Show me the way to a Roman Villa

On a chilly evening we welcomed Darren along to his first Goodgym run tonight.

We were revisiting Castle Hill Community Centre for the second week in a row to complete the task of painting a room we started last week, so we would equal our longest run to date (set last week) - a return journey of just over 5 miles,

My navigational skills were questioned when Susan pointed out an easy, more convenient crossing point about 100m along the road from the slowest traffic lights in the world outside the University. From there we headed across Ipswich town centre taking in the steps of the Town Hall as a regrouping point, before charging towards Norwich Road.

Once again my navigational skills were called into question when both Nicola and Irene separately suggested crossing much earlier than last week, avoiding the subways and ending up on the correct side of Norwich Road for our final destination.

This doesn't sound like a big deal but Irene is Spanish and only lived in Ipswich for a short time. In my defence I've only lived in Ipswich for 20 years - but I don't often run in the town centre! Next time I'll ask for directions.

On arrival at the Castle Hill Community Centre Garath greeted us and handed out brushes and rollers as everyone got stuck in, keen to complete the job within the alloted 30 minutes.

However, the initial problem was identifying which areas had been painted with the second coat. I'm fairly sure that in our eagerness to complete the job some areas were painted with 3-4 coats.

As the painting continued I went to look at a potential future task elsewhere in the centre with Garath. On the way we spotted a tapestry depicting a Roman building and Garath explained that in the grounds of the centre lay the remains of a large Roman Villa which had featured in a Time Team programme with Tony Robinson a couple of years ago.

With the painting reaching a crescendo and only a few minutes remaining Steve decided he hadn't quite had the "60 minute Makeover" beat the countdown feeling and embarked on a mission to paint the corner shelves fixings as well. He made it just on time with a little help from his friends!

But by the end the transformation was complete and the room really did look great. I've included one photo from last week just as we started to see difference we made. We had a group photo in front of the Roman Tapestry - I don't think the Romans actually made it! It needed a 2nd take as Lesley's reflective jacket made it look like she'd been engulfed by an alien.

Our departure from the centre was marked with a late, somewhat underwhelming firework display from a nearby garden. As we came onto Norwich Road two fire engines with lights and sirens blazing hurtled past us....hopefully not heading for the garden display we had just witnessed.

A great evening of achievement in seeing the job we started through to completion and accomplishing another 5 mile run as a group. Terrific work guys.