Harry Hender

What an awesome recycling team we had, collecting the bottles was not an easy task this year.... Colas had put out stooopid recycling bins, only labelled on one side.... so they didnt work and trying to pull bottles out of the big bins was hard work.

The GoodGym crew as always gave it their best shot, it was great to meet and have Emma​ and Joanne​ on board, they walked all the way to Canoe Lake collecting discarded bottles!!!! Harry​ bought their buddy along, they made a great job of collecting all the bottles as runners crossed the start line. Sinéad was epic and did the double (two days of listening to me moan on....thankyou Sinead!). Lynn and Catherine teamed up - it was lovely to catch up with them when we all met back in the Marquee for lunch 😊. Rosie and India also had to put up with me worrying/moaning about the task in hand..... but they were super supportive and kind and lovely and happily collected as many bottles as they could.

The great thing about the day was that it felt like all of GG Portsmouth were out, either running, cheering or recycling and somehow we all managed to see each other, a lovely GG family event.

... Not a medical condition but an early quote from the team downstairs who were sorting the bags out into subcategories. Vicki and Judy were in charge of ladies dressed and tops and did have to duck as they came flying across. Jo and Mel were also on the shop floor sort out alongside Katie L who was on the look out for a pirate costume for her daughter... Jen managed to find one when she moved over to sort out gift aid donations with me. Result!

Harry and Wilson were upstairs sorting out children's clothes and having fun chatting to the mannequins...

A few purchases were made, Wilson winning the "most random" prize as she bought a toilet seat.... 🚽

A great night of good deeds and lots of milestone tshirts on show tonight.

Naomi House are short of volunteers right now so if anyone wants to do a bit of extra work there, they would be very grateful. They're open 7 days a week so plenty of opportunities! We will, of course, be back there again so keep an eye on the listings!

We arrived today to a backroom full of pink bags, toys and other donations. Seems that lots of people have been having a good clear-out this Spring to make way for more £1 bargains potentially and the donations kept on coming during our session with one person needing a shopping trolley to bring it all to us. Harry, Lynn and Mel were tasked with more Ladies' clothing, including warmer garb as people are aparently already looking to stock up on their Autumn/Winter wardrobe!  We managed to empty a couple of bags each, but alas nowhere close to emptying the bag pen today. Discussions today revolved around childhood pranks, toys we'd played with and a few anecdotes on what made us laugh until we cried as kids (including a lot of toilet humour and secret language) which made us laugh all over again.  Lynn and Mel both found some bargains and Harry kindly brought some more brownies to share.  It was a great session which flew by as usual. We left Simon and Terry with a still very busy shop, off to enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon.

The famous five gathered at the Coffee cup. Some litter was picked amongst the happy beach goers and hugs were exchanged! Oddest find was a melted/burnt chair that took a while to identify. Lovely to meet Ami, a shame she couldn’t stay for the post op drink. Delicious times!