After a string of poor excuses, only the bravest of goodgymers met last night (having a baby? pssh).

Traffic was awful so there was a lot of discussion over the best way through town right now, and the answer is clearly on foot.

Fay, Andy and Richard drove in but survived the ordeal. The excellent 'reverse advent calendar' foodbank collection is underway. Joe appeared when summoned by Andy.

A cold run to the church hall and we got to work, it's like we've never cleared any leaves at all every time we visit but it keeps us out of trouble. Everything was filling up with piles of leaves still waiting to be lifted so a brisk walk for a bin secondment allowed us to get more picked up for collection day.

We will be back for more leaves in a few weeks!

Four of us nutters decided to do something a little different on a Wednesday night, but still a good deed, for Mid & North East Essex Mind. We signed up to walk on 1200 degree fire!

When we got there, Rich wouldn't shut up about his dry robe, Ben started to look nervous, Joe upset us all by moving telling us about his impending move to Norwich, and I hadn't had a baby yet.

After a great briefing from Cliff, we were ready. Ben sprinted across, Rich strava'd it and deservedly got a blister, I enjoyed the extra 200 degrees they put on for me, and Joe was Mr. Casual.

We also got pizza and a certificate! Find out more about Mind here: https://mnessexmind.org/ Amazing work offering hope and support for good mental health, so that no one feels alone.