The Liverpool Goodgym team were lucky this evening, as the rain had just eased off an hour before the task. We met up at Park Lane to complete some much-needed litter picking of the surrounding residential area.

Returning faces gathered and discussed the tradition of naming interesting or compelling items to keep good spirits on a cold night. The group was slowly reminded that Halloween had just passed, and this became a re-occurring theme.

As we put on our gloves and grabbed our litter-pickers, a black cat was spotted running across the street after hiding in the shadows. Notable finds we two mismatching gloves and a missing wallet, which was handed-in to be reunited with its owner.

Under the moonlight, Goodgym Liverpool was thanked multiple times by onlookers heading home or into the city, noting the work was much needed in the area. One such person was Liverpool Council woman Angela Coleman, who kindly asked for a picture to highlight the work Goodgym does.

When coming back together at the end of the task, our member Heetu (give her a cheer!) found the most interesting item of the night, a witch’s hat! This was made all the spookier by counting up 13 bags of rubbish!

What a lovely way to fondly look back at the last season’s festivities before we make our way into the Christmas Holidays. Thank you to all the members who attended and those who cheered us on as they walked by.

I can't quite believe that it's a year ago since we made our way through the snow to The Arts Bar to make paper chain starter packs for children and young people who are going to be staying in hospital over the Christmas period. Yet the calendar says it is a year and the temperature drop this morning meant although we had no snow it did feel seasonally cold enough to get together with Christmas paper, pens, Christmas stamps and the ever present cheesy Christmas jokes.

Ellie did tell us that last year she had learnt a lot of the jokes and told them at all her christmas dinners and parties. She is a little concerned that she has less invites this year.... were the jokes really that cheesy or was it the way she told them?

Whilst some were saddened by the white hot chocolate being off the menu this year we all managed to find warming drinks to help us through the task plus cheesy jokes, and talks of our own Christmas party coming up on 11th December. Before we knew it we had to start to clear up there was a last minute scramble to get to 300 strips completed (and ever enthusiastic Pauline is going to do more tomorrow before the send off deadline).

We finished just in time to hand the space over for the open mic session.. despite encouragement we couldn't persuade Jess to stay on and get on stage.... we all left with no one taking to the stage this time.

Out into the cold night all feeling a little more festive thanks to the paperchain project.

This session we were back at the Bombed Out Church, completing our excellent work painting the final tables, stools and benches, taking on the Host Stand, and litter picking.

We welcomed new Goodgymmer Colin who joined us for his first task - welcome Colin! It was great to meet you.

Task owner Kate gave us a thorough briefing, and we split into groups, some taking on the painting, and some on litter-picking duty. The site initially looked fairly clear, though with some rummaging the team were able to fill several litter bags, including a pair of shoes (yes, the full pair), socks, and a rather lovely bowl. The painting team took it in turns swapping the large and small brushes, and efficiently finished painting the benches, tables and stools, before turning their attention to the larger Host Stand. Everyone got stuck in, whilst I was on the important tasks of project management, team co-ordination, quality control and torch holding.

The BOC team were again delighted with how much we achieved in such a short space of time, and booked another session there and then. Next time we'll be planting bulbs to prepare for a dazzling daffodil display in the spring!

Alas, every silver lining has a cloud, and the cloud hanging over this session was that our beloved Dan is moving on to pastures new, and this was his last session with Goodgym Liverpool - for now. Dan joined Goodgym Liverpool six months ago, and quickly became an integral member of the group. His love of litter picking, skills with the puns, way with wordsmithery and all-round fabulous company endeared him to all he met, and we're very sorry to see him go. But Dan won't be giving up on Goodgym, he'll be moving to Goodgym Hackney, who don't know how lucky they are to have him - yet. Dan leaves us as a taskforce member with a very respectable 26 good deeds under his belt. He's assured us he'll be back to visit, and the door is always open for him to (litter) pick up where he left off. Dan - it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you, we hope to see you again very soon.

The team presented Dan with a card and a farewell gift of some thorn proof gardening gloves and his very own litter picking hoop (he already owns his own litter picker!), and he very kindly opened his home to us for some post-task refreshments for a proper farewell.

Goodgym is a fantastic way to get to know some very lovely people, the other side of that coin is it's always difficult when people move on. But you know what they say: 'tis better to have loved litter-picked, than never to have volunteered at all...