Last night, Khai and I set off on a run down to St Andrew’s Youth Club in Victoria, dodging the wall of cyclists at Hyde Park along the way and chatting about Khai’s recent success in the Big Half!

We arrived to meet Adrian, who had a mission for us: to tackle the garage and make it a more accessible, organised and welcoming space. No problem! We rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in.

We started by sorting out the glasses before being joined by Brenda, who helped us get the space into much better shape. There were heavy tables to move, scooters to reorganise, and super soakers to investigate (we’re still not entirely sure how those work!). We shuffled things around, negotiated some new storage arrangements and generally had a great time turning garage chaos into something a little more orderly.

And then there was the fridge. 🤢 A particularly grim-looking specimen needed relocating to the bins for collection, giving us an extra challenge to add to our evening of garage gymnastics. Nothing says community spirit quite like hauling a questionable fridge out of the way!

There were a few other discoveries along the way, including a Scottish-themed table. We also had to tactfully distract Brenda from the football banner for the wrong team hanging on the wall. Sorry, Brenda! ⚽️

With the hard work done, we gave Adrian a tour of the transformed space. He was delighted to see the difference we’d made, and we shared a few more ideas about how the garage could become even more organised and accessible.

It was brilliant to see such a visible change in one evening, and lovely to work alongside Adrian and Brenda to make the space more useful for everyone.

Watch this space for the next instalment of the great garage reorganisation! 👀

We kicked things off last night with a warm-up and our Quiz Qu of the Week: Which country is wider than the Moon? Russia certainly threw us off the scent, but three of you cracked it! 🌍 Well done! Apologies that I forget to mention at the time, but a huge shout-out goes to Pritesh for running the Royal Parks Half Marathon yesterday – fantastic effort! 🏃‍♂️👏

We also welcomed Molly who joined us for their very first GoodGym session. 👋 Great to have you with us!

Then it was time to head out into the darkness and make our way to Paradise Community Garden, a special green space that provides a haven for wildlife and a green oasis for the local community. Community gardens like this are vital for supporting biodiversity, creating habitats for wildlife and giving people a place to connect with nature.

Unfortunately our original task to shovel manure had to be postponed as access issues meant it hadn't been delivered. Luckily, there were still two tasks to keep us busy – chopping up firewood and painting the shed. But first, we had to navigate our way through the frogs! 🐸 We've never seen so many - they were everywhere, creating, as Joput it,'a carpet of frogs', so careful footwork was essential. We did our best to avoid stepping on our tiny amphibian friends and keep this happy, healthy ecosystem thriving.

Once we'd safely negotiated the frog-filled terrain, we found our way to the firepit and split into two teams.

🎨 Team Shed Painting took on the challenge of finding the right colour for the job. Getting the shade just right was all part of the challenge, as was the dark surroundings. Nevertheless, they persevered and a beautiful newly painted shed was soon underway.

🪵 Team Firewood tackled the sawing, which came with its own challenge: mastering the two-handed saw. With a bit of practice, the team perfected their techniques with various implements around the site, keeping a safe distance from one another. All fingers and toes remained intact – result! Great work, everyone. 💪

As the rain started to set in and we'd already had a good workout, we decided to give the fitness session a miss this time and head back for some well-earned stretches. We took care to avoid the wildlife on the way, although the snails unfortunately didn't all make it through unscathed. 🐌 Let's just say it wasn't a completely casualty-free journey!

A huge well done to everyone for being adaptable, getting stuck into the tasks and helping look after this lovely community space.

Next week: We're heading back to St Mary's to give the outside of Battersea's oldest church a good blitz. 🧹 We hope to see you all there!

Until then, happy running, and thanks for being brilliant, GoodGym Wandsworth! ❤️