We were definitely getting noticed by the community on our litter puck of Redcliffe this half term - someone parking a car offered us hot drinks, laughed saying we made him feel like his Mum tidying up his room and came back to offer us his torch, and then, the piéce de resistance (thats French, Vaguely Northern Darren will know from his French A-level at the all girls school) was a van full of Police turning up complete with blue flashing lights as someone (presumably someone else?) had reported an attempted break-in in-progress at the next-door Nursery School/Children's Centre where we help out. They were laughing, too, as they disembarked the van and could see our bags, litterpickers and headtorches as soon as they arrived.

They were more than happy to join in our end-of-task photos before grtting on their way to a probably-more-challenging evening.

Meanwhile there was much chat about Roddy celebrating his 50th year and it turning out that Jason is, too, being just 9 days older. Celebratory Eau de Roddy is unlikely to catch on, though.

Much chatter and 50th Birthday/school tales/80s TV discussions continued with Caroline, Richard G , Richard B joining Roddy, Darren and Melanie as the speed daters were back at Workout's Club Haus. At least we were there until Richard G declared he'd lost interest at Michael Fish in the rendition of John Kettley is a Weatherman by A Tribe of Toffs - definitely not a description of us, Winchester or not.

More next week?

Many red t-shirts make light work and 17 is definitely many!

Somehow the walkers beat the runners to the Children's Scrapstore and the ITV news rep beat us all to be waiting for us with the Scrapstore staff.

A bit of stage management and us all pretending we liked talking to each other as we walked to the far end of the warehouse, having stripped off our outer layers to be as on-brand as possible for the camera!

Those who were new to the phone task soon understood the process and methods were developed, adapted, abandoned and just ignored as the production line sped towards filling the two empty crates with newly matched up handsets to desk units, plus all the suspiciously "not phone" hits separated for recycling.

Gone are the days of top executives making important deals on these phones, or calling home that they'd be late AGAIN, instead they're off to children's playgrounds for some make believe games, calling home that they'd be late AGAIN and other storytelling...

Somehow, the kit at the bottom of the crates was even dirtier than the rest but we had time to wash hands before our successful end of task photo by two very full crates of matched phones, some of us having been interviewed and all of us keen to get back to Workout where cake was awaiting us to celebrate Alice's 10th anniversary of joining GoodGym and Tim's 200th good deed. It reminded us just how much we like cake, and friends. And cake.

Well done everyone - we smashed it (well, it sounded like we smashed it)!

What a night for Harsheh to decide to join in the fun with Bristol GoodGym!

We were spreading cheer throughout the city as three teams set about a Taskmaster-style scavenger hunt to create three photos, which had to include a team member, one for each of three Bristol categories * Brunel * Cabot * Concorde (not a Bristol person, clarified on the night)

Most of you will have heard of Brunel (top engineering bloke, designed railway gubbins, a ship and a bridge or two, see one of the his best. Cabot is well known to people who grew up in Bristol but is just a shopping centre/circus and tower to some later arrivals, is John Cabot, actually an Italian explorer who went to Canada in 1497 even though they didn't have parkrun then. Lots of Concorde was designed in Bristol, with the help of some other people. Concorde Alpha-Foxtrot now lives at [Aerospace Bristol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_Bristol0, which is actaully in South Glos, not Bristol.

Anyway, three teams each of 5 intrepid GoodGymmers set about town, running and walking and using local knowledge or creative crafting, thanks to the Task Bags provided by Richard B who came up with the whole idea, armed with a trusty GG Bristol rechargeable light to enable better photo lighting on a gloomy and, it turned out, soggy night.

So much creativity, the teams were buzzing (or dripping, I can't remember which) when they returned to base, specifically Workout as it was so wet Melanie didn't have to stand outside to judge the team's amazing entries. Setting aside the task was to create three photos, they had so many brilliant creations it would be wrong to not upload them all for everyone to enjoy.

Stars of the show (as well as Richard B for designing the task) are * Jason for coming up with the idea that the Lego store might have a Lego Concorde, which they didn't but the bloke instore happened to have an actual model out the back which he was more than happy^ to bring onto the shop flower and be photographed with it and Jason * Vaguely Northern Darren lying on a cold, wet bench, dressed as Santa, to be a human Concorde * Paul (who hadn't signed up to the run, surprisingly, so I'm now going back to the register to add him and tag him), Jason and Richard also being human Concordes, at a bus stop with a Concorde sign * Alexis boldly wearing a crafted Brunel top hat in the dark, holding up Cabot's ship, The Matthew * A whole family of Brunels/friends of Brunel down at the SS Great Britain (two of them have beards, not sure of all IDs, I think Darren, Ed, Alexis, Matt and Richard B?) * Tim giving John Cabot a reassuring arm hug (is that a thing?), John also sporting a GoodGym t-shirt and Santa hat in another photo, and a Concorde paper plane in a third * A googly eyed Brunel being looked at by another set of googly eyes (there aren't enough googly eyes in the world, and they're not single use plastic they're reusable) * Googly eyes also featuring on a stylish Cabot rendition with some photo-bombing tourists * The Bristol insitution that is Brunel's Buttery, Brunel being famous for his love of doorstep bacon sarnies, which was up for sale in summer and I don't know if it sold, introducing Harsheh to an important Bristol landmark * A photo of Cabot at Brunel House (the hand holding the phone being the GoodGymmer in the photo?! * Clo, Freya, Roddy and Frances successfully avoiding all photos?

And then time for pizza, chips, snacks, chocolate Christmas Pudding prizes, pink wafers and party rings (GG Bristol staple foods) and few mince pies and festive bakewells for good measure.

Thanks for making it a fabulous GoodGym 2024, here's to 2025 being just as good if not even better!

^he might or might not have been bribed

It was back to the business of cleaning, measuring and cataloguing donated Things for the Library of Things, indoors and slightly warmer than it could have been with a yellow warning for ice after the day's snow.*

A bizarrely high number of hoes and drills were in the pile of Things to be listed (to be fair, I'm not sire what a non-bizarre number would be), along with camping chairs, DIY tools, a vintage seeing machine and the inevitable tent which we managed to get back into its slightly-ripped (not by us) bag. Its the only time us GoodGymmers are allowed to touch power tools so we made the most of testing, invluding the dreaded hedge-trimmers.

It was great to see more items joining the inventory and another Library opening soon in Frenchay so even more Bristolians can borrow items instead of buying and storing them.

We were soon on our way again, it seemed to have warmed up a bit and we grabbed a drink at Bar + Block as it was a bit chilly to sit out by the water whilst the speed dating happened at Workout.

Hopefully we'll be back at least once in January to sort through lots more Things!

*no snow in Castle Park