Gillian Scolari

After arriving early, to meet up with Rich from Holyport, I found out the task had been changed at the last minute, due to the strimmers hadn't arrived in time. We were then given the task of filling in the potholes which Goodgym managed excellently last time out. The 8 Goodgymers led by Sophie, were quick off the marks, shovelling the shingles into wheelbarrows before sprinting off, to fill in the potholes. After 20 minutes, we had run out of potholes to fill! If there was a Commonwealth sport for this, GoodGym would win gold! The next task, we had to move the rest of the shingles up to the clubhouse, with Georgetta choosing to run back! Sadly, I lost count after 10 barrow loads. After an excellent effort, it was back off to the sports bar for refreshment courtesy of Holyport FC.

Anita, Diya, Gillian and Sheila met at the Community Allotment for the weekly watering session. Although the sky had done a reasonable job of watering the night before, Anita took control of the hose and gave everything another good soaking. Gillian weeded the runner bean bed, whilst Diya and Sheila tackled the overgrown hedge. The smell that emanated from some of the hedging as we cut it was very aromatic - so therapeutic! We left it with a slight mohican cut as we coudn't quite reach the top bits, but perhaps we'll return with a tall person next time!

What a relief to be rained on this evening after the oppressive heat of the last couple of days! And what a joy to be out getting fit and doing good with a great bunch of people.

We met under the shelter of an obliging tree in Boyn Grove Park, welcomed everyone and kicked off with a discussion about whether we should head straight to the task or have a play in the rain in the park first. Playing in the rain won of course, so we warmed up our legs with some slightly silly drills and then went for a lap of the park. Well done to everyone for powering up the big hill!

We then walked together the short hop to All Saints Junior School, where a blue corridor was awaiting its first coat of white paint. We were welcomed by task owner Carl, he showed us which bits to paint and which bits to leave and equipped us with plenty of brushes and rollers. Then we set to work. After about an hour we were proud to have covered almost the entire space - more than we imagined we would manage on arrival. There had also been lots of laughter and happy chatter, some miaowing, some excellent use of tall people and ladders to for the high bits, and we even washed a wall!

We then headed out into the (now even heavier) rain for a quick fitness session involving resistance bands, penguins, burpees, and a three-legged race. Such fun!

Thanks to all who came along and well done on a great session! If you're up for helping with coat 2 on Monday evening, click here for more details and to sign up.

This evening's group run/walk had all the ingredients for the perfect GoodGym session:

sunshine, a scenic route, a mix of tasks, netball, skipping, hula hooping, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, chocolate, whipped cream, cherries, Georgeta's magical baking skills, and above all....drumroll please....Jen! Congratulations Jen on achieving a whopping 250 good deeds and thank you for giving us a reason to celebrate.

We met at Homebase and enjoyed a fairly chilled out walk/run to St Luke's. It was too hot for much more! Thanks to Juli and Gillian, who showed us the scenic route along the Greenway. It was great to catch up with everyone while we walked, with much chatter about the up coming Beat the Boat race and some super inspiring tales of wild swimming in Slovenia.

Thanks to task owner Jon, who met us at the school gates and gave us our tasks - weeding the quiet area, re-distributing the wood chip around the climbing frames and cleaning the bike sheds.

Georgeta, Gillian and Juli jumped at the chance to do some weeding and couldn't resist clearing some leaves too. Kim Rachel and I channeled our inner zen gardeners whilst raking the wood chip, and Sophie and Jen got their upper body workout whilst making the bike shelters shine. Well done everyone!

On discovering a large hula hoop and a skipping rope I was like a child in a playground and wasted no time setting up a fitness circuit, which also included mountain climbers, jumping over a hoe, tricep dips, zig zag runs and a mini game of netball - just what we needed to earn our cake!

Finally it was time for cake and to give Jen a big cheer for her AMAZING milestone. Here is a poem to celebrate her achievements:

250 good deeds…plus 3

Jen Simpson, you inspire me!

She came to our first ever group run

She even wrote the title pun.

A pioneer of social visits,

Nothing is too much for Jen is it?

Vaccination clinics and wellbeing calls,

Weeding schools and painting walls,

She sweeps the floors and waters pot plants

Sometimes wearing Christmas hot pants!

She’s committed to her daily steps

In fitness sessions she’ll do all the reps.

She’s also a big fan of parkrun

And she brings her mum to join the fun.

Jen’s saved in my phone as Jen GG Slough

But she’s just as much one of us now.

Jen, GoodGym Queen, you deserve a chateau…

But in the meantime there’s black forest gateau!

3 cheers for Jen!

It was a soggy start to our session at Maidenhead Community Allotment, where Gillian, Anita and Nicola were given a helping hand with the watering task by an honorary fourth GoodGym member - The Weather. But we dug deep despite the downpour to crack on with our other tasks, and planted a cherry tree, which got the seal of approval from a friendly (hungry) robin. We were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow overhead! There was even time for a bit of weeding in the sunshine that followed, and it was good to see some of the raspberry plants we've tended on previous missions are almost bearing fruit. This was the first of a series of Thursday evening missions at the allotment and we look forward to returning next week.