After welcoming back Michael (me!) to the Good Gym community, we set off for this week’s destination – the grounds of the Manor Paddock Seniors Housing Scheme. Our run took us up the steep hill of Edward Street and then along Eastern Road, passing Brighton College and the Royal Sussex Hospital on our left and views of the terraces running down to the sea on our right.

When we arrived, Manor Paddock’s resident, Luc, showed us around their beautiful grounds – a green and flower-filled space, with rose bushes, honeysuckle, and unfortunately a whole lot of weeds! Luke explained that, while the council came to mow the grass, everything else that needed caring for was left to the residents.

The headline was: weeds out – mulch in! So we quickly set to, with rakes, forks, trowels and a lovely mixture of compost and earth. Tara and Katharine got their mulch on at the North end of the garden while the rest of us gave the grounds a good old makeover.

Many hands make mulch work so, before the hour was up, we’d cleared and fed all of the beds, even finding time to plant some gooseberry and clementine bushes. Tara then led us through a quick fitness session, where we all surprised ourselves with the number of sit-ups we could do in three minutes, before we headed to the Sidewinder in Kemptown for a well-deserved pint (or two!).

Now this is the task you were all waiting for! At least you were if you are Rosie who is literally as happy as a pig in sh** when dragging rubbish out of a dump site, and I have to say I tend to agree!

A second trip to the Moulsecoomb allotments and the rubbish just kept on flowing! Our mission is to help the allotment holders to clear an abandoned plot that has become a rubbish dump and help turn it into a little wildlife haven. And as we pulled up carpets (so much carpet!) radiators, bottles, cans, hose pipes, clothes airers and so much more we did come across a couple of slow worms, so I guess we are off to a good start.

It was great to see some of you back after a few weeks or months off for various reasons. Perhaps Philippa had the best excuse as she just ran a marathon! Huge congratulations to Pippa for an amazing achievement.

We concluded the evening with a push/pull partnered work out in Saunders Park, utilising the swings for pull ups and also a bit of actual swinging (no not that kind!) at the end.

See you next week for some meadow making at Carlton Hill primary school Sign up here.

A bit quieter than usual for us tonight and with two tasks scheduled we were spread a little bit thin. But we just worked harder and still covered up loads of graffiti in Hanover and cleaned the kitchen at the Real Junk Food cafe’s Gardner cafe.

Most of us reconvened at Victoria Gardens for the fitness session, which was one of the routines I used for our old Zoom fitness sessions. Who misses those? No, me neither!

Gotta admit I was a bit worried about that one! A new meet location, a new task, a longer run and a LOT to do! What could possibly go wrong? Well as it turned out absolutely nothing!

So after meeting at Saunders Park we made out way into deepest, darkest Bevendean to visit The Real Junk Food Project’s Food Hub. Task owner Sarah explained that this is where all the food collected from supermarkets is stored before it gets distributed to the various cafe projects around the city. The hub also functions as a shop, on a pay as you feel basis. It’s not a food bank, no referral needed so if you fancy doing your shopping there and paying a fair rate for it you would not only be helping keep food out of landfill but also help the project with some of its costs, like shop rental etc.

Under the direction of Sarah and Julie the task tonight was to get all the food out of the hub so that we could give it a good clean and then help get all the food back in, in date order. No mean feat as there is a LOT of food. Using a combination of trollies and good lifting practice we moved all the crates to the outside of the hub where we date sorted a LOT of pasta. Meanwhile inside we vacuumed, mopped, wiped and scrubbed away all the dirt, condensation mould and cobwebs. Now all that was left was to put all the crates back in a date ordered and food categorised way. We all got on top of each other a bit, it was kinda chaotic but after one hour of hard work, order did indeed emerge!

Sarah and Julie were delighted with what we achieved. Lack of man power and time would have made it so difficult for them to do it without our help, and now with a newly scrubbed hub they can carry on with their great work of not wasting grub!