Tony Foreman

Sunny Saturday lunchtime and a great opportunity to clean out the old Giraffe school bus which the Living Well foodbank use as part of their storage system. Unfortunately, some mice had also found it a great place to get some extra nibbles, and left behind the usual....! But once empty, you can clean up any space pretty well with a hoover, dustpan & brush and a few swipes of cleaning fluid, leaving the Giraffe's insides better than they've been for a long time. And then a quick 10 minutes worth of putting most of the stuff back in again, minus a useful clear-out of things for the bin.

Today's task was to help out Living Well and their food bank with checking and packing "Christmas Bags" - a more festive version of their regular packages they give to those that need them.

Members of the public were asked to provide specific things (salmon, shower gel, coffee, festive biscuits, tinned fruit...etc.) and we were there to check that everything was there.

Firstly we shifted all the bags into the church, before getting on with going through each bag and matching them with the list of food. If there was something missing, we'd grab it from the usual food bank stock, and then we'd top the bags up with mince pies and other Christmas treats!

Once they were all filled, we moved the bags back into the containers outside. A good test of brain power, speed and muscle! 🧠🏃💪

Mary from Living Well sent me this after the session:

"A big thank you to everyone who helped today with Christmas bags. If we had to do them without your help it would have taken many hours."

Great work guys! And big shout out to Carla who came along for her first GG task - A baptism of fire with a speedy session! 🎉🔥

Reference to the report title/pun comes from chatting with George and her time spent at The Globe theatre the night before - admittedly she watched A Midsummer Night's Dream, still Shakespeare...

Five GoodGymers met on a grey and cloudy morning with the weather just holding up. Yet, Millie (and Lou, the dog) and the Friends of Alexandra Recreation Grounds showed up in full force with the tools and the determination to get stuck in again after our last session two weeks ago.

We continued with taking out sticky weeds, normal weeds and long grass from the borders surrounding the Lodge House. Katy, who came to her first GoodGym mission in a very long time, and Linda, who hasn't been to a GoodGym mission for some time too, took on the side of the border that had more dense shrubs. George, Laura and Sam finished off the other side near the Lodge House entrance, where they were stuck with the age old question - "Is it a weed or a weedy looking plant/flower?" Always a tough question to ask!

As it started to get darker and colder and the gang were approaching the end of the session, the clouds had to break into small tears of sadness...but not for too long and often the rain is a welcome help when removing weeds from the soil.

The task ended slightly early (15 minutes or so) as many hands make light work, but there's plenty of sessions at Alexandra Recreation Grounds in the future and they are all on the GG website, so please be sure to sign up!

We're really pleased to be rejoining our friends at Alexandra Recreation Ground, helping to make the park look lovely and keep on top of new growth over the summer months.

Task Details

• Make your own way to the park
• Meet by the Lodge House (look out for volunteer leaders in hi-vis vests)
• Take direction from volunteer leaders
• Take your own gloves, water, hand gel
• Please observe social distancing

Enjoy!