Firstly, a warm welcome to Pauline who joined us for her first GoodGym session. We also welcomed Matthew to his first session, Fiona's fiance (congratulations to you both!)

Tonight was all about celebrating 100 years of our great city. Sinéad and I both wore our Portsmouth leggings. As part of our 100 litter picks in 2026, we did a speed litter pick in Victoria Park. 2 large bags filled in 25 minutes. Best finds included an octopus, barbie lip balm, a fork and a man in a bush (after a very short conversation, Val left him there).

We managed to collectively do 100 exercises in 3 minutes. This was team work at its finest, with a side order of GoodGym laughter thrown in. Not sure we'll be releasing a fitness video just yet.

Finally, on the way home we collected some words for the Portsmouth 100 found words word search. I haven't included all those here otherwise the album would be massive! But they will all get sent to Think Big Do Bigger for their collection.

The city centenary (& my birthday!) have been well and truly celebrated tonight!

The flowers are in bloom and the baby animals are out.

We had a lovely time at Baffins Pond today. Seeing the swans on their nest, proud duck parents with 7 ducklings, a moorhen with her baby, a cat keeping an eye on things and plenty of dogs looking for some fuss. My favourite were the 2 ducks sitting out by the dipping pond clearly having a moment of peace away from the kids!!

All this animal action made up for a very uplifting sight of very little litter strewn about the place. But I did continue yesterday's treasure finds with yet another hair band!

My hair wasn't tied up as it isn't long enough. But it appears everyone else was going hair down with the amount of hair bands I had to pick up!

A multitude of sweet wrappers and drinks cans saw me complete a loop of the Rec for another Portsmouth 100 litter pick.

We had quite the turn-out for our excursion to Emsworth this evening, which was super-handy as there was a lot of work to be done!

Rebecca, the Head Teacher, and the Caretaker had started some prep work, so we got stuck straight in to the task. Katie and Sam got stuck straight in with scraping and sanding, whilst Judy and Andy were on priming duty for the woodwork. Double Dave caused Double Trouble with an exploded tin of green paint. Sinéad arrived after her run around Thorney Island to lend a hand. Birthday Gal Val found her calling as a wallpaper instructor, helping Rebecca to get the lining paper on some of the walls.

Val also provided music and snacks, so we got to channel our inner dancing queens with an Abba soundtrack.

A contractor had quoted the school close to £5000 to do the work needed, so GoodGym's efforts have certainly helped to keep school funds supporting the children, which is wonderful. Well done, you are all awesome!