** GoodGym Sets Sail! 🏴‍☠️🎨**

What a glorious way to spend a summer's evening! With the sun shining and barely a cloud in the sky, it was an absolute delight to be outdoors helping transform a school's pirate ship into a striking masterpiece of black, red and white.

This evening's crew consisted of Barbara, Belinda, Gill, El, Paul, John and myself, and we soon had brushes in hand and paint flying in every direction.

It was especially lovely to welcome Paul back after his camper van adventures in Priscilla. We enjoyed hearing snippets of his travels before putting him straight to work!

As always, my wonderfully loyal regular team brought plenty of enthusiasm, hard work and, naturally, the usual GoodGym banter, which kept everyone smiling throughout the task.

The painting progressed at an impressive pace, although there was one clear winner in tonight's unofficial competition... the award for wearing the most paint goes to Belinda!

By the end of the session, the pirate ship had been given a fantastic fresh new look and was ready for many more imaginative adventures from the children.

A huge thank you to Barbara, Belinda, Gill, El, Paul and John for another enjoyable evening of teamwork, laughter and community spirit. Tasks like these remind us just how rewarding it is to spend a sunny evening doing something that makes such a visible difference.

Until the next adventure... anchors away! ⚓🏴‍☠️

It wasn't just good Jim

It was GoodGym plus. Barbara had brought along reinforcements in the shape of her sister Jackie - and we really needed that extra pair of hands which have become a regular at this task! Along with Ricky, Belinda and John that gave us an (in?)Famous Five to head into the task.

It's a task that has become familiar to us over the past few years. To get all evidence of the Summer Fayre removed from sight, so the building can return to it's primary purpose as a 60 bed veterans care home.

Nothing's too tacky for us

Fridges were emptied, bunting was taken down and neatly folded. Temporary posters were removed and disposed of with the blue tack delicately removed and kept ready to stick again.

A gathering of chairs

Inside and out, chairs were moved and stacked. Then they were wheeled round to the storage shed, which could well have earned the title Hothouse today. To ensure they all fitted, the chairs needed stacking as high as possible. With one of us on constant lookout for Ms Elf and her sidekick Safe T, we tilted piles and cajoled chairs in the best we could. The best work was definitely achieved under the seated supervision of John and Barbara. Could be a model for future GoodGym sessions.

It's a wrap

A quick walk around the centre looking for wayward chairs, and checking we had covered our list, we headed back into the sunshine.

What a lovely way to spend a warm June summer's evening! ☀️🌱

This evening's GoodGym task took us to a local homeless hostel, where residents have created a fantastic allotment. Its work in progress but there are already courgettes and other vegetables growing.

Our team of El (official photographer 📸), Ricky (lead walker and tonight's outstanding pun-dit 😂), Gill, Belinda, John, Charlie and myself, Julia, got stuck straight into digging over beds and raking the debris onto the makeshift compost heap.

We were also joined by a very special guest – Mr Fox 🦊 – who kept a curious eye on us from a safe distance throughout the evening.

As always, there was plenty of laughter, great conversation and teamwork. What a wonderful bunch of people to spend an evening with!

A huge congratulations and thank you to El, who has now become a Task Force member! 🎉 Not only that, but she also went the extra mile by watering the seafront flower bed after tonight's task. Thank you, El! 🌻👏

A real feel-good task, helping to keep a community garden thriving for the people who enjoy and benefit from it. Roll on next week! 💚