Having already skipped ahead to Christmas in our last report, we decided to travel back in time for a slightly more seasonal opening question – what’s your favourite thing to do at Halloween? Perhaps not surprisingly, the most popular response was eating the Trick or Treat sweets…there may even be people among us who buy the sweets and then turn out all the lights on Halloween to stop children knocking at the door. If that unfortunate event does happen, we got some top tips from Andrew on scaring them off, witch we all duly noted!

With all this sweet eating on the horizon, it’s even more important than ever to keep active and we are all out and about getting competitive as Beat the Street fever hits Swindon. Beat the Street is a fun, free game with the aim of seeing how far you can walk, cycle and run in just 6 weeks. Over 15,0000 miles have been clocked up in just two weeks, and with our fervent studying of the Beat the Street map before every run, GoodGym has been doing its bit to add to this total. Mike, King of the Puns has all the Beat the Street deets if you want to know more.

Cards at the ready for some beat boxing en route, the walking group of Emma the Trainer, Karen, Yvie and Dominque, and the running group, with backmarker Charles handily attired in hi-vis, headed off to the Haven Day Centre for Swindon Night Shelter.

Becky and Carol at Swindon Night Shelter are always super-organised and had a list of jobs ready for us when we arrived. The last time we visited was on our first birthday and it was good to be back and see how much progress has been made since August. But there is always more to do so we quickly split into groups and got started – after a quick reminisce about our fabulous birthday run and Alexander Kenmure’s snazzy socks!

Lily and Helen started with jumper sorting before heading outside for bramble cutting and weeding, with Hannah also joining the gardening gang. For the rest of us, it was a classic GoodGym task – why lift weights in a gym when you can lift things that really need lifting like seats? We’d soon swapped all the folding chairs for the smart banquet chairs donated by a local wedding venue – a case of to love and to chairish? Run Leader Sam perfected the chair lift and with that job in the bag, it was time to tackle the big job…moving the cupboard. For those who are frequent visitors to the Haven, this is not the first time we have moved the cupboard and we know from experience that this is not a job for the faint hearted. It was time to call on the spirit of the Chuckle Brothers…and with a lot of “to me, to you” and some heavy lifting from Mike and Charles, the cupboard was moved to its final (well, maybe) resting place.

Last but not least, there was yet another opportunity for a photo of Dave on his own. Well, not on his own but with a table tennis table...perhaps not quite what he was hoping for in a quest to not be snapped on his lonesome! We’re not quite sure how this happens every week – we promise we do talk to him! Watch this space for a new series of Dave with friends in the coming weeks!

After a quick group photo, in which Jo was unfortunately hidden by a bunch of flowers, it was time to head back to base to hone those essential chatting and coffee drinking skills in preparation for our next visit to We’re Open on Thursday. And if you want even more GoodGym in your life then check out what’s coming up:

Community Mission to build a play house on Saturday 19th October

Group Run to Men in Sheds on Tuesday 22nd October

Trust10 at Avebury on Sunday 27th October – last Trust10 of the year, and Helen’s first trail 10k!