Great to welcome Alice, Beatrice and Deety on their first GoodGym outing and to see Brian again after a little while. Also a hello to tourists Katrin and Bea, and a massive congrats to Rosa on reaching her 50th good deed!

We were over at Abbey Gardens to join them on their first open volunteer session post lockdown. There were a variety of tasks to help with, from watering and seed gathering to weeding and, one of our favourite GoodGym activities, moving a pile of heavy things from one place to another.

The area at Abbey Gardens sits on the site of the remains of a 12th century abbey, where monks once ran a kitchen garden. In more recent times however, the site had become derelict and it was only in 2006 that some local residents decided to set about rescuing it. It's fantastic to see what they've achieved in this time with their regular volunteer sessions, which are now running on the last Saturday of each month from 12 - 1, with an opportunity to bring along some lunch and stick about afterwards for a chat. We can't wait to see what the plans for the site bring about and look forward to the next session.

With the precipitation ceasing at bang on 7pm, and the red shirts emerging from the darkness, it was obviously Wednesday.

Random Weekly Question was a pub based one "favourite boozer?" We had ones from your local towns, Uni Towns, and work friendly. With so many shutting recently, It seemed like a good question. Reminds me of an internet joke I saw recently - "State of the art and new social interaction system has been re-released - called Pub" I got gifted with very thoughtful b'day card, a massive caricature of myself, very sweet guys.

Manorfeld School in our targets, with the normal mixture of jobs, mainly cleaning lockers and moving unwieldy desks. Graham and I (yes we're sharing the blame) got one stuck in the lift, before it had to be manually opened. All's well that ends well. The lockers were soaked and scrubbed, most of the name tags were removed. A pretty decent 45min shift there guys. I suggested/requested that we run the return 3k at 5k race pace. Sharon said that was bloody tough when she got back - sounds like 5k pace to me. With all the other longer trendier distances out there, I feel the little old 5k gets overlooked. It's not about completing, it's about pushing your body and mind through a barrier and coming out the other side, content with your effort. Essentially a shorter sustained sprint, less injury chance and more convenient to train for. It is THE distance if you ask me. So who's ParkRunning this weekend?!

Mel made "the best cake I've ever eaten" as Tori said - it was bloody good. A thick chocolaty melt-in-mouth orange-imbued sensation. Bravo Mel. Most of us decamped to a little Japanese place and chowed down on Ramed and discussed tribe culture, Eugene's Martial Art flexibility and other stuff. Right, that's all from me, have a quality festive weekend and good luck with your shopping...and PARK RUN :)

See you all next week

B

Winter hath arrived. A cool 16 of us yesterday, layered up like thick skinned cooking onions, took to to the streets to set up a Christmas fair for Cody Dock.

Post celebrating some of our team racing at Parkrun and RunThrough, commending just how much we got through last week and general chit chat...we got to our random weekly question. Using a highly advanced psychological technique (take notes Mel) in a bid to put the cold weather in perspective "what's the coldest and most miserable you've ever been?" Wet 10milers in York, Boston in Winter, under-prepped camping, getting lobbed overboard into 'glacial melt-water', Slovakian mountains, wet army training, long poorly prepped winter rides, getting splashed by a bus in the freezing cold, The Dales, and The Northern Lights with a babbling instructor. A bit cold and stiff...we legged it into the dark night.

Dan and James kept an honest pace up the front, we continuously talked to each other throughout, pretending we were effortless. Classic. When we got there Simon let us know what was what. If he had a list, and it was a cartoon...the scroll would've dropped down to his feet and rolled off into the distance. We got to work straight away. Moving gazebos. Setting them up. Shifting outdoor furniture. Setting up outdoor and indoor decorations. Preparing the food hall. We worked quickly and sharply - but it was a long one. Luckily we had something to show for it (asides from a euphemism sharpening contest whilst constructing the gazebo) - the place was transformed, ready for The Frost Fair this Saturday.

Some light sprints got us home quicker, and increased our bio-mechanics along route. 10 to be precise. With Graham doing the countdown for the middle group, bellowing "3, 2, 1..." in homage to the gladiator referee

Some of us went to the pub for a liquid debrief, others went home with early starts and slept through their 5.30am alarm. Can't win them all!

We've got a great task next week at Red Box Project, yeah the one where I got my words mumbled trying to explain it.

"Our aim is to provide free sanitary wear to any young woman that may struggle to access it, this means more boxes in more schools across the UK – we need your help!"

We'll be sorting and packing the boxes for them next week, sign up here - our monthly social is after too!

Alrighty that's all folks. Make that weekend count now...

B

Strong showing from the Newhamites last night, more hands on deck, and just as well because the tasks were lined up aplenty at Manorfield Primary School.

We rejoiced in awe and wonder at Alice's remarkable 200 good deeds, a template for consistency - the backbone/Queen of GGN keeps inspiring. Just another 300 tasks till you get a new t-shirt. On the other end of GoodGym experience spectrum, Brian joined for session numero uno, Christiaan came back for a second session as did Amanda. Newham's next generation - lovely stuff.

Our Random Weekly Question was based on wishy-washy non science based hunches "what superstitions do you have?" You guys are all quite fact based creatures, so no proper peculiar answers. A few of you ensure you have an even step count up stairs, Amanda has a penchant for uneven numbers, Eugene likes equalising his cycling with some backstrokes for good measure, James follows a left side first dressing routine pre-footy and me and Al have lucky shorts. There you have it - we're almost certifiably logical.

We shook a leg down to the school, Paul then split us into about 5 groups, each with a different job. Dismantling cupboards, constructing shelves, moving (massive) bits of furniture and sorting through a store room. Lucky we multiplied by 80% on last week's turnout (in spite of our comrades at the central line striking), as we just managed to get it all done in the nick of time, and it was a hefty old workload too. Bravo!

Once back at base, we elongated some of those running muscles, then loitered around and pretended not to be waiting for Hilary's baking delights. Vegan brownies with pecan infused perfection - bloody lovely. Kev, you better watch Great British Bake Off through from series one mate - the bar has been set high. Having said that you could just bring sugar cubes and we'll all mob you for them, brown ones though, we ain't philistines.

We've got a fitness boosting session to top off next week's task, sign up here - not one to miss.

Have a solid Thursday and a nourishing weekend.

B