What another great quiz night with our friends at Abbeyfield Care home. Ross, Lydia, Andrea, Ross, Daryl and Caprice enjoyed a good run and catch up on route to the Quiz. It's been a while since we have seen Lydia and Andrea, and it was so nice to have them back! Sue cycled to the task and was raring to go and we were joined by KC who had come straight from work. As usual we were given a warm welcome by the residents who 'quickly' split into two large teams. Round One - 'Name that animal sound' got everyone thinking, who would've thought that monkeys and hyenas sounded so similar! Round two - 'Complete the famous phrase' more like not so famous phrases!! Round Three - 'General Knowledge' and who doesn't love a bit of GK. If in doubt put Rome! And finally Round four - the music round, much to the delight of these residents who enjoyed a good sing song, maybe next month we should do a kareoke!! Again, another close finish with only one point in it, or half a point to be precise! Same time next month, see you there!!

All good things come to those who wait some say....well, we were made to wait for the harvest season to hit the Foodbank before being able to return to one of our favourite tasks...and it felt like a long time....

....not as long as we had to wait to have Andrew back with us though!!! HURRAH!!!! Welcome back stranger! Great to see you!!

GoodGym's outsourcing of the t-shirt delivery service is working a treat too! Laurie getting her t-shirt super quick and looks great in it too!!!

Tonight the lovely Matt at Brewhouse and Kitchen welcomed us with open arms and gave us a place to meet on Wednesday and we're very grateful!

The run to the Foodbank was a healthy 4km each way and we were happy to go at an easy pace tonight, nice not to have to stress about getting back!

Lauren had volunteered to open up for us and make sure we were kept to task. The gang scattered and soon were squirreling away sorting donations and making food parcels.

35 minutes later, with lots of crates emptied and 7 food parcels made up, it was time for us to gather again and set off back again.

Awesome effort everyone! Special thanks to Hannah for back marking expertly!

Well done to Keith for completing his grueling OCR on the weekend and still making it to the group run!!

See you all next week!!

Tonight was a very special group run and

16

of us were lucky enough to be a part of it.

We had been to Westbourne House before, last year was the last time. Usually we would go to help tidy the outside areas of leaves and once we'd been to give one of their garden sheds a fresh coat of paint. Never interacting with the elderly residents. Well, tonight we were invited to take part in their games night, and it didn't disappoint!

The news had traveled far and wide and attracted the new faces in Phil and Janice. Two great new additions who we all hope come back again soon!

We also welcomed back Laurie and Keith for their second runs. Obviously last weeks task didn't scare them off! And we're very happy it didn't! Come back again and again guys!

We also had Lydia come and join us, the GoodGym pioneer in Bournemouth, who set it all up three years ago! Fresh off her Sunday Half Marathon conquest, rocking a sub 2 hour time with barely and prep!

Roshana was also back, having run her first 10k on Saturday and looking strong all the way to the finish!

Awesome to see you again Claire! So many lovely faces out there today, so much chatting and catching up going on that we usually forget we're running places!

It was only a short run to the care home, 1km each way. Nicky welcomed us in and soon the gang spread out amongst the tables, joining residents and introducing themselves.

One table was playing pairs with cards, another had a heated battle of connect 4 going on and the other table saw a gathering of literary geniuses trying to outdo each other in a game of Scrabble.

Lydia took the first round of Scrabble by storm, Neil coming a respectable 4th, Roshana 5th and Eileen in last, losing out to Big Jon and Jane. Little John was kindly keeping score for the table.

In the connect 4 game many took turns to dual up, all facing each other, some winning without even realising it! In the pairs game Caprice, Hannah and Janet were helping out and testing their memory skills...one round was particularly troublesome!

Abi, Janice and Lea tried their hand at some target practice with bean bags and a velcro target....Janice was suspiciously good at it....

Whilst most kept warm inside with tea and biscuits, Laurie, Marianne, Fredrika, Phil and Keith headed outside to do a little sweeping. Having collected most of the leaves, Fredrika used her keen eye to find even more stuff to clean up and soon they had the bag filled to the top!! Job done, they came inside to warm up and join in the fun.

The last round of scrabble had to be cut short as we were pushing to get back to Flirt for 8pm...but we did have time for a lovely group photo. Fingers crossed the friendly residents spread the word and more of them come and send time with us next time.

We're back again in November to host their monthly quiz, which should also be great fun!

Hope you all had a really rewarding evening and I hope that you know that you added some extra fun to some people's lives tonight, so I hope you feel great about yourself!

Hope you had a rewarding night too Sean!

We had the most amazing weather for one of our favourite GoodGym tasks, running to the Foodbank to help with donations and making up parcels. This week we had a few different jobs too....but first...

We welcomed Chloe with open arms. She is over from Paris for 3 months looking to improve her English...which is very good....and her running is just as impressive! Welcome, and we hope to see you next week!

It was also extra nice to have Lydia back with us, I'm sure it's nice for you to just be able to run and not have to lead group runs! We hope you can squeeze us in again soon!

Fredrika was also brave enough to join us after missing out last week with shin splints....she managed just fine...and with a massive backpack too! Fingers crossed you can stay healthy and join us again next week!

This evening Chloe, David and Claire raised their hands to make up Easter parcels for familiies next week. They managed to make up 34 boxes of easter eggs and other treats for families with children. Nice for them to get some extra treats next week!

Lydia, Caprice, Daryl and Jenni were tasked with sorting through boxes of food donations like we usually do, but they managed to finish those and move onto sorting through easter egg donations too! Talk about eggcellent!

Sarah took Fredrika under her wing for the first food parcel and soon they were racing Neil and I to finish of 5 boxes for single people to families of up to 4 people. We managed to get a lot done in only 30 minutes! The way back saw the gang pick up the pace a little to get back in time for closing at Flirt Cafe...Brilliant work everyone! Hope nobody is too sore in the morning!

Next week we are getting together for a beer and some food after the group run....or you can come along for a soft drink....or just a beer...or just some food...you get it right??

See you next week!