Tonight's task was split in two - One team at the Canbury Gardens Community Garden and the other at Kingston GoodGym's plot just a couple of hundred metres away.

Claire, Julie, Marcos and Tom headed to our GoodGym flower bed where we found a big mound of woodchip waiting for us. After clearing away a few pesky weeds that had come up since our last visit, we spread bucketfuls of woodchip around the plants to keep them warm and cosy over winter. We even had some time left over to clear up the surrounding weeds. We left the bed looking lovely and tidy with lots the flowering plants still looking very colourful.

Meanwhile, Luke, Jane, Rachel, Helen & Dave cracked on helping the ever-lovely Marilyn with the Canbury Community Garden. The compost needed turning and a huge pile of vines and plant waste had to be chopped before making it viable for the compost heap. As always, many hands made light work with this task and we were on to the next - pruning some of the larger weeds around the area. It was during this task that we randomly found a massive bag of seafood mix - scallops, fish, octopus, shrimps... One packet, 'sole'ly on it's own - we were all shell-shocked! I'm clamming up about how good these puns are.

A HUGE congrats to Tom on achieving 100 good deeds. You ran with the cape and crown like a champ! King for the day :)

What an amazing night spent at Kingston Borough Sports Awards ceremony. We were very humbled being in the presence of such rising and established talent across Kingston Borough. GoodGym Kingston won an award for Volunteer Team 2024 and it was great to take stock of the last year.

This year we have, as a group, done 890 good deeds so far - what an amazing achievement and one we should all be proud of - whether it's one a year or one a week. We are all part of the same team and have impacted so many local charities and community groups in a positive way.

So thank you, Goodgym Kingston and let's see what the next year brings us.

It was back to Full Cycle for a task with a bit of a difference as we were involved in helping Save the World Club, the charity which has also been sharing the space in New Malden.

Tariq had us all quickly involved in moving various bits and pieces from the roof space to be removed. Following Tariq’s lead - albeit without the sledgehammer - Ben and Hazel managed to take apart some sofas, while Dave and Luke navigated the tricky route down the stairs with them.

Tom, Rachel, Marcos, Jade and Emma also helped carry assorted items down to a skip, where a terrifying digger smashed everything into smithereens. Short but sweet, managing a huge amount of work in our session.

On a fine evening 8 goodgymers ran, walked and cycled to Jubilee Square to help move a lot of mulch and other jobs. We split up into small groups, clearing leaves from the paths, thining out the beds and finally spreading the mulch around the plants and vegetation in the raised flower beds.

We were assisted by Rossco who is doing his Duke of Edinburgh Award. A lot was achieved in an hour. Satisfaction guaranteed.

A last-minute change of plan from our planned task, including a few late phone-calls to redirect wayward members, and we were back in Surbiton for one of our regular visits to help out at the Growbaby shop.

Rachel quickly assigned tasks around the shop. Hazel, Claire, Tom and our new recruit Marcos got to work downstairs, reassigning bags of new clothes and shoes into the appropriate crates, hanging up snow suits and occasionally venturing into the world’s most terrifying storeroom.

Upstairs, Jana repositioned wellies for a new display and Marie-Noelle and Dave tidied the rest of the shop floor. On a damp autumnal evening, we were all relieved to have a task inside. Growbaby, a valuable local resource, is always appreciative of the extra help.