On a bright sunny autumnal day 8 jolly GoodGymers went to Cafe Connect in Easton to help a group of community volunteers, who were being documented for a BBC TV show, shift a load of unwanted items from the back yard into a skip so that the space could be used by local youth groups to meet.

It happens once in a blue moon, but this afternoon the planets aligned and the Bristol GoodGym crew were offered a bonus round. Once we had finished helping out at the Felix Road Adventure Playground the organisers asked if any of us would like to head to another site they were working on just up the road. Being keen runner beans a large group of us said yes and headed up to Cafe Connect in Easton.

On arrival we were met by a group of lovely volunteers who had been busy tidying up a large walled yard. The place must have been a tip before they started as they had moved all of the mess into two tidy piles in the middle, and the piles were huge. Once they had moved all of the mess away from the walls they were able to clean them down and paint them white. Our job was to help them load as much of the waste into a skip that was due to arrive very shortly.

As soon as the bemused skip driver arrived to the hubbub of joyous volunteers we went to work forming a line to pass the waste out and then packing it as tightly into the skip as possible. There were puns galore flying around, it was like a punsderstorm! My personal favourites being Nick shouting "I've been framed!" while holding up an old window pane, and when I said "that's put it to bed" when the final item, a knackered old mattress, was plonked on top of the skip (it's good to laugh at your own jokes right!?)

Once the skip was at full capacity our job was done. We said our goodbyes to the wonderful people of Easton and headed off to Vivo to eat cake and drink tea in preparation for our third task of the day which still lay ahead.

I would like to thank Pru for allowing me to add this as a bonus deed for the day and giving me the opportunity to gain my 200th GoodGym deed tonight. I am blessed to run with such a wonderful and thoughtful bunch of people and love every moment with you guys. Thanks also to Paul and Jon for making me the best t-shirt ever. ROCKET GAZEBOS!

See y'all soon,

Gary

What a day! 19/10/16 will be the day that we had not one, not two, but three tasks. Our first task involved us running to the truly awesome Felix Road Adventure Playground where we were going to help with refurbishing it as part of a BBC programme called People Power. Some other activities had been filmed earlier in the week as a great showcase for all our brilliant (even if I do say so myself!) work.

We arrived and promptly got asked to run off again... then run back so they could film us arriving. And then we ran off again as there was a van in the way so we had to arrive again 'spontaneously'...

Once on the scene and after signing some release forms, we had a chat with Mike from (I think) DIY SOS on film and were asked to help with painting some walls once they'd been pressure washed. Then we waited for the pressure washer to arrive. And waited.

The lure of the huge adventure playground proved too much for all of us, and we embraced our inner 10 year old with little encouragement. Needless to say we had tonnes of fun! After having a bit of a jolly and a few of us picking up some litter, we eventually got given some rollers and paint and a few brushes and were asked to paint a wall, but there were only a few tools and by that point 16 of us, so the enterprising souls of GoodGym started to de-moss the patio outside the community building that is part of the playground.

Some people got paint spattered, some got muddy, everyone got filmed, and we all had a good play on the wooden castle. Thanks for your patience and understanding whilst we were waiting for something to happen, and for being inventive enough to find something useful to do! You are all superstars.