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.

Another chilly evening saw a good group of 11 goodgymers meet up to get active and do good.

Tonight, we were jogging and walking over to St. James Community Centre, next to the very beautifully gothic Church. It was a short distance of just under 2km each way, but welcomed on the way back to warm up after the task. Our task, as the numbers were good, to help edge the lawn, sweep up leaves from the public path, remove the larger weed growth in between the paving slabs and then came the burning.....man

As the joggers and runners arrived first they were given first choice, Dylan and Rosie took up the flame throwers (well not quite, health and safety and all that!), Darren was on edge with the trusty spade, Martin and Will went out into the darkness to sweep up the leaves, Sophie, Llion, Catherine, Flo and Neda got on with removing the weeds from the slabs.

It was 30 minutes of cold, hard work, whilst the strange Tesla car flashing it's light at us, let us know that it had nearly achieved consciousness.....Michael did not like this particular car, nor did they trust it!

Moving on, photos galore and a good chat as we all caught up with the weeks gone by, and it was soon time to down tools and head home.

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

On our final group task for the year, we took to the chilly streets of Cardiff and ran, jogged, walked and cycled to our friends at Cwtch Together. Michael was all festive with lights twinkling through his goodgym top,

you're welcome people of Cardiff

The goodgym speaker was also along for the run, finding it's new place fitted to the goodgym bag, the playlist had been found already and was ready to go as soon as we arrived at the task.

Lot's of chatting along the way as we discussed our festive plans, we were also heading for food afterwards so they was also chats about food......mmmmmmmm

The task tonight was helping to clear the grounds, the storm at the weekend had cleared all leaves from the trees - at Cwtch and in the park next door. As soon as the leaves were seen our playful members couldn't help but kick through them.

Michael went inside to get bags, gloves and a light, the speaker was turned on and the Christmas hits started playing as we all got to work. People were collecting leaves into bags, bins and sweeping more into piles. It was like a task that wouldn't end, not to be put off we kept on going with a song along the way and soon the pathway and side of the building were clear and could be seen again.

we totaled 14 bags and 2 bins of leaves in all, thats a lot of bare trees! A quick group photo and it was time to head back for food, Michael decided to keep the tunes going as we made our way for food, spreading the cheer as they went.

We take a well deserved 2 weeks off now, returning for the ever anticipated January Challenge.

See you all soon.

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.