Who would have thought a humble line of railings could have such an impact on the look of a place? Certainly the primary colour sections outside the Filwood community centre make the place look that extra bit more fun and welcoming, so it was great to be able to help out with some of the painting today.

After a (fairly challenging) hill up from Victoria park we were split into teams by our host Tim, with one group for each colour and one for a bit of extra scraping and brushing down.

The bulk of the painting had already been completed during some previous volunteer sessions so our job was to find any bits that had been missed - and make some difficult decisions about which colour to choose on some of the boundary supports between adjoining sections!

There's really nothing as satisfying as a bit of painting so it was fab to spend an hour out in the sunshine helping to support the amazing work of the new administration team at the centre - which even looked in danger of closing down at one stage.

Welcome to our new recruits Andy and Tom - we certainly needed the extra pairs of hands today.

More than 40 GoodGymers, two locations to go to, two charities to leaflet for, plus one charity that need help with three tasks - sounds like a seemless night of GoodGym action, doesn't it?

Mina detour

One group seamlessly took on the task of leafleting for two charities around Mina Park. One was Real Economy who we have helped previously and who are keen to further spread the word about their brilliant social enterprise around Bristol. Secondly, we continued on our mass leafleting for Penny Brohn for Stomp, their sponsored walk in October. The group did a brilliant job of an extended, alternative route run, zipping all the leaflets out, having time to do a squats and lunges session and getting through most of a pint before the rest of us got back. Thank you very much Alice for your brilliant run-leading and Alex for your back-marking with sore legs!

Easton promise

Meanwhile, the rest of us trotted off to Easton to help Annali from Litterarti with clearing up an underpass in the local area. Annali explained to us that the skate park there is a really important part of the community, where lots of local young people can come and hang out. The area is not looked after by the council, so it is up to the local community to keep it in shape to discourage it from being a place of anti-social behaviour. Annali split us into groups - teams of litter pickers and recyclers went through the whole area clearing it up, collecting bags in and putting up new bags to discourage future litter. Another group brushed up the whole area to make it as safe as possible for children who play there. A third group took on the pillars: Litterarti get Street Artists in to paint these pillars, so in preparation for the next set of artists, we painted over previous graffiti and tags which had been left on the pillars.

All too soon, it was time to pack up the paint and get back on the road to central Bristol. With the knowledge that Alice's group were already safely nursing pints, there was, unfortunately, no more time for squat-stops on the way home, much to everyone's disappointment.

Are you Fi-real?

Fi achieved her 200th Good Deed on her mission on Saturday! To congratulate her on this amazing achievement, tonight Fi received her 200 Good Deeds t-shirt. Matt has once again done a brilliant job of making Fi's mermaid-likeness and goat-memories live on forever through her t-shirt (and we even got a photo of her mermaid-ing painting tonight to match). Massive well done, Fi!

Our very first community mission in GG Bristol - and for a fantastic cause.

84% of families with a disabled child can’t access regular leisure and their health and well-being are suffering as a result. Furthermore, 72% of parents suffer from mental health difficulties as a result of isolation.

Gympanzees aim to address this by opening a permanent activity centre that will cater for the needs of all children with disabilities. However, this will not be opening until 2021 so in the mean time they are setting up a Pop Up Activity Centre run over the summer holidays at Emersons Green primary school.

Goodgym were asked to help convert three school classrooms for this purpose which meant

• Moving anything fragile or dangerous into another room using our amazing Tetris skills
• Stacking tables and chairs into an outside space to be used as a pop-up coffee shop
• Rotating all the shelves and cupboards so the shelves were safely facing against the walls
• Vacuuming the emptied rooms
• Erecting a fence around the play area
• Eating well deserved cake which was delicious but may not have been vegan

Special mentions to Fi for cycling all the way from South Bristol (and finding the school in spite of GPS instructions), to Alice and Jenny for excellent vacuuming as evidenced by the photos, to Richard for services to coffee machine plumbing and to Dave for overall logistics.

The most important sporting event of the day

Tonight, the world watched as two closely-matched teams went head-to-head.

One has a much smaller population but had a strong set of skills. The other had a bigger population and the endurance required to keep up the pace. Both were prepped for the high expectations upon them. They arrived on the pitch just before 7pm, mesmerised their audience with their enthusiasm and commitment and they did not stop until the hard work was done.

I am, of course, talking about the two task groups who helped at the Reconnect Project and Dame Emily Park.

Team 1: A lot at stake

Not only did Mel excel herself with such a wonderful pun it now graces the title of this report, she also led a group on a stake-erecting expedition to Dame Emily Park. Unfortunately, the council mowed down the beautiful wildflowers that had been planted in the park. The GoodGymers met with Ursula, who had managed to gather posts to put around them to protect them going forward. Following the recent heatwave, this job was a lot harder than it seemed at first, and it took a lot of hardwork, force and willpower to get those stakes firmly in the ground. The group managed to put eight protective stakes in the ground and water 100 lavender plants in between. Their hard-work was rewarded by some much-appreciated biscuits, which went to good use as they fueled them to find six Gromits on their way home!

Team 2: Reconnecting

Meanwhile, the second group headed to Cafe Connect, part of the Reconnect Project in Easton. Although a small space, the cafe are preparing for a reopening in September and so had lots of jobs for us to do to help them. Libby and the team quickly set us to work in different groups, putting up magnetic noticeboards, polyfilla-ing and painting corners inside, sanding the serving table, planting tomato plants, painting the outdoor walls and moving bits to the roof. Everyone was having such a good time using their tools that it was with several disappointed 'awws' that we rested our tools and headed back with a promise to revisit to continue our work soon.

Unlike other, inferior, sporting feats of the night, none of our teams went home disappointed tonight, but proud of a hard effort and good run on a July Tuesday eve. Well done everyone!

Phew, what a scorcher!

Temperatures were raised today and not just in anticipation of a tense World Cup showdown between Sweden and England, it was actually flipping hot.

All the more impressive then that a hardy bunch of seven runners agreed to join me on one of our longest ever runs (a 10k round trip) to help out Brave Bold Drama at Creative Workspace in Withywood. Brave Bold Drama are seeking to make drama accessible to families in an area that gets very little funding and is in fact one of the most resource deprived in the whole country. Our job was to clear their outdoor space of litter (and a couple of tyres) so that they could lay wood chip and create a welcoming community space. Our host Paul even sweetened the deal (literally) by laying on water, tea and biscuits for us when we arrived.

With such a long run (made slightly longer by a wrong turn at the last junction) we didn't have much time to spare but we had pretty much cleared the central area of rubbish by the time we had to leave - so fuelled by jammy dodgers and chocolate biscuits we took the more scenic route home along the Malago Greenway.

Meanwhile, Dave took our remaining group around the harbourside to join Sarah of FoHRB (Friends of Harbourside Reed Bed) in a little waterside gardening. This certainly sounds like a nice place to hang out on a hot day - and I understand there were some little moor hens to coo over too! A few enthusiastic individuals even completed a harbourside loop with their run home.