It’s been a while since I’ve come home from a GoodGym mission and immediately dived into a bath to get clean but it’s kind of appropriate since we were helping out at the former open air swimming baths in Bath.

The UK’s only surviving Georgian lido closed in 1984 but reopened in 2023 after a long campaign. Sadly, four months later flooding caused major damage and it has not been able to operate since. But there is hope that repairs will go ahead.

GoodGym was called into help keep the site looking spick and span and, while volunteers from the Cleveland Pools Trust were in charge of clearing undergrowth, Paul, Cosmo, Meyrick and I had the job of clearing the mud that had built up on site.

We removed buckets and buckets of the stuff. And, unlike the hippopotamus’ opinion in the old Flanders and Swann song, it was anything but glorious. It was gloop. It was sludge. It oozed. We got covered in it.

But it was a wonderful feeling to know we were helping such an important part of Bath’s leisure and heritage. We will be back!

It was a pretty grim Sunday morning in December and competition from Bath Christmas Market and added traffic no doubt contributed to a lower turnout for Junior Parkrun at Odd Down sports ground.

That didn’t stop 50 4 to 14-year-olds giving their all as they pounded round the 2km track.

Mary and I were there to act as marshals and cheer on the children - and occasional parents. We donned hi-vis and giant red foam hands, which did their duty in dishing out hi-fives along the way. Catching them red-handed, so to speak!

Everyone got round safely - the fastest did it in just 6 minutes and 50 seconds.

It is always a privilege to be a part of parkrun which does so much to get young people enthusiastic about running.

What goes “Oh, oh, oh”? Santa walking backwards!

Just one of the corny jokes given to us to write on paper chain slips ready to be transformed into garlands by children on mental health wards over Christmas.

Usually GoodGym Bath’s Christmas season begins in early December when we put up the lights and decorations for St John’s Court sheltered housing but this mission certainly put us in festive mood.

Seven of us - Cosmo, Emily, Nev, Meyrick, Mary, myself and Sara - on her first task (welcome Sara!) - took over a huge table at the very welcoming Hall and Woodhouse pub and turned it into Santa’s Workshop. We measured and cut out colourful wrapping paper into slips and then wrote jokes in them and decorated them with seasonal stamps.

In this age of computers and laptops we were all a bit out of practice with handwriting. In fact, it was a bit of a throwback to having to write lines as a punishment at school - but in a fun way.

We managed to come up with 250 paper chain bits and it’s wonderful that they’ll be going to bring joy to children and young people on mental health wards across the country this Christmas.

The patients will assemble the chains - hopefully enjoying the cheesy jokes - and then use them to transform their units. It’s all the idea of the charity CAMHS at Christmas, which was set up to tackle the disparity between the way mental health wards and general children’s wards are treated.

The charity provides hundreds of presents each year and started the paper chain project three years ago. It’s been a huge success - partly because of the way it links the children and young people with the community… it symbolises connectedness and makes them feel they’re not forgotten.

Question: Which GoodGymer was most festive on this mission?

Answer: Mary Christmas! (Merry Christmas - get it?)

You have to hand to the Friends of Sydney Gardens, they like to rotate us around a variety of jobs when we visit, just in case we get bored or something. Recently, we've been weeding, clearing away earth (I think we down to the 1960s now - in joke) and trying to blend GoodGym red with Jane Austen bonnets and Empire Line Dressed (totally failed that one btw).

But today it was sand, as there is a rather rapid churn of the stuff as a consequence of the trampling feet of a thousand pesky kids. We've done this before, and as I have frequently pointed out, the distance from the place the sand has been delivered is a about as far away from where it needs to go as possible, yet still be in the park.

Nay bother, although logically it means we can deliver less trips, but we made about ten trips I'm guessing. Enough to replenish about a quarter of the sand pit, but no more. GoodGym stalwarts Aaron, Nev and Meyrick rolled up their sleeves for what is always hot work.

I know what we'll be doing when we return to Sydney Gardens on the 23rd.

It was really cold when I left the house this morning, so cold I almost, for a fleeting instant, changed my mind. But my committed GoodGym heart wouldn't let me. Also, we're only in Autumn and mornings will get much colder than this.

Turned out to be much milder than I'd first thought, especially in the sunshine. Four GoodGymmers braved this (barely) chilling day to help our Friends of Sydney Gardens once again. This week it was weeding the flower beds by the tennis courts. Cosmo, Emily, Nev and Nev were on hand to assist with this.

As usual, the hour went by so quickly and we'd done a huge amount. We are due back for several more visits to the Gardens before the end of the year, prepping for Winter, so please come and join us if you can.

There are many attachments that people have to missions. Some are a memory of that place from long ago, like fingerprints on a forgotten handrail, others are sparked by a sense of community, of what's right; this mission had both.

From some of us old timers who remember being here back in the 70's and 80's, to those younger GoodGymmers who perhaps never swam here but as proud Bathonians are fully bought into the wonderful story behind this location, there was a feeling of something special about this task.

It was a very autumnal morning when six GoodGymmers found their way to the Cleveland Pools - the UK’s oldest Lido - here to help with whatever they needed as we move towards the winter. Ruth, Emily, Amy, Kam, Meyrick and Paul were on hand to help, and we were greeted by the unexpected but always very welcome appearance of Jer.

Seriously, we would have done anything they asked to help, but it was weeding they needed us to do today, clearing a lot of unwanted growth from the flower beds and tidying up the edges. We did enormous amounts in the time we had, and a big shout out to Mary and Sally, Cleveland Pools volunteers, for giving us the grand tour of this incredible site, many thanks.