A smack-banging 21 of you volunteered your precious time yesterday, to invest in your communities and physicality.

With 5 new faces, 4 of whom were on their first GoodGym session, we had the most hands on deck all year (I haven't actually checked this stat). That's worth a notice. Hope you all had decent first experiences and we look forward to welcoming you back for much more. The random weekly question "What sound or noise really gets under you skin?" A somewhat surprising range of answers, with evidently differing auditory sensitivity. Nail clippings, people chewing, cutlery on plate (guilty), metal on metal, yappy local dog, cotton wool scrunching!, drilling sounds, anything near Kev's bedtime, sniffling, car screeching and my favourite: hearing the saliva when people talk (courtesy of Rob). I also have a couple to add now I sit down and think - any phone sounds on public transport - see ringing, gaming, music, incessant texts alerts etc. Plus fox foreplay in my back garden, what an assault on the senses that is.

Moving on....once we'd got that off our chest, we made it 2 miles down the canal to Cody Dock. Our beautiful local docklands, where we were instructed to re-seed some lawn, water the limitless planters and do a wee bit of sweeping. 30 mins later we'd done what we were asked, in no small part thanks to our bolstered numbers. "Many hands make...." yeah you know the phrase.

Thought it would be rude not to do a fitness session as we skipped it last week, plus Sharon was showing enthusiasm by the tonne, and I wasn't going to let her down. So we snapped out some glorious 20sec efforts, six of them to be precise. Before working our way into a couple of short, but intense, leg circuits. Developing power in the legs is vital for all sports. Only takes a few weeks and the soreness subsides, just a case of conditioning.

Thrustin' Justin kindly brought some cake along, like the hero he is, and we all scoffed a wee bit. Finishing with cake - that sentence always works.

Thanks again Team Newham. Stay on the aerobic grind and catch you mighty folk next week

Over and Out

B