Our evening tonight was going to take place in Bute Street over Cardiff Bay, this part of Cardiff is steeped in glorious HISTORY and deserves a visit from the goodgymers.
And so, we made our way for a litterpick session. Walkers heading straight there on a shorter route, whilst Michael took the runners out for a 6km run (total there and back).
Plenty of time to catch up tonight, debating why bushes were cut the shapes they are - especially when they look like street urinals! A good 4 bags of rubbish, quite clean as the bags weren't full, a quick photo and then time to head back for some hot food.

Learning Time

• Butetown was barren moorland until the late 1800s, when the 2nd Marquis of Bute decided to build the first dock in Cardiff.
• The Coal Exchange was built in 1886 for leading businessmen, to meet to fix deals with countries all over the world.
• In 1909, the first million-pound (£1,000,000) cheque was signed at the Exchange, and presented to the National Provincial Bank in Bute Street.
• In 1937 Shirley Bassey was born at Adeline Street. By the time she was 20, Shirley was starring in shows in London, Paris, Monte Carlo and also sang three title songs for the 'Bond' films.
• The Norwegian Church was built in 1868 for the Scandinavian community near the West Dock and has close associations with Roald Dahl (he was Christened there) and his family.

source - the cardiffians

We will be returning this way for a new project in a couple of weeks time.

Tonight the gallant goodgymers were out for the WIN, cyclists, walkers and runners came together like some sort of Bolt-on Wanderers, ready to take on the mighty task. Leaving Cardiff City to take on a new challenge. Tonight was all about helping at the young persons homeless hostel, cleaning the back space and games pitch. This was our first time "playing" at Hostel Villa, but armed with our Arsenal of tools we went around to the "Notareal Forest" to start our battle against the fallen leaves of Mulchester City.

There were nods to the history of football as we saw the revival of sweepers tonight....and didn't they do WELL alongside the wonders of the wheelBARROW transfers. The leaves piled up defeated, and the grounds resembled a NEWcastle united by the goodgymers.

After a well deserved winning photo, the team took to the streets to celebrate the win and get a Tot-in-em after a hot-spur run.

In a dirty* episode of the Netflix series tonight, 12 Goodgym folks ran and walked to Adamsdown. * dirty as in rubbish btw!

(Be warned this is a mis-match of Bridge and Bridgerton puns, and I have never seen Bridgerton).

They split into two groups and quickly collected 6 bags of rubbish, which put the GG total for the day to 10 bags. Tantalizingly close to our 100 bag target for the month. Sign up on the relay sheet and collect a bag before the month is out if you can! Please!!

Take me to the Bridge - some of the group headed off to collect rubbish from a particularly mucky bridge that Imy and Martin had spotted en route to the meeting point.

Simon and Garfunkel could not make it but this really was a Bridge over troubled waste and several bags were quickly filled with the usual litter items as well as some discarded clothing - probably flung off prior to a steamy scene on set!

The other group collected rubbish from around the school and nearby playground. There was nothing novel about this task, although we did collect some pulp fiction at one point. Some passers by of the polite society did thank us for carrying out our work with such nobility. We collected lots of chocolate and sweet wrappers but sadly no Viscount ones!

We won't win any Emmy awards for our work but we enjoyed it and have done some more good in the Community.

12 Goodgym folks headed to Cwtch together to take on the latest Tuesday task(s). We split up to cover the different tasks - Jonathan, Flo, Emily, Flo, and Kerry worked inside on bleaching the hall floor. Don't worrry baby, it looked prestine by the time it was done.

God only knows why but Darren was allowed to sand down the door to try and make it open easier. He was giving off some dust and a lot of good vibrations.

The rest of the team weren't surfin' USA, they were busy outside clearing the driveway of weeds and clutter. Wouldn't it be nice if weeds didn't exist!

Goodgym really get around...... after team photo it was time to run back to the Glassworks for a games night, where we all had Fun Fun Fun.

Happy January

Our second group task and a litter pick back on the cards. Unfortunately, we had some last minute moves this week. But January is the month of the litter pick in Cardiff, with our traditional litter pick relay taking place every year where we pick everyday of the month.

Our route tonight took us to the back of the train station,.... Fancy. And then, over the industrial area and to the embankment again.

On the way we had an explosion of coffee from Emma "the gripper" Wilkins and found several strange items, including a bike seat. And it just got stranger as we hit the embankment, and we found lettuce, cabbage, and for the fancy.. Romaine lettuce. As we questioned why they were there, and in such large quantities, we also spotted the parsnips from last week! This is a strange dinner.

There are Swans around the area, although tonight they were all hidden and huddled under the bridge.

But Michael stated "Swans don’t eat parsnips, nor do rats" the title of his new book available soon on download ONLY. 🤣 And please don't write in.... Yes rats can eat parsnips.

As we discussed the the cold, and why wouldn't we? The use of the word nip came up... What a strange word it is.

LEARNING CORNER

Nippy When it comes to the British synonyms for cold, ‘nippy’ is a very popular term.

First Known Use

Verb (1)

15th century, to catch hold of and squeeze tightly between two surfaces, edges, or points : pinch, bite "the dog nipped his ankle"

Noun (1)

1549, something that nips: such as

a archaic : a sharp biting comment b: a sharp stinging cold c: a biting or pungent flavor : tang

But let's end on an additional learning note.... Ducks prefer romaine lettuce..

A celebration of an evening, we say farewell to November group runs, we finish our Christmas Cards for Care Homes, look forward to our games evening after the task and say a festive

Congratulations on your 50th Deed

to our Dylan, welcome to the Black t-shirt club.

The run wasn't as cold this evening as it has been recently, a nice change for us. The task was back in the great office space of Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru. The last selection of cards were put out, there were some charity cards still to fill out and a few plain for those crafty ones in the group. Michael put out quite an array of craft supplies, coloured metallic pens, markers, glue, glitter (edible) and lots and lots of seasonal stamps.

We welcomed back to the group for their second task Rachel, thanks for coming back.

The countdown began, along with the Christmas music - which tonight was a selection from the 80s...including the very festive 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer'. We also welcomed back an original member with their newest addition, Lucy and baby Eliza (our future goodgymer).

As the time passed and we came to the end of the task, we counted the cards and had managed 50 tonight, it was as if the 50th celebrations were meant to be. Our total card count for all of the tasks is an impressive 200, plenty to get mailing to a selection of care homes.

Now we celebrate for the evening with a selection of games and a nice social, thanks all for the festive crafting.

Join us next week, we only have 2 group activities in December so lets make the most of them.