Roses red, violets blue, worms & crabs & hitch hiking snails too!

Tonight’s merry band were led by Safety First Simon on his first outing as Run Leader. We were under strict instructions not to heckle, wolf whistle or get up to anything that could be counted as mischevious. The temptation was almost too much! Tonight’s ice breaker was a question about our most embarrassing childhood memories. This was a most revealing question. In her youth Ashleigh ate a worm (plenty more opportunity for that in tonight’s gardening task!), and Charles was still getting over being made to wear those gloves that are attached together with string. Lucky that none of our GoodGym gloves have string although it would solve the conumdrum of lefts paired with lefts and rights with rights!!!

On day two of Autumn and with sunset due at exactly 18.59pm, tonight saw the return of the much loved chest lamp. Yay! GoodGymers who don’t have one are advised to bring one in the darker nights. They are super useful for safety on the run and the outside tasks, and also the flashy setting means we can have our own disco whenever the mood takes us. “Staying Alive” in more ways than one!

Tonight we had walkie talkies and runners, the latter not really up for more than a gentle(ish) jog. Post-race chat had included inventive ways GoodGymers had found to move about with hurty bits...

They had been self-named as “the crab”, “the bum shuffle” and the “John Wayne”.

We’ll leave it to your imaginations to picture what these look like in practice but there was none of that tonight and we all made it up the very steep hill to “The Old Lady on the Hill”.

This was a return visit for us to the town’s much loved Christ Church and we continued the weeding in the Rose Garden. Despite the rain and the chill in the air, this was a tranquil and rewarding task as the roses are intermingled with many remembrance plaques. Clearing the weeds means that those visiting can more easily see the plaques and mementos of loved ones. It’s great to see the difference that 32 hands can make in 45 minutes! In the end there were lots of wet and muddy shoes, knees and bums. Luckily it was very dark on the way back so as not to raise curious eyebrows!

We arrived back to the warm glow of the Oasis, after a much needed (and very professionally led by Simon, we must say!) stretching session. Inside and during coffee and chatter, a rather disturbing scene unfolded...

There was an interloper of the most heinous kind – a snail on Mike’s jacket that had hitched a ride from the rose garden!

Mollusc Lover Mike’s snail was quite unbelievably left to lounge around on the hood of his jacket for the duration (while some of us silently broke out in cold sweats) and the new friends casually left together at the end. Hopefully this will be the last instalment of mollusc mayhem – will it ever end? - and next week there are only plus ones of the human kind!

Next up, we will be running approximately 7km in total to Age UK Wiltshire to help with their improvements to Toothill Community Centre. We’ll be doing some gardening outside the centre. There is lots to do, so rest assured you will be busy! You don't need to be a green fingered expert, just enthusiastic and keen to help out. This is our third visit to the centre and we are very excited to be going back there again! You can sign up here