Six Goodgymmers, Millie, Sophie, Roger, Daryl, Keith and Lea, turned up at Langside School where Nick from Diverse Abilities had a diversity of tasks for us. Roger set to jet washing a classroom and did a really good job. Millie, Sophie, Daryl and Lea shovelled pebbles into wheelbarrows to spread out on a patch under the swing. Millie soon set to filling the holes and levelling the surface. Keith, after having looked for “lost souls” and not found any, took the shears and cut back some bushes to provide better access to the play area there. Lea then swept the outside of a shed before setting to the (her pet hate) task of masking taping windows on the shed. But it meant that Millie and Sophie could get on with painting around the windows, before moving on to painting the rest of the shed. With Lea, Daryl, Keith and Roger helping we got three sides of the shed done! Oh good, now Nick will have to invite us again to finish that off! And he certainly will, judging by the “thank you” and goodiebags we received. Goodgym’s “diversity in their abilities” certainly showed itself today and hopefully will do so again on a few more occasions. Thank you everyone for your hard work. Mind you, it was not all hard work: the bouncing mat and the musical instruments definitely provided some fun.

Could we have had a more glorious day to do our “cheeky little” litterpick? Four Goodgymmers, Roger, Keith, Lea and Sylvie, once she managed to find us, all joined efforts to get rid of rubbish. Surprise, surprise… in spite of the half term crowds having been and (nearly) gone, the litter wasn’t too bad. We still managed to pick up a fair bit though. And with two thank yous from the public, another Goodgym deed completed. And… the first one for Keith in his ‘100 tasks completed’ Goodgym shirt! Basking in the sunshine sipping our cups of coffee and tea, we are not complaining! No idea why the group photo was such a disaster 🤣🤣🤣

Five Goodgymmers, Eleanor, James, Roger, Keith and Lea turned up for some mucking… well, carrying about 50 bags of manure mulch down some steps to drop them in varying places in the Pine Cliff Gardens, a hidden gem of a cliff top location with views of the sea and even Old Harry in the distance. After the carrying came the cutting open and emptying of the bags. Then the regular garden volunteers could rake the muck around the plants. With each bag weighing between 15-20 kilos, Goodgym’s help was much appreciated. Keith was heaving the bags onto the wheelbarrow and trolley, James, Roger and Eleanor carried them down the steps with Lea doing a one-armed trolley run. Eleanor heaving the bags up as if it was nobody’s business, was very impressive! You can imagine what her hands and tshirt looked like after all that. James, Eleanor and Lea could get rid of any aggression by slashing open the bags before tipping them. Keith and Roger collected the empty bags. A quick coffee and a chat and then a “thank you very much” from Vicky and with that another Goodgym task successfully completed. But the beautiful wooden statues of insects proved too inviting… they provided a nice bit of mucking about after all that mucking!

Yes, the Grockels had done it again: plenty of stuff to be litterpicked today. We had a new Goodgymmer join us: Alina! Then there were four more: James, Roger, Keith and Lea. The Durley Chine car park and the steps up and down got a good going over! On top of the cliff, around Cherry Tree Walk (not that many people know about its existence) and back down to Durley Chine Beach, enough rubbish to fill 6 bin bags. And one huge pile to be reported to the council. Unfortunately no amazingly interesting finds today, just lots of cans, cigarette butts, bottles and… rubbish! A few “thankyous” from passers by and a nice cup of tea (coffee, latte, decaf latte) afterwards and we are happy to have done our bit again. Alina assured us she would like to join us in other tasks, so a good Goodgymmer morning was had by all.