Nine Goodgymers attended the monthly care home quiz. Well done to Eleanor for putting the gym into Goodgym by running all the way there and back! It was lovely to receive such a warm welcome from the residents now that it’s turning darker and chillier outside. This month Janet took on the role of quiz master, starting with a picture round of old movie posters from the 1930s and 1940s. This caused much discussion among the three teams, with renditions of Judy Garland hits being heard across the room! Unfortunately, our lovely 100 year old resident couldn’t quite remember where Judy Garland’s train was going (St.Louis) so the film title evaded her. There were science and nature, geography and general knowledge rounds, with a few trick questions thrown in. Did you know that Albert Einstein’s wife was an Einstein even before she got married? Turns out, only one of our teams did (or they made a lucky guess)! And the Waikato River may sound Japanese but is, in fact, the longest river in New Zealand. Congratulations to the Middlemarchers with a phenomenal total of 41 out of 46. There was only a point in it for the two runners-up teams. Well done everyone!

3 Goodgymers met to drop leaflets for the free health checks being offered by the Health Sciences University. Kudos to Eleanor who ran to the task. We quickly made a plan of our route and got started. Lots of basement flats this time so we certainly got our stairs in!!

5 Goodgymers met on a chilly evening to do a leaflet drop for a local free pop-up health clinic. The Health Sciencea University had given us two specific areas to target so we tackled one of them. Strangest thing we came across was a hearse that looked ready for Halloween! Next week we will come back and do the other area.

Seven Goodgymmers, Chloe, James, Janet, Eleanor, Daryl, Keith and Lea turned to walk lead the Walk for Wards again this year. Off to have our faces painted again, and with raincoats to the ready we were raring to go. A bit of chaos with a shortened walk schedule, a different starting order and the wrong signs and missing signs…. Oh well, overtaking or undertaking, as long as we don’t lose anyone and people are having fun, we are ok with that. Lea walked back for a bit and found this “lonely straggler”, oops, no, it was Backmarker for the 8k Keith! So yay, that was the very end, so we were off to the food stand, which was incredibly well organised with a nice burger for everyone. And with a little pink and purple balloon wand for baby Coral in the pushchair and a balloon rabbit for Lea (long story!!) we were all happy to have taken part again in this year’s Walk for Wards. Thank you to everyone that turned up and to the weather gods for keeping the sun shining for us most of the time. Hope to see you all again next year.

6 runners met at the Auger Collective space in the Sovereign Centre. It’s a former clothes shop that’s being turned into a community art space and our task was to paint the walls white. Amanda had all the tools we needed and after a couple of hours of painting and a quick tea break, we were done.