On another evening when wind and rain returned to pelt the coast, this week's turn-out from GoodGym Brighton meandered their way towards a cleaning task at the Cardinal Newman School, whose alumni (including its previous iterations) boast one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters and Ann Quin, local novelist whose 1960s experimental Brighton-set novel Berg is known for its almost circular ending.

One of the most distinctive features of the Cardinal Newman School is a circular arrow-tree in its central atrium, a kind of indoor roundabout or static carousel, with signs all around with the demand 'WALK ON THE LEFT'. The GoodGym gang, entering the building after school hours, were of course able to ambulate where they wished as they tucked into tonight's menu of assignments: sweeping/scooping pigeon excrement in an outside breakout area, or scrubbing/rubbing dirty bannisters flanking the school's showpiece staircase. Some might have projected that the outdoor crew had the short straw, but morale seemed to soar as the trio raced through their faecal challenge and posed grinning against the backdrop of a cheery mural saying 'Together'. Indoors, a larger contingent polished off the muck engrained in the stairs' florid black railings and dark wood banisters with an arsenal of antiseptic wipes, while breaking off to admire the photogenic possibilities of a four-floor selfie.

Assembling by the arrow-tree for a reunited full group photo the GoodGym group looked forward to the fast-approaching Brighton Marathon weekend where, in some instances, the rule will be to run on the right, and the potential excitements of a competitive duel in the dirt at next week's task at Moulsecoomb Allotment, though that's something to be dealt with on another evening.

From Parkrun to Permaculture: Planting a Future in Moulsecoomb.

The Friends of Hodshrove Woods reached out to GoodGym for some extra hands to plant ten new fruit trees in their local community. The saplings came courtesy of the Brighton Permaculture Trust, an inspiring local charity that helps schools and communities transform urban spaces into productive orchards.

Fresh from a parkrun at Bevendean Downs, I headed to this "green pocket" in Moulsecoomb to join the community mission. I was joined by new GoodGymer Julien D and my friend Poppy from the Brighton Multicultural Women’s Cycle Club, alongside several local volunteers and residents like Linsley. Under the expert guidance of Jan and Abs, we spent a beautiful morning getting stuck into the soil. We planted a variety of apple and pear trees, as well as Cambridge Gages—better known in Italy as the delicious Regina Claudia plums.

True permaculture is about more than just cultivation; it’s about fostering sustainable ecosystems and bringing people together while embodying the fundamental principles of permaculture. Communities thrive when they grow, harvest, and eat their own food, and we can’t wait to return to Hodshrove Woods to see our "baby trees" fully grown and bearing fruit.

This Monday was open mic night at the ChoirWithNoName singing over a Karaoke track or around the piano! Members were invited to suggest their favorite hits and bring instruments to play and perform their songs of choice, including Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush.

In the kitchen there was another music to play 🙃.

For this community mission, GoodGym’s Amanda stepped up as lead chef for the first time at ChoirWithNoName. She headed the kitchen alongside Sonam and me, with Lindsey and Anne-Mari rounding out our volunteer cooking team.

On the menu tonight: Potato and Spinach Gateau. It was a total race against the clock to peel, slice, and bake crispy potatoes while sautéing a mountain of onions, mushrooms, and spinach. Meanwhile, Amanda was a powerhouse, whipping up both vegan and vegetarian versions of the béchamel sauce.

I’ll admit, procuring and cooking food for 50 people was a first for me — but what an incredible, rewarding Good challenge! Many volunteers and members commented on how tasty the cooked meal was - DELICIOUSly Good :-). We were also proud to have successfully sourced several essential ingredients from surplus food via Olio. While the effort left us completely exhausted, Sonam somehow still had the energy to run all the way home!

"And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get Him to swap our places

Be runnin' up that road, Be runnin' up that hill, Be runnin' up that building (yo)

Say, if I only could, oh".

From Kate Bush's song, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).

For this week's task, the unique group that is GoodGym Brighton congregated at One Church Florence Road, a place of worship and one-stop shop community venue, for a cleaning mission in their community kitchen. From this kitchen on every third Sunday a meal is prepared for those who are homeless, vulnerably housed or at risk of isolation, which members of GoodGym Brighton are often on hand to support.

The team were welcomed by Stefan who outlined the scale of the task when he revealed that the kitchen hadn't had a single deep clean since the New Year. A wide range of activities were divvied up and the GoodGym squad tackled them all in typical no-nonsense route one fashion: washing/ drying up, rationalising shelves/ pans/ utensils, cleaning ovens/ surfaces/ floors and confronting the fridge-freezer. Hefty items had to be removed from the kitchen and then returned post-clean, including blenders, large bottles of oil and 25kg bags of flour, which provided additional weight training for some. Among the one-off finds in the kitchen was a tupperware tub of lentils used in pastry baking to avert a soggy bottom, familiar to many attempting long runs/ walks in the recent inclement weather.

Capturing the latest one-off moment in the GoodGym Brighton story, the gang posed for the post-task group photo in an adjacent hall often used for a variety of educational purposes, which hosted a collection of xylophones, a paper mache Where the Wild Things Are-esque monster, and an emotions colour wheel tacked to the wall. With Stefan delighted that the kitchen was left in such a sparkling condition the group headed home deserving of a spectrum of happy-coloured emotions including successful, valued and inspired.

In a burst of inspiration, GoodGymer Sam penned this lovely poem. Enjoy the rhymes:

Feeling Complete

Rubber gloves slip snug on my hands, A toilet brush waits for careful plans. Where others groan, I bend with glee, Scrubbing the bowl till it shines for me. The swirl of water, the steady sweep, A rhythm of work both calm and deep. Graffiti cleared, floors bright and true, A quiet craft I can take pride in, too. The scent of cleaner, sharp yet sweet, A fragrance that makes the task complete. Each motion steady, circles tight, Turns hidden corners clean and bright. Some wrinkle noses, some retreat, But here I find the work complete. A task that others choose to flee Brings pride and stillness home to me. So let the gloves embrace my hands, And brushes trace the path I planned. For in this work, both strange and sweet, I find myself, and feel complete.

This report was co-written with contributions from GoodGymers Ben and Sam.

Another GoodGym community mission complete! What next at GoodGym Brighton?

This week, a hard-as-nails GoodGym contingent made their way to the Brighton Community Workshop in Kemptown, billed on its website as a "collective garden shed", a kind of tool nirvana bursting at the seams with everything from nut drivers to ratchets. An organisational task was on the table, for the team to bring order to chaos, to metaphorically extract the spanners from the works.

The team were welcomed by Pete Ranson, director of the workshop (and also recognised by some as director of the East Brighton parkrun), who quickly mapped out the evening's assignments. One group was to rationalise onto various shelves different lengths of wood so that visitors to the workshop could easily be offered the sweet spot size they would need for their respective DIY projects. The other group were focused on categorising into tupperware containers a impressive variety of screws, nuts and other tighteners/ fasteners, as well as many other miscellaneous items, including alum keys, picture hooks, and a 22cm ruler.

Going at it hammer and tongs, the GoodGym gang soon recognised that the task required mental acuity as well as physical agility, but as usual rose to the challenge and the workshop was duly transformed. There remained plenty of potential for a sequel visit however with much still to sort, and Pete offered some a quick tour down to the cellar, revealing further boxes and vertiginous piles of items to be catalogued.

The Brighton Community Workshop & Tool Library opened in Kemptown in 2022, following a previous iteration as part of Revaluit in Old Steine, and offers a creative space for crafting and building, skills workshops (including regular arts and crafts sessions) plus an expansive tool library that functions like a book library. As the session wound to a close, and the team filtered out to clink glasses at a social at the Sidewinder, Pete outlined the workshop's aims to empower people with skills and to promote a circular economy of sharing, reusing, repairing and recycling. He added that in 2020 man-made mass began to exceed overall biomass in the world. Humans are making a lot of undue waste, he was saying, and that's a point that needs drilling home.

What a great organisation for first comers Ellie and Harry. Welcome to Goodgym Brighton!

Last Tuesday's GoodGym Brighton group run was in safe hands thanks to Task Force member Frannie stepping up to lead— thanks, goodness! From afar, I watched the Brighton crew run and cycle through a mild spring day to FareShare Sussex & Surrey. They tackled a mix of distances for a session that was, mysteriously enough, described as a "Crime Scene."

It was a "very smelly but satisfying" session for “Team Cabbage”! 🥬😊 [GoodGymer Christophe's quote]

The next day, FareShare host Steven reached out to share a huge thank you with the crew. He praised the GoodGym Brighton team for being "splendid and stoic" as they tackled the messy job of decanting rotting cabbages into trays.

Unfortunately, Ben and Ruth had to "hip-out" of this one—missing out on all the smelly fun! 😉

It was a tough, thankless task, but FareShare Sussex & Surrey couldn't be more grateful for the help. Even though everyone’s phones were tucked away to stay clean during action, I managed to track down a group photo of the heroes who solved the Case of the Cabbage Patch.

What else did we miss last week? 😊

Let’s not miss out the opportunity to run and team up together at some of the coming up events.

In case any of you wish to participate with and fundraise for FareShare Sussex & Surrey there are still places on both the Brighton 10K, on the 12th April, and on their new venture covering 48 miles cycling from Guilford to Brighton. You can find more information about both, here.

There is also a last call for our 10K “plogging” (run-walk-litter pick) relay alongside our GoodGym Brighton Marathon runners. Sign up NOW here for this community mission in partnership with Green Runners and Leave No Trace.