It was wonderful to see so many people tonight for our event ahead of World Earth Hour on Saturday. Especially good to welcome Richard, Alice, Alexander and Andy to their first GoodGym Bristol run!

Tonight was a cause for many a celebration as it was Zdeni's 100th Good Deed, which she has completed her past 50 deed for in just 3 months! Massive well done Zdeni, you are great!

Hopscotch, Skip and Squat Jump

Our first group tonight went to our regular task, Felix Road Adventure Playground. While our tasks were set up, the group started the longest Squat Jump Macarena (in my opinion, anyway). The Felix Road team were glad to see so many pairs of hands for the big, heavy work they had planned for us. They had hired a skip and the group first had to clear the skip of metal objects, which they can sell to make money for the charity and then clear a large wood stack and a whole area of wood, rubbish and more ready for the summer. The group split into teams and got the work done in just 20 minutes, much to the Felix Road team's amazement!

Next, it was time for our regular clear-up of the playground. Half the group got to work tidying toys and picking up litter. Meanwhile, the other half of the group did a 10 minute sprint leafleting session to spread the word of Helpful Peeps locally.

Before we left, it was time for a game of Cone Up, Cone Down (but which way really is up?). It was a neck-in-neck competition and the cones up finally took it with just one cone and some questionable rule-following.

Picker-point

Mel led the second group to Dame Emily Park to help them with a big litter-pick of the area. The group filled 11 big bin bags from around the park and only had to stop when there were no more bags left. Included in their pickings were Darren's bear, which was then held at picker-point with Darren.

This was in competition with Alice's bear which, although she had threatened to wear her panda onesie, had turned out to be a panda carrot cake to continue our World Earth Hour theme. The litter-picking crew got in their quick, but reports have it that it was the tastiest panda around.

Once Zdeni's group had conjoled her into her Centurion outfit, she also produced an array of amazing baking to add the party. We do love it when someone reaches a milestone!

Our final (sadder) celebration of the night was to say bye to Alex who is off to Pembrokeshire for the summer. We will miss you (and who is going to make the puns?!) but have an amazing time!

Due to Storm Gareth, we were sadly not able to paint the St Paul's railings this evening with the fear that our painting would end in puddles (or, with the wind blowing right now, that the railings would no longer be there at all).

However, we still had two tasks to help with tonight. Welcome to Ruth, Hannah, Roz and Catherine who joined us tonight! Before getting started, we did a birthday warm up for Alice, based on her number of years for each warm up activity. We then split into two groups...

Chris took a group to Bramble Hill Farm to help with the huge task of tackling the giant compost heap blocking the farm's entrance. Over the next 40 minutes, they shovelled their way through a tonne of compost. I hope you arms aren't feeling it too much tomorrow! Watch this space for further chances to help with the giant compost heap...

The second group split into two to let Gary's speedies speed away into the night. We reconvened at St Werburgh's Community Centre, where we had been left a list of tasks for the group to do. After rummaging through various cupboards and rooms, we gathered equipment and got to work sweeping the outside area where we had helped remove their rubber play area a few weeks' ago, litter-picking and playing the age-old game of How Many GoodGymers Can You Fit In A Toilet * (there was some painting involved too).

On the subject of toilets, Head Office had assigned us the task of creating a number 2 tonight. Jack took on the role of Artistic Director and did a great job of making a small space, no ladder and 30 GoodGymers recreate our placing in the timeframe of GoodGym areas.

After all that, it was time to head back to base and to belatedly celebrate Laura's 50th Good Deed which she got on Friday's Community Mission and Alice's birthday with some delicious baked goods!

*historic evidence of this being an age-old game not confirmed

With the first warm evening of the year (SEVENTEEN DEGREES PEOPLE), the troops gathered for another evening of doing Good. We were joined by a whopping nine first-timers - welcome Andrew, Georgia, David, Simon, Harry, Liam, Dom, Vicky and Emese, it was great to have you!

Tonight we helped with two different tasks...

Surf and Astroturf

Gary took a group out to get all rubbery at St Werburgh's Community Centre. They are laying astroturf this weekend in their play area so the team had the job of bagging up all of the rubber ready for the new surfacing, leaving an even layer to keep it bouncy. This resulted in a very mucky 10 GoodGymers, but very happy at having spent the evening playing.

A-head of the game

Meanwhile, the rest of us went to help with our regular task, Felix Road Adventure Playground. We were greeted by the team and split into tasks. Tonight we were:

• Litter-picking (following a litter-full half-term)
• Cleaning and tidying the art room
• Moving the compost heap and storage
• Fixing the fencing around the wood storage
• Discussing that Richard's favourite fruit is either an olive or a kumquat and wondering which is more strange
• Being scared by Tom's new friend, a decapitated Barbie head

All of the tasks were completed with our classic speed, but the fence was proving a bit more tricky with its technical-requirements. While the fencing team worked on, the rest of us started a partner chair-hold competition. This soon ended with several GoodGymers lying on the floor and some very bemused task-owners.

We headed back through the ever luck-reliant traffic-light maze of Easton for an impressively quick relay with storming sprinting by all of the teams!