was good to be able to chat with the guests while we were serving, but chat was kept to a minimum in order for us to get people's food to them still piping hot.

And before we knew it it was time to start clearing tables and get the puddings out to people - stopping only to take a few group photos with Vera and one or two of the other volunteers from Future's House. The guys then tucked into a well deserved meal themselves, before doing the final table clearance and later clearing up the room.

Yasin kindly helped to box up some of the leftover vegetables which GIll would be taking with her to the FoodCycle final meal of the year later that afternoon so that it would not go to waste. Special congratulations to Yasin too for qualifying for his Black Tee-shirt today. 50 tasks - go you Yasin!!!

Today we were out in force again to support ABCD and Luton Council in a clear up of Bury Park in preparation for the first home game for Luton Town Football Club this season. And while the team were expecting a fair amount of litter, none of us had been prepared for the vast numbers of cigarette butts littering the pavements and roadside. They really are a pain in the butt to retrieve with a litter picker, but we did our best to clean up our section on Dunstable Road. Amir and Abim got really efficient with the broom and dustpan, while Assine , Ashkan and Abdulkarim had got retrieving all sorts of debris from the grass down to a fine art. It was great to have additional help from Bakari, who assured us that he wasn't part of GoodGym, but it's only a matter of time before we get him as out next recruit, with Abim's powers of persuasion.

6 of Luton's Goodgym elite had 2 tasks to do yesterday evening, so we split up into a walking group and a running group to tackle them.

Our walkers set off to our first task at Penrose roots to recovery garden, where they met with Pete, who, after providing gloves and tools, got team 1 hard at it weeding one of the vegetable patches.

Our running team set off slightly later after having a quick warm-up, which included running up and down the town hall steps a few times. The runners were headed to Trinity Community Centre to help maintain their garden and play area but unfortunately the task leader was unable to open up for the team, so they headed back to meet up with the walkers at Penrose. Turned out being a slightly longer first leg than anticipated.

After some digging, weeding, and tipping, and before heading back to town, I took a little walk around the garden with Pete the task leader to look at the fantastic veggies they've grown. They have an amazing variety, including squash, beetroots, brassicas, onions, and potatoes, to name just a few, and it great to know our efforts have supported this. Team photo taken, we called it a night and headed home.