The friends of Waterloo Park had some more gardening for this GoodGym Norwich Community Mission 🌱

It was a really hot day but slightly cooler by the time we met at 6.15pm. Hannah joined us for her first mission ever, so it was lovely to welcome her along 😊

Jean, who runs the friends of Waterloo Park, met us by the community flowerbeds and gave us a couple of tasks to get going on. We were separated into two groups for social distancing, and we made our way, either side of the pavilion.

One group were tasked with digging the overgrown beds and the other group were asked to separate soil from grass on some dryed out turf. 🌞 The sun had been beating down and the soil was so dry, you literally couldn't see us for dust! 😂

The time flew by, as usual, and we got a whole lot of gardening completed 😊 Great job everyone!

Sometimes it’s hard to do justice in writing up something that has been so special for our GoodGym family…. Where do we begin and where do we end?

On Thursday evening our GG WhatsApp group had a message from Andy to say that he and his partner Rute would be getting married the following day at the hospital after getting special permission given Rute’s rapidly deteriorating health. Wow! How on earth do you digest and respond to such lovely but sad news? With true GoodGym family love of course, with messages of congratulations and support pouring in. They went to bed knowing they were loved and that we were there for them whenever they needed us.

I woke up the next morning to see a missed call from Andy. When I called him back he described himself as being like a headless chicken running round trying to get everything sorted – a hospital bed and oxygen needed to be delivered that day to their house, he needed to get things to the hospital that the bride needed to get ready and of course he needed to get himself sorted too. He’d just found out that the wedding may be at 11am so what should he do first?! After telling him to take some deep breaths and maybe write a list, I said I would head over – I had made a bouquet and a buttonhole arrangement from the garden to drop round anyway so I quickly got dressed, packed up my breakfast and set off. On arrival Andy was looking bemused and admitted that little progress had been made as his phone hadn’t stopped ringing! We agreed that, with social distancing being maintained, I would come in and help as far as I could. We made a list, deciding that having a cuppa should be a priority (no kettle but that’s another long story in itself), moved some furniture ready for the arrival of the bed and Andy had a shower. All the while Andy was dealing with video and phone calls from a whole host of important people, not least Rute who was issuing instructions about what furniture should be moved and what she wanted him to bring with him. The hospital explained that the ceremony would now be in the afternoon as there needed to be some paperwork to deal with.

After some time hunting out where the jewellery box was and contemplating what might be used as wedding rings (my suggestion of using a couple of keyrings didn’t go down that well with Rute!) with strict instructions to ignore his phone, Andy eventually set off for the hospital, just as the bed arrived and was set up. I took the opportunity to rig up some homemade decorations for when they arrived home. After making sure instructions were left for the people delivering the oxygen and the key left with a neighbour, I headed off home, expecting a more sedate afternoon and an announcement from Andy of when they were married.

Mid afternoon Andy posted an update to say that if anyone wanted to, we would be allowed to watch the ceremony through the hospital window! After a quick wash and brush up, Bill, Beks, Steve and I headed in and were taken to the courtyard outside Rute’s window.

A massive hats off to the hospital whose staff had pulled out all the stops to enable this to happen and make sure it was a special and beautiful occasion for Rute and Andy. Rute’s room had been beautifully decorated with bunting, flowers and candles. The chaplaincy had had to obtain special dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury for the ceremony to go ahead during lockdown (Andy and Rute’s earlier plans for a wedding in April at the Registry Office had been stopped with lockdown enforced) .

As there was a bit of waiting for forms to come back from Lambeth Palace, Beks, Andy and I took the opportunity of an unofficial GG good deed and gave the windows a bit of a clean so that we would be able to see through them better. The nurses did a fabulous job of helping Rute get ready and wow did she look gorgeous! After a moment of ‘where’s the groom disappeared to?’ with some speculation as to whether he’d fitted in a quick run, he reassured us with an appearance in the courtyard looking very handsome and ready to marry! He was then called through with their 2 witnesses (Helen from GG and her partner, who doubled as the photographer). Baby Oscar, Helen’s baby born the week lockdown began, waited patiently outside.

What a beautiful, emotionally charged and wonderful ceremony we were privileged to be at. The vicar did a sterling job of managing to conduct the service through a face mask and guide Rute and Andy through the ceremony, all the while being live on video link to various family and friends from different places who were unable to be there. A loud cheer rang round the courtyard when the vicar announced that they were now husband and wife and we toasted them with some fizz while they signed the marriage certificate. Most of Norwich GoodGymers were in virtual attendance, and photos flooded in of people toasting the bride and groom with tea, water, lemonade, gin (thanks Elizabeth) and wine. Rute then wanted to come out into the courtyard, so, with some wonderful support from staff carrying the oxygen, the bride and groom were announced as they arrived through the doors. Andy made a lovely speech thanking everyone for enabling their dream to come true and giving a particular nod to Justin Welby for granting special permission! Rute had a couple of bouquets to throw, with a member of staff displaying skilful dexterity in catching one before it landed – she admitted to getting in some practice!

With the ceremony completed and Rute needing to rest, we came away knowing that we had all – whether we had been able to be physically present or not - been part of a truly special and unique day for a truly special and unique couple.

This was a task for inspiration (not my respiration) as the more we did, the more funds we'd help raise for Break Charity.

A big GoodGym welcome to Ian who was doing his first good deed and well done to Niki and Mark for completing 10 good deeds each.

Following a 4.5km run each-way, we were tasked with making as many Easter Hampers as we could in 45 minutes, which will then go to businesses to sell in a raffle to their employees with the hope that each one would raise over £100. So the more we made, the more fund raising possibilities.

For someone who is giving up chocolate for lent, I could only describe being around so much chocolate as pure torture.

Dave took 8 GoodGymers over to the lock-up (oh-er) to sort through some beer donations... Bobby jumped straight to the opportunity haha. They also got a sneaky glimpse of the GoGo T-Rex's.

Everyone had different duties with the hampers. We had people on the different items, making the ribbons, cutting the cellophane sheets, collecting the items, wrapping the hampers and transporting them to the end room. We nailed it!

We ended up making around 35 hampers so we're looking forward to hearing how much they raise in total come Easter.

pun credit to Darren

Next week I'll try not to drop my balls as we play Bingo with residents at Violet Elvin Court.

We had one of our longer runs tonight, a mere 5.5km each way to visit Bowthorpe Care Village.

A big GoodGym welcome to Kamilla who was doing her 1st good deed.

Bill was back runner.

Considering the distance, we managed to arrive in around 33 minutes!

Hazel and her team greeted us with an array of lovely cake and refreshments, just what we needed to replenish our energy ahead of the task and run back later. Although a few/most of us that had 6 pieces of cake then thought we went a little OTT haha.

The task list for us to do were:

• Erect a wire chicken run
• Paint the tyres being used as plant pots
• Put up a little fence around a new area for a memorial garden
• Dig up a new wildlife pond

Within a blink of an eye, we were already in 4 groups and off everyone went to do the retrospective tasks. It was all outside, we were all freezing but we got the job done!

You may ask how many GoodGymers it takes to erect a chicken run? The answer is 'enough' but didn't they do a good job, evidenced by 26 of us standing inside it!

The painters did a great job and made the plain tyres look very colourful.

Those putting up the fence had a few difficulties at times but still managed to improvise and get it done.

Despite a few concerned looking care home residents looking out their window to see some random people digging a 6x3 hole in the dark, the diggers did a great job in getting a new wildlife pond dug out.

We really did do a good job. With spring approaching over the next couple of months, we have given residents extra incentive to want to come outside more and be with the natural world.

Pun credit goes to Raffy.

Katy is at the helm next week as you visit Eaton Park.

What another great turnout this evening, which I believe is our 2nd or 3rd highest ever!

We had several new runners so a big welcome to Heather, Ana, Paul, Aston, Karen, Shunsuke and Sultan.

Elizabeth kindly volunteered to be back runner.

Some milestones this week with Bobby completing his 50th good deed, Rosie & Angela their 25th good deed and Simon his 10th good deed.

It was our first ever visit to Baby Bank Norfolk, what a great and unique organisation they are. I'm sure we'll do plenty of visits to them in the future. Similar to the Food Bank, they work on a referral basis and have helped provide over 600 families with clothing and baby essentials.

There was quite a lot of running included, 4km each-way for the task and as all of us couldn't fit in the sorting room, we did relays so one person was running while the other was sorting.

Very kindly, Baby Bank Norfolk provided us with drinks and chocolate to keep our energy levels up throughout the evening.

We achieved a lot in the time we were there, in fact we pretty much sorted through all of the donations they had, so this can help them focus on getting the items out to families.

After 30-40 minutes (which equates to around 25 hours), we took the group photo and then headed off on the windy 4km run to The Forum. The evening was finished with several people going to the pub.

Next week we're visiting Norwich Food Bank.

This was the penultimate Group Run of 2019.

A big welcome to Sarah who was doing her 1st GoodGym encounter.

James was visiting us from GoodGym Redbridge, we love a bit of GoodGym tourism.

Congratulations to Michelle who has completed 10 good deeds.

A special task tonight as we were supporting The Feed, who let us use their kitchen, to make mince pies that will be provided at a charity carol concert on Wednesday evening to raise money for Keeping Abreast.

The aim was for us to make at least 150 mince pies.

It was only about 1km each-way and Jasmine led a group of 5 walkers there.

We had a little production line soon set up but as there were so many of us we did another relay session so half of the group was running while the others in the kitchen. We had people greasing the trays, cutting pastry bases, filling the pies, cutting the pastry toppings and then placing them in the oven.

There was also room for a couple of people to put together another work station (Catherine enjoyed the greasy poles), put some new sticky floor grips down and give the place a little bit of a clean up.

I still believe the mince pies here are the some of the best I've ever had (not that I was eating them all... just one that broke up) and there was some creativity in making toppings spelling out G-O-O-D-G-Y-M.

We smashed the target and made about 180 mince pies.

A special thank you to Dave Tuthill who helped make this happen and his company are sponsoring the carol concert on Wednesday.

Katy is leading next week's session when you are making Xmas Crafts at The Clare School.

If I don't see you at the Xmas Meal on Wednesday, I wish you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.