A beautiful sunset had just, er, set as GoodGym Bristol amassed for their Tuesday goodness of March, including Ben along for his first good deed - welcome to our club!

Sparks is one of our city centre beneficiaries that means even if the runners go the long way round, there's still loads of time to make a real difference. This week the walkers arrived just as the runners (led by Richard B and backmarked by Richard G, keeping things simple for Ben to learn names) had been told what was happening so could already see how best to get involved/in the way of moving lots of desktops (not computers, the actual tops of desks) AND NOTHING ELSE.

Harsheh showed off his pallet-lift driving skills (not a power tool, so OK GG Health and Safety, and I'm pretty sure Jason has some pallet lift driving on his CV, too) with desk top piled high whilst other took solo or duo (not the Duolingo owl) trips with a desk to the large room they were being stored in - thankfully MUCH bigger than the fitting room into which the Christmas decorations did NOT fit for our last visit. Emma and Vaguely Northern Darren proved masters of the "balance it on your head" method whilst everyone else seemed happy with the more social duo technique.

Desk after desk disappeared so Melanie was quickly messaging the Duty Manager to check what else needed to shift and was updated that the desk dividers next to the desktops had now shifted from the DO NOT MOVE category to the DEFINITELY MOVE one, in writing, on a not-disappearing text message.

This may sound simple but each divider had two trailing electric leads that weren't quite long enough to wrap or tuck neatly so were trailing on the floor with very careful not-tripping-over GoodGymmers skilfully manoeuvring them to the same room as the desks.

Obviously there was at least one GoodGymmer who opted for a ride on the pallet lift back to the big co-working zone and, after the serious business of end-of-task photos, a huge space and multitude of office chairs meant freewheeling GoodGymmers and a backwards row just for fun.

Sparks is home to many artists and one of the walls had a big black and white drawing of what might or might not be building of Bristol but it definitely had Sparks, the suspension bridge and some balloons - enough to convince Caroline and Marianne it was, indeed, Bristol.

When everything was shifted and the chairs put back so no-one would know we'd moved them, we were soon on our way back down the stairs and on to The Stable for GoodGym Eats, pizzas all round (though some were quite long) and some more chatting/attempting to grill Ben who was very good at deflecting questions. I wonder where that life skill was acquired?

Same time same place next week?

With a lucky break in the weather (but a wee bit chilly), we welcomed Ramani to her first GoodGym task after she arrived for a documebt check and hadn't realised she could stay for the Group Run - hope it's the first of many!

We were all soon being let into the loading bay of Sparks and being let loose on taking down their communal area Christmas decorations, many of which we'd tied into the ceiling back in November. They'd stayed up much better than expected!

Spread over three floors, there was strategic lift manoeuvring and stair climbiing having found cardboard boxes to pack away decorations for use next year (if they survive!) and carefully squished paper lantern decorations to their flat state.

A quick team sport of small LUSH box collapsing and a human chain to over-fill a cupboard and our job was done.

Indoors again next week for our Group Run, in case that tempts you back!

Six GoodGymers helped Sparks make the store even sparkkier for Christmas. We welcomed Rosie for her very first task and she got in to the Christmas spirit with Janka and Alexis decorating the tree with massive bows. Dave, Jason and Vaguely Northern Darren were told to cluster the paper snowflakes in the ceiling tiles, and after initial success, were thwarted by thin string and loose tiles! A quick addition to the strings by the more than capable paper snowflake making engineers, we completed the task faster than you could recite Santa's raindeers names.. Rudolph, dasher, comet, blitzen, prancer...See, that quick! All done (and I'm reliably informed that the decorations are all still up! (and not just the ones Lexi came over to do when she saw we were struggling! We love going to Sparks and hope to be back soon, unless the toaster needs moving!

A bumper night of GoodGymming for regulars and new GoodGymmers alike - six lovely people completing their forat ever task, welcome Rob, Wendie, Charlie, Emma, Kirsten and Marta who's no longer a mystery!

Almost half-and-half walkers and runners, 6 of us made the most of the transit time to walk and talk, the 8 runners making a quicker arrival and getting some introductions done in time for our arrival - thanks Vaguely Northern Darren for run leading and Dave G for backmarking having already helped with document checks. Jason was most excellent as a walking group back marker as we struggled more keeping six of us together walking through the city centre.

The delicate tram-moving proved way too anxiety inducing for me but the excellent TaskForce were much better at it, supported by the not-so-strong yet team whilst those already warmed up somehow shifted an incredibly heavy ex-House of Fraser cosmetic counter out of the way - apparently it felt like solid granite (though so did the blatantly perspex tram cover).

The transport zone was ready for a make-over with fabric being stripped from walls, shelves cleared and a low wall (astro-)turfed as the new location for the "Do not touch this" tram which we all made sure we touched, obviously.

Meanwhile, lots more wood and metal was shifted to clear space to a door which led to another room of wood and metal that all wanted shifting to another mystery room that already contained wood and metal - that's just our sort of job! Some of the wood was from theatre sets - Sparks is a creative space and they've developed contacts all over the city to make use of items which may otherwise be chopped up - this time is was mysterious black shapes and a couple of arrows, plus fluffy white boards just too long to be easily tipped or moved. our speciality.

Before we knew it, our time was up and it was "find somewhere for the final task photo", knowing that we're back to Sparks next week for a planned task - this had been an "eek, can you come along, we really neeeeeed you" request. So Chiristmas decorating it is for next week, what with it being November by then...

All of this was rounded off with a drink and more chat at Club Haus, pots of tea winning hands down again, Caroline, Marianne and Helen playing teapot tetris to get all the tea things back on a single tray whilst Ed supervised wearing a t-shirt that he'd received for completing an event instead of his usual volunteer wardrobe.

A great night, same time, same place next week?

When was the last time you moved your toaster? Did crumbs spill everywhere? Was it 7ft high? If the answer to all of those was yes how much marmite do you get through!!!!

Six goodgymers met at Sparks to move a toaster. Veterans of toaster moving might remember we had to empty it first before. Imagine our shock when the toaster was empty. All we had to do was move it across the floor to the other side. How hard can it be? After debating the best way to move it without scratching the floor we settled on sliding a cloth underneath…. and off we went at speed…. Scratttttttch… a quick adjustment and we were off again. We were soon across the shop floor and got it tucked up in the corner. All that was left was to arrange seats into a circle for the clown life drawing. Apparently the clowns are full clothed… which is probably for the best. And we were done. Well done everyone!

If anyone gets this far tell us your best clown joke or fact.

6 runners, 4 walkers and a cyclist (not the set up to a joke, an actual fact!) made their way to Sparks to help get them ready for their first Birthday on Saturday.

Helen joined us for her first group run after deciding to see what the difference is between morning sessions at Windmill Hill, to the evening crowd in Queen Square!

We all converged in the alley behind Sparks and Lucy showed us to the toaster that we duly emptied, shifted 2 metres, them filled again!

NikFrancesMarianne and I, Vaguely Northern Darren, made light work of table and chair organising, before we all went upstairs and shifted some not very light stage sets. My first time using a trolley thing, also needing some extra wheels to shift it, taking around 6 people and a significant amount of time manoeuvering , before we found that 4 people (if one of the 4 is Valè, could actually carry it much quicker! The service lift was an experience, that if you weren't there, you wouldn't understand 'man'.

After realising the door somewhere wasn't shut properly, Jordan braved the 3rd floor on his own, and survived to close the door and get us moving again. Everyone worked hard tonight, including Frances and Richard working tirelessly at keeping the doors open.

Back downstairs at 7:45 for a quick group photo before Frances and Marianne spontaneously joined the GoodGym Eats crew, while Caroline stuck to her guns of never doing anything spontaneously in her life and ran home.

Thanks to Frances for the pun, honourable mention to Richard for 'Up down Junk'. [edit from Melanie (in Finland) - we definitely need to use that one!]