It was wonderful to be back out with our lovely Goodgym family this evening after a couple of weeks rest over the Christmas holiday (it went soooo fast!!). I hope everyone enjoyed the break and had a lovely time celebrating with family & friends.

It was great to see Karen, Kat, Maurice & Rob with us tonight – really lovely to have you with us again tonight Rob.

With tasks still a bit thin on the ground, we were back out doing one of our absolute favourite Goodgym tasks this evening - a post-Christmas litter pick around the park. At first, we didn’t think we were going to fill our bags as litter was looking a bit thin on the ground – but as is often the case, we were chuffed to collect 5 (nearly 6) full bags of rubbish!!! The area around the park is undoubtedly looking cleaner and more cared for! And the star find of the evening had to be Karen's golf ball!! I'm not sure whether it made it home to Nigel though.... ;-) (for those that don't know, Nigel loves nothing more than finding a golf ball - in fact, I think he collects them, lol!)

Some of us have challenged ourselves to be active every day in January, so tonight’s litter pick went a long way in helping towards that because we covered a whopping 5K – our pre-task exercise and walking while litter picking combined. Not a bad effort for an evening’s work!

A big shout out to Maurice for coming up with our pun for this week! Thanks Maurice – you’ve saved me at least 3 hours work tonight! Lol!

Well done everyone on another fab night of helping to make our community a nicer place to live! You’re all awesome!

Have a great week and hope to see you soon.

Bucket loads of love, Nicola xxx

A super exciting night as we welcomed a Goodgym newbie to the family!! Welcome Steve, it was so great to have you last night and as you may have gathered, we were all super excited to have some new blood (not that we’re vampires or anything!!). It really was lovely to welcome you, even though it wasn’t the nicest of evening’s weather wise (you didn’t let that put you off coming though!!). We hope you enjoyed your evening as much as we enjoyed having you… and we hope you’ll come back and join us another week (next week hopefully… but no pressure, lol!).

Last night, Claire, Emily, Kat, Maurice, Rob, Steve and Nicola were back with Motherwell to help them spruce up their garden and outside frontage in preparation for the forthcoming jubilee celebrations. Although June is a way off, it never hurts to get a head start.

We started our evening with our exercise…. we split into two groups – runners & walkers. Emily, Steve and Nicola did a 3K run, taking in a lap of the park, while Claire & Maurice had a nice brisk walk before re-joining us at Motherwell

We split into 3 groups. Emily & Steve took the sweeping up of the moss at the front of the building. Claire, Maurice & Rob started potting some plants, with Rob on the hunt for bricks and rubble to make a base in the bottom of the pots. Nicola & Kat did some weeding in the beds at the back of the building. Once again, Kat had to save the day by racing home to get a brush and trowel. The trowel was no ordinary trowel though, it was *Noah’s M&S trowel. His toy trowel that we had to borrow so we could get the weeds out!! Big thank you Noah (even though I don’t think you actually know we even borrowed it!!!).

The weather was drizzly all night but it didn’t dampen our spirits and everywhere was looking much tidier by the time we’d finished. I’m sure we’ll be back before June though to work some more magic (hopefully in better weather!).

And last but by no means least, a huge GOOD LUCK to Claire who is running Manchester Marathon on Sunday. We hope you have a great run Claire. We know you’ll smash it!

Well done everyone. Another great evening’s work as always – you’re the BEST!

Loved being with you as always Nicola xxx

It was great to see Rob back at the vaccine centre today at the the old MMU. This time, they were there to help with the smooth running of the booster vaccine.

Rob was heavily involved with the initial vaccines and didn't take any persuading to get back down to the vaccine centre when he heard that they were rolling out the booster jabs.

Rob was back out on car park duties, supervising all the arrivals, ensuring they were parked safely and getting into the building ok.

Well done Rob, you are an inspiration to us all xxx

Last night was extra special as we were celebrating two milestones…

Firstly, the lovely Emily was celebrating her 50th task milestone!! Well done Emily, an incredible achievement – especially as most of it has been carried out in the middle of a global pandemic! You are such a wonderful inspiration and a hugely valued member of our Goodgym Family.

And secondly to Maurice who completed his 150th ‘not parkrun’ around the George’s last night. Throughout the pandemic, Maurice has kept fit by running laps of the George’s community park. As parkrun wasn’t up and running, Maurice found his own alternative parkrun and has now completed 150!! Amazing work Maurice, you are also a huge inspiration to us all.

Last night, 7 Goodgym members donned their head torches and litter pickers and set off on a community litter pick. But before we set off, we had our warmup and our run. As we had a bit more space today, we had a little relay race. 3 runners on each team – each had to take a turn of either running, skipping or walking. It was good fun but the only mistake I made was making them do it only once as it was over too quickly!!!!

After our warm up, we let Maurice lead the way around his ‘not parkrun’ route. We completed two laps. It was dark but Maurice knows the place like the back of his hand – he’s run it 600 times!!! (4 laps for each ‘not parkrun’).

After our run, we set to work on our litter pick. To be honest, we didn’t think we’d find much litter as it looked pretty clean but on closer inspection, we realised there was actually enough to fill a fair few bags (I think there were six in total). It was quite satisfying to collect all that

All in all, it was a productive and fairly energetic evening – plenty of exercise and fresh air and all spent in the best company.

Well done everyone on another awesome evening of #fun, #fitness, #friendship and the #feel good factor. You’re all incredible.

Huge hugs Nicola xxx

PS – I forgot to hand out the biscuits – again!!!!! #useless