No one is raining on our parade

On one of the wettest bank holidays since the last one we were blessed with a short window in the weather to do a combined task of a tidy up of our seafront flowerbed together with a litter pick.

It was great to warmly welcome back Roxy to the group and we all hope to see her again very soon!

Sue and Belinda quickly got stuck in to pulling up the spring bulbs together with some general weeding. The bulbs will be safely stored until we replant them again in November.

Ryan and Sarah together with GillybeanandRoxy headed off on a litter treasure hunt on the beach. Apologies I didn't get a photo of Gill and Roxy tonight. The rain started again and the group dispersed pretty rapidly!

We were also joined by Paul and John who helped carry the bag of bulbs and equipment back to Belinda and John's house where we were treated to a wonderful GG social together withnshelter from the torrential rain that followed!

Belinda had been hard at work making two chillies, one of which was vegan ( this was my personal favourite) There was also superb choice of side dishes including delicious salsa's and guacamole together with tortillas, rice and warm wraps to accompany the chillies. John took us on a tour of his incredible, must see, Dr Who collection in the tardis room. An absolutely outstanding labyrinth of stunning memorabilia. If you havent seen it then I recommend you book a tour with John!

We were joined by Natacha and Steve who shared news of a GG baby boy on its way in October - wonderful news to share on such a happy evening!

Thank you to our amazing and generous hosts - we were truly treated tonight!

See you all next week

Julia

But the recent rain and occasional sunshine meant we faced more of the same. We got stuck into clearing weeds, hacking back overgrowth and neatening up the edges. We certainly left Anchor Gardens a tidier place than we found it.

It was pleasant to be out in the sun with plenty of chat and banter. Much of it revolved around the successful Worthing Runfest this weekend which involved most of our regular GoodGym team either volunteering or running. Also mentioned was Belinda’s special relationship with Rishi after her recent close encounter with him in the garden of number 10.

Behind the scenes competitiveness took an unexpected turn today. The moment Sarah heard about Daisy’s fondness for snails she just had to go one better by relocating a homeless snail to a better place (well, she took a slug home clinging tightly to her leg - same thing really!)

*Social walk *

Thanks to a weather front bringing air from the Arctic it certainly didn't feel like a late April evening ! Although lovely and light and luckily not windy, there was certainly a chill in the air!

We all convened and went straight out armed with litter pickers and bags. We headed west along the prom picking up stray litter as we went before arriving on the beach at the far end of the lido. With the tide out this meant that we could get under the structure of the Lido and then the pier to do a scavenger hunt for rubbish that had been dropped together with other debris that accumulates along or shore line.

With the team partnering up then mixing up it provided a perfect opportunity to have a lovely relaxed walk and enjoy social chit chat and banter with each other.

Sue had just returned from her travels and it was lovely to catch up on her news together with her Jurrassic walk and Kilimanjaro climb that are both fast approaching! She is under the watchful eye of coach Barbara !

It was also good to hear all about Ricky running and work progress together with his race plans. ! Good luck Ricky!

Sarah pulled a practical joke on her partner Ryan when she found a discarded parking ticket and planted it on Ryan's car before photographing it and presenting it to him. The phrase 'Gotcha' springs to mind when I saw his face ! Luckily Sarah fessed up just as Ryan headed off to do battle with the traffic warden! Craig was much kinder presenting Sarah with a rose instead !

After the beach we headed through the gardens to our finish line. With some light hearted competitiveness in the group led by Daisy and after careful consideration of the weight and size of each bag, I announced that John and Ryan had won Daisy's competition!

On our return to the start point we played a new game of GG inspired hoopla with a cone and the litter picker rings which had held the bags in place. Thanks Paulfor helping to pick up the rings whilst I was photographing ! Ryan was victorious in this 👏👏👏 . Very well deserved especially after the shock of the phony parking ticket just a few minutes earlier !

Lovely evening ! Thanks everyone 😀