A very balanced group of 4 running GoodGymmers and 4 walking GoodGymmers set of for Emmaus in the dry after one of the wettest 24 hours I think I've ever seen.

Charlie met us and showed us the two overflowing cages to be sorted into saleable, usable, PATable and recycling. The recycling won hands down but some quality finds were evident as ever.

Woohoo, it's nearly Christmas AND it wasn't raining as 13 GoodGymmers, including Callum for his first ever good deed, Chloe for her first Group Run and Jo for her first Bristol good deed - we love you being part of GoodGym Bristol!

The running group and walking group set off for the sights and sounds of St Paul's, negotiating Christmas shoppers, revellers, roadworks and building to arrive at the lovely warm Emmaus office with lovely Xanne ready to tell is all about the charity and tonight's tasks - one indoor and one outdoor.

The outdoor group were filling a big and a small planter with compost and then being trusted to plant cyclamens, ivies and something we don't know the name for. Xanne knew there was a distinct lack of spades so there was a traditional GoodGym scouting-about for anything that looked spade-y and bucket-y. Winners were an actual spade, a couple of snow shovels and some desk in-trays (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to fill a freezer drawer and other receptacles at great speed. Only to empty them into the planters and start all over again!

Meanwhile, indoors, the floor was deep in crates of Bric (as we professionals call bric-a-brac) to be sorted and shelved with all sorts of 70s and 80s reminiscences for those of us old enough to remember the 70s and 80s. We had a brush-o-matic that i remembered as soon as I saw it!

The outdoor team were soon laying out and planting the new plants, getting into the groove (other Madonna songs are available) with brushes to leave it clean and tidy - fit for a Queen (who we can now reveal was visiting two days later on Thursday). Sometimes we are actually quite good at keeping secrets. Not much of the tine but some of it.

Withe the outdoors finished, everyone headed indoors to help with the sorting and to find something to wear as headgear/hide behind for the team photo.

Off we then shuffled, via the excitement of the Christmas Market (sheds) for our post-task socialising as Workout's Club Haus had a private function- so mulled drinks and interesting hot chocolates it was.

Roll on next week for the pizzas we've pre-booked at Club Haus to celebrate Christmas GoodGym-style.

Christmas came early with GoodGym Bristol's annual trip to Emmaus so sort out the donated Christmas trees into saleable, shop window and SPARKS big store in Broadmead.

It was brilliant to have Mateusz on his first GoodGym task and Emily joining us in Bristol from one of those London GoodGyms.

Much dusty fun was had with everyone in the festive spirit as Christmas trees were assembled to check all essential parts were there, and re-boxed for onward transport.

The run and walk back finished after the debrief with a big thumbs up for mini stroopwaffles from Melanie's parkrun adventures in the Netherlands and planning for Christmas as we were in the mood!

As Richard walked back he tried to remember what had happened that evening.

There was the swan that thought it was a boat, a guest appearance as run leader and a monkey dressed as a yeti. All before we got to Emmaus. One of those might not have happened.

Our task this evening was a bit of a spruce up of the area outside Emmaus. A lop, a chop, a bit off the top. Some litter, getting fitter, do you know the way to that shop? Happy 10th birthday to Frances who has done her 10th good deed this evening, with hopefully many more to come. I’ve probably missed something but I’m almost home now.

Until next time…

WOW (Way Out West) and Emmaus had both asked for help this evening so we we split into two group, three if you count the runners separately from the walkers, to our task destinations. After we'd said hello to the visiting horse which we assumed was part of the Raleigh launch.

It was fab to have Vicky and Runner Harry on their first GoodGym task and Dora joining us in Bristol for the first time. All three were in the Emmaus contingent and fitted right in with the task of sorting bagfuls of cards donated when Paperchase closed down. We were soon divvying up the cards by celebration type if the card had a matching envelope whilst "loners" of cards and envelopes became big piles themselves. We filled two boxes with just Christmas cards and made executive decisions about which cards were so bad they should go straight to recycling. The musical and light-up dachshunds in Paris were a firm favourite.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, plants were pruned and weeds banished in one of the areas looked areas by Way Out West - we might even get to go back for more planting as the space becomes better and better.

Back in Queen Square it was time to celebrate the launch of the GoodGym x Raleigh partnership and very excited faces receiving their cards and chocolates, though disappointed there was no horse this time.

It was supposed to be really cold but was much warmer than the forecast so people were still in shorts for our run to lovely Emmaus, home of Indoor Tasks. It was great to welcome Ash from Sheffield GoodGym (we all had to be on our best behaviour), Kate to her first group run and Ed returning from his foreign travels.

Back at Emmaus, not only did Satya have an indoor task lined up, she had super warm high viz coats to lend everyone so they didn't get cold! We're now expecting this level of e=welcome on every visit.

The task at hand was to tidy the basement, which we didn't even know existed. The warehouse is a bit empty at the moment as both Emmaus Bristol's vans are broken so they're not able to bring house clearances and other furniture pick-ups to the site. They have a couple of borrowed smaller vans which did mean we could take a photo pretending to have run all the way to Coventry and Warwickshire.

The basement was chock full of bedding, boxes and cleaning materials, the floor was barely visible so the team were tasked with bring their Tetris A-game to the fore to make best use of the shelving all around the edges of the room.

With specialist cardboard box flatteners, pillow stuffers and shelf stackers (by the end needing to be the taller GoodGymmers, thanks Sarah K) plus photographers Run Leader Richard and Backmarker Alice/Margaret capturing the moments as well as participating, we were soon Very Tidy Indeed and Satya was amazed how quickly it had gotten so tidy. And all the boxes were ready for recycling and any leaking cleaning fluids were bagged in shiny blue bin bags, even though they all smelled of lovely soap.

We took the opportunity to have photos in our high viz jackets (now you see us, now you don't) before we were forced to give them back, run back to Queens Square and most of us carry on to Pieminister for National Pie Week's lovely pies and warmth - thanks to Clo for organising another great Eats.