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 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.

An absolute scorching bank holiday didn't stop 25 GoodGymers coming out to play. It felt good to be back after a couple of weeks off.

Kate was on her 1st GoodGym encounter so a big welcome!

We even had some GoodGym tourism with Catriona visiting us from London.

Both Emily and Danie were completing their 10th good deeds :-)

The main task tonight was to visit Grapes Hill Community Garden to do some trimming back, weeding, watering, pruning and sweeping up.

6 people also went over to Somerleyton Gardens to clear out a shrub bed so that local residents can make better use of it. Darren, Janice, Kevin, Stephen and the two Dave T's went to do this one.

Both tasks were quite different but required lots of hard work and as always, GoodGym did not disappoint.

I was feeling generous tonight so we avoided a fitness session in the heat so after the task we headed back The Forum where Katy and Bill had brought in some fresh raspberries and damsons from their allotment. Damson gin here we go ;-)

A few then headed to the pub to celebrate Elliot's 22nd birthday.

Next week we're visiting Silver Road Community Centre.

We had our 2nd biggest turnout this evening with 37 GoodGymers hitting the streets of Norwich.

Amy C was completing her 25th good deed!

A thank you to Robert for being walk-leader, Catherine for being back runner and Helen E for being the photographer.

We were visiting the Oxfam Charity Shop tonight for a variety of tasks. Emma met us there and explained what they were, which included: cleaning the shop floor, putting new stock out on the shop floor, giving the kitchen a deep clean and taking books down on the conveyor belt into the pulping room. You'd think it would take some organising with a big group of people, but you'd be run as within a couple of minutes they were all split up and cracking on with all of these tasks.

It was quite an entertaining evening... check out the photos! Dave T styling a feminine hat, me with my whopping mushroom and three of the girls fitting into one pair of knickers... a sight I'm still not sure what to make of haha.

After a good 40 minutes of hard work, which equated to an incredible 24 hours of volunteer time we finished up and headed back... but not straight back. Oh no, I'm not that kind! So it was a detour via Grapes Hill, which everyone put a sterling effort into. After that we did a quick sprint session in Chapelfield Gardens before returning to The Forum. The evening was finished up with some cakes Elizabeth brought along ahead of her 21st birthday on Thursday.

Next week we're doing a litter pick in aid of WWF Earth Hour.

We had a whopping 5 new GoodGymers this week so a massive welcome to Rosie, Emma M, Michaela, Emma W and Rute.

Darren was completing his 50th good deed this evening, well done big man aka our regular pun connoisseur.

Catherine was backrunner and Robert walk leader - thanks for volunteering to do these duties.

This evening we were heading to The Feed on Prince of Wales Road, a short 1km trip but rumours were flying around that there would be Gas Hill later in the evening ;-)

Lucy met us at The Feed and had a box of flyers for us to hand out to local businesses and residents, to help promote their cafe. We group split into 6 groups of 5 then went off in different directions to get as many delivered as they could, which they did a sterling job.

Probably at some point they were all thinking "what exactly was Hitch doing while we were posting flyers? Was he sitting with his feet up having a cuppa? Was he taking stupid selfies in the mirror in his sexy leggings? Hmm". The truth of the matter was That's Norfolk TV were filming us so I did an interview with them discussing how GoodGym is the best thing since sliced bread and that everyone needs to get involved.

Being the kind trainer that I am I also got the group out of running up Gas Hill so that they could be filmed during a fitness session at The Forum. On paper this sounds like a win win situation... until they found out what the fitness session involved.

Could it be make or break for the new runners? It was a risk I was going to take and I did emphasise that I'm giving them abs, to try and take the pain away. So yes this meant one thing, the 4-minute ab-hold tabata workout was upon us. During this 4 minutes of sheer hell (I can't think of a better way to describe it) I granted permission for anyone to curse me as much as they wanted to haha.

It will be interesting to see how that comes out on TV!

Afterwards, a good group of us finished the evening at the pub to wind down.

Next week we're visiting Oxfam.