Give peas a chance

12 GoodGymers, 3 big tasks, 1 huge difference made...what a way to spend a Monday!

We started off our last group run of January with a warm up and what turned out to be a slightly trickier than anticipated question - can you name a car with the same letter as your first name? Not an easy one for the 'Js' amongst us!

We took a good steady run up to the theatre, a little trepidatious about what we might find there as it had been quite some time since our last visit. It's been a few months since we've taken over the space outside the theatre charity with the plan of making it a sustainable, organic and productive garden which we can use to grow crops to donate. As we turned the corner we were pleasantly surprised to find that it hadn't been overtaken by weeds and the plants we had been growing were still fighting on!

The three main jobs were to weed and stake up the peas, dig a hole and plant our donated fig tree, and finally to finish off the path. Wasting no time at all we divided up into teams and got stuck in. There were a few challenges along the way. While Catherine was carefully crafting an amazing trellis, there were several issues elsewhere to overcome, such as how to make the brick path lay flat and where to dig the hole avoiding the roots from the huge apple tree.

But GGers are nothing if not problem solvers and after 45 minutes, the peas had been saved, the fig tree was standing proud and there was an incredible yellow brick road which proved we had brains, heart and courage and we were also well on the way to creating our own Emerald City!

We popped over the road to do our fitness session for the evening, setting up camp in front of a Michelin starred restaurant. I hope we didn't distract them from their truffles! Introducing some healthy competition into the session we started off with a game of tic,tac,toe to decide who went first. Then each partner had to do 45 seconds worth of a certain exercise before the second team member tried to beat their reps. There were some very impressive squat thrusting, tricep dipping and step upping, with everyone winning at least one round. Well done on a good full body workout.

Next week it's our first Monday session at Doddington followed by the monthly pub quiz, hope you can make it! There is also a session on Saturday to plant flowers at Garratt park which is looking very quiet at the moment. If you can make it, here are all the details.