Another Tuesday, we know what that means........

It's goodgym

We had a group of 8 volunteers tonight, including our tourist from Tower Hamlets Kareem.

A warm, Welsh welcome to you....

CROESO

This was our first ever time helping out at this hostel, but not our first time helping the Salvation Army.

First to set off were our walking elves, making their way directly to the location shared by Michael. Then, after a warm up led by Lucy it was time for the reindeer runners to head out.

A shorter route there, in case we needed extra task time, both groups arrived simultaneously. Michael rang the doorbell and we were let in.

Michael also works for the Salvation Army at another hostel that we have helped, so tonight he was also task organiser. A quick chat about what the hostel is, and it was time to make our way to the back yard and get busy.

Task ahoy

Tonight's task,

• Sweep the yard
• De-tangle the bramble from the clothes lines
• Weed the stones
• Cut back brambles growing from the train tracks
• Put up the lights around the railings
• Unpack and put out the new table and chairs.

Everyone got to work as tasks were handed out, Lucy and Jonathan grabbed the secauters and got chopping. Owen and Kareem we're raking it in as they weeded the gravel. Martin straight in with the brush, bum bum. Neda got down and dirty weeding the yard. Emily, with tool in hand, was on light duty. Each set of lights had to be unscrewed for the batteries, then put back together so that they were waterproof. Then cable ties secured them giving us the way glow that was needed in these Winter months.

Greenery collected was put back on the land behind the fence, where it will rot down and feed those hungry worms. All that was left was to unpack the furniture, Neda and Martin got to work on this.

We bid farewell to the support worker as we left, and took to the streets for a slightly longer run to make 4.5km in total.

Along the way, managing to pick up a student who ran with us nearly back to the Glassworks, but he had to head off to the train station. Will we see him again, who knows....

Once back, we went into the Glassworks for a games night and lots of laughs.

Congratulations to Kareem for winning telestrations and Emily for winning Exploding Kittens.

See you all again soon. 🎄

Tonight was our yearly Halloween run.

Michael had promised that if others came in some kind of costume, he would wear the inflatable dinosaur costume.

We met at our usual start location in the City Centre, after a quick chat we welcomed our newest person Deborah, who had joined us at a goodgym run at Love Trails.

CROESO

After a brief moment inflating, and some strange looks from the pub behind us, it was time to set off on our run.

We had cheers of dinosaur, t-rex, there were beeping cars and lots of waves. Maybe we should have a T-Rex more often.

The task tonight was helping at Cwtch Together, a charity run disability play project, which promotes inclusive play and socialisation for disabled children and their families.

They are holding 2 Halloween parties, Friday and Saturday, and our fun task was to help set up the spooktacular event.

Everyone got into the spirit as we dressed tables, got pumpkins ready, built a play house, decorated the hall and carried in sand pits and black boards.

As we ended our evening with the usual group photo, the t-rex returned for the jog back.

Join us next week as we begin our Xmas tasks for 3 weeks.

Tonight's mission for the Cardiff crew, the same as usual

Do Good, Get Fit

Our task, helping at the Salvation Army with the overgrown bushes and grass. The "Northlands Life House" is a hostel run by the Salvation Army, its objectives;

We offer a safe, supportive environment for individuals, helping them make positive choices about their current circumstances. As part of our Young Person’s contract, The Salvation Army provides support and accommodation for young people who are experiencing homelessness, across a range of services in Cardiff

There was a lot of work going on at the hostel, with upgrades to windows and doors. The bushes had been left for a while, so needed some TLC to tidy up the look. Michael was double hatted for this task, as both the run leader and the task organiser. The jobs that were on for the day were,

• Tidying the buses
• Removing ivy from walls
• Cutting back bramles
• Strimming the grass section
• Collecting the trimmings in wheelbarrows
• Running the wheelbarrows to the compost heap

The team went straight into volunteer mode, as Michael passed out the tools for the night (he even jumped in to help, in between photos). 30 hard minutes later, we looked back at the work achieved, it was a great help to see things looking tidier with just the tops of the hedges left to trim.

We even had a special goodgym bush now, after the hard work of Jonathan and Lucy to create our heart bush.

Thanks to all for coming out on these darker nights, the hostel appreciates the hard work. See you next time.