Fantastic sunshine for the first Group Walk/Run since the clocks went forward for British Summer Time and we were making the most of it at Brunswick Cemetery whilst the ground (and gravel) were dry. All after the prunners (the prun being the pre-run run) arrived finishing off their ice creans after a harbour loop/photo shoot.

Many hands and a few trowels and forks made light work of the "finding the spiral path AGAIN" task, hoping that the new Council mowing system of not leaving all the clippings and seeds on the mown grass will make a difference this year. We can hope - at least the gravel had dried enough the grass and other weeds were easy to pull out!

Meanwhile, Harsheh and Darren werr putting the root puller to good use taking on the bramble roots between the tombs.

With lots of progress in the Cemetery, it was time for the runners and walkers to head back to Queen Square and on to Pho (now pronounced Fuh, not Fe) for much good food and company.

Spring is here!

7 runners and 1 walker made their way to Emmaus to help sort out their over flowing shelves. They've had a number of house clearances recently, and a lot of the crockery and glassware that wasn't selling, needed sorting. We sorted, boxed up, and...the shelves still seemed full! Only one item was broken, and far be it for me to name names, but i think it was part of their 50th year bucket list activities (maybe Roddy knows?) A few of us learned how to use the box taping thing, and only one of them was broken when we left. Again, no names, but I think Caroline knows? Great to see Jordan on a Tuesday night, a d hope he's back soon, although we think he may have opened a cursed tin of hair, so fingers crossed he's back in this mortal realm in one piece when work allows. We were asked to keep anything new and trendy looking, and it was a surprise to find out that what looks new and trendy to those of us born in the 70's, is nit the same as to someone born in the late 90's!

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