Tonight we returned to Haviland House to bring some Christmas cheer to the lovely residents. It was the first time since 2019 that we were were invited so it was with great excitement that we went along there this evening.

Huge GG welcome to Susan who joined us for the first time tonight - hopefully the first of many.

Natacha and Stephen brought their beautiful 10 week old baby boy, Ben, with them . Looking adorable in his elf outfit, he doubled up as a modern day baby Jesus and everyone just loved him. It was lovely to welcome Natacha's mum too, who was over from France on holiday.

6 years ago Jemima was our little 4 year old angel who came along to the same event in 2019 Tonight at a grown up 10 year old, she returned with her Mum, our very own social secretary, Tamsin Well done both of you - it was so lovely to have you at this event tonight.

The turnout tonight was great. Many thanks to Paul for his choice of dongs and hymns Nick who not only sorted all the sing sheets but came out of GoodGym retirement and joined us for singing too ( still looking great in the GG black t shirt ! ) Special mention to John too for bringing along a speaker so that we could have a musical accompaniment- not sure how it would have turned out without it ! 😄🙈

Thank you to you all also, that I haven't yet mentioned for your energy and enthusiasm not to mention the vocals you brought to the party! Gillybean Roxy Barbara El Mel Paul

To see the delight on many of the resident's faces was most definitely worth all the effort. We were not any where near perfect but for a scratch performance I was extremely proud of you all and what we achieved ❤️

Some of went on to the pub to re lubricate our vocal cords afterwards- that was very nice too !

Hope to see all of you fur our soldier walk this Friday. Meet at Splashpoint LC at 6pm Finish at The Egremont pub at 7pm for a quick drink.

If you can't make it then it's a very Merry Christmas from me to you all and here's to 2025

Julia xx

Saturday social vibes

What a wonderful turn out on a sunny afternoon to support the Care for Veterans summer fayre. There were 13 of us including Jemima who came along in her GG t-shirt with mum Tamsin to help us too - If only there was a junior GG Jemmie would be there every week!

it was lovely to see Natacha again and we are looking forward to welcoming a GG baby boy in 3 months time :)

There was a guest appearance from Nick who brought some muscle along to compliment Johns!

Belinda, Sue Daisy and Anne together with Roxy and Paula all pulled out all the energy meaning that we managed to be cleared up within 1 hour. Myra was delighted and let us choose a drink whilst Jemmie oped for sweet treats ( lots of them! )

And so to the pub

We all headed to the pub to celebrate Belinda 300th good deed that she achieved last week. John had made an amazing GoodGym Gulliver in celebration and had also managed to keep it a secret from her too. Congratulation and thank you to Belinda Kudos to John too !!

It was a really nice way to spend a late afternoon. Roxy has requested a picnic next time!

Lets see what we can dig up

On a beautiful evening in sunny Worthing we all met up at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolph's Church Garden and our regular hosts Val and Rik. Val is always super organised with her instructions so we were able to crack on with jobs straight away.

Natacha who made a return to GoodGym tonight and John set about their first, rather impossible, task to put some hooks into the wall to train the brambles upwards rather than along the ground. John stuck with this for a while but with the hooks being fairly short together with an unforgiving brick wall, it wasn't long before he spied the big boulders that had been bugging him every recent visit. Very bravely (and without permission from Val !) John decided to put all his strength training into practice and dig up and roll the boulders away from the area we were clearing. And WOW what a success ! Take a look at the photographic evidence and be prepared to be impressed!

In The Bigger Picture

It was also great to see newly retired Nick back after a long break from Monday night delights! Nick got stuck into digging with Paul and Ricky and Duncan.

Big shout out to Duncan who smashed out a 55km ultra yesterday with great success. He did admit to his legs being very tired but he looked incredibly fresh as he whizzed off on his electric bike to catch the train home. Also well done to his partner in crime Lucy who also completed the run in style.

Daisy made a clean sweep of the area and Belinda and Barbara worked tirelessly to attack aforementioned untamed brambles whilst also keeping an eye on John!!

Meanwhile Paula was weeding and clearing and loading the green bin helped by Belinda was also mulching down the debris to make room for more.

As the photos will show, this evening was a particularly sociable and ended with 4 of us heading to the pub for a drink to wet the baby's head ( our new grandson - Teddy)

Talking of this little bundle - apologies again, for the delay in getting this report out. I had literally just sat down to write the report yesterday evening and got a call to take Pecan the pug back to meet his new baby brother after a weeks holiday in Goring! I must have had GoodGym on my mind as I accidentally shared the photo of pecan in his car seat to the GG whats app group instead of the family one! Le oops !!

This week we are at Kamelia Kids on Thursday as we wont be at a task next BH Monday. I hope some of you will be able to make it please! Sign up here https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/kamelia-kids-6908bdba-f762-41c5-8b4c-732eb44adf08

Have another great week and, for those who are not retired, enjoy the late summer long weekend !

lots of love to you all.

Julia xx