It’s unusual to do a mission so central in town but today’s mission meant a bit of shopping in the bustling centre, Christmas displays in all the shop windows, followed by a bit of gardening. Mr D’s home is somewhat of an oasis in the city, just a few streets away from the throng. I was greeted warmly by Mr D’s brother who showed me the work that needed to be done, another bramble invasion; luckily I bought my trusty bramble gloves that are starting to look a bit worse for wear. Mr D’s brother gave me two gardening sacks to fill and I managed to fit everything into just one by treading the brambles down inside the sack. Mr D’s brother told me the history of the houses, he explained that it was an area of historical mixed heritage with some Chinese Scouse, Irish and Jamaican Scouse. His family had been there since 1920 and they’d all stayed in the area, a strong community, all going to the nearby school. He explained that since the shopping centre was built, everyone called the area L1 but it was ‘Liverpool One’ to the residents. It was so lovely to chat with Mr D’s brother, he was very kind and offered me a coffee, I passed but asked him to pay it forward if he saw someone in need, he said he always did, just as his mother had done. The hour and a half went very fast, I was in a near meditative state tackling the brambles. Lucky for some, a beautiful black cat crossed my path and came to inspect my sack of cuttings. Once the time was up I bid farewell to Mr D’s brother, it was lovely to meet him and I even tried to recruit him to goodgym! Back through the city streets, I did a bit of Christmas shopping myself and popped into the Lush store for a bath bomb treat so that I could enjoy a hot soak when I got home, bliss.

As usual, I do a little top up tesco shop for Ms J since she has struggled with her mobility recently. However, to my surprise this week she wanted to come with me! We took her handy shopping trolley and headed on down. I was surprised at her vivacity this week and she chatted with lots of people en route. We did our normal shop and also had a little look at the other items on offer then headed off home. I'm very pleased to see her out and about but I can't help feeling that having someone else there probably gave her that bit of confidence to go out the house!

The Bronte centre really lies in the heart of Liverpool, tucked away behind the new Liverpool John Moores campus, a short walk from Lime Street station next to the famous Bullring. It started in the 1960s as a boxing club and grew to be a hub for local youth and the community. Sallyann had met David at the Everton Park Gardens Summer auction, he had been the auctioneer and they chatted about what Goodgym does and what the Bronte do and how Goodgym could help the Bronte with a Monday evening task. So this was our first time at this venue. It was our biggest turnout of the year with fourteen in attendance. Six Goodgymmers; Sallyann, Heetu, Dike, Laura, Max and Aatefa ran from the suitcases on Hope Street, others walked and we met David who showed us what needed to be done. We had some stones to shift, some brambles to uproot and a front garden to tidy. We set off in three groups:

Group 1, the brambles: Miriam, Heetu, Tsi Tsi and Leo were in the bramble attack team. Tsi Tsi and Miriam had both bought bramble proof gloves along with them so they were keen to get stuck in. At one point we had an enormous turnip situation where we all pulled on the stubborn bramble until it gave way, honestly it was the biggest bramble we had ever seen with a trunk like a small tree.

Group 2, the rocks: Meanwhile Ellie, Steph, Laura and Sophie got stuck into clearing the rocks and bricks to make the outdoor space more usable. As the shortest member of the team, Laura volunteered to climb into the storage cage, whilst the others got to work doing the heavy lifting. What started off as a neatly stacked and layered pile, utilising advanced Tetris skills, soon became a precariously balanced mound of rubble! Either way, by the end of the hour 90% of the material had been successfully transported to its new home, leaving the lawn corner much clearer and ready to be put to better use.

Group 3, the front: Liam, Max, Dika, Sallyann, Bekah and Aatefa were assigned the important mission of clearing the front garden and entrance area of the youth centre. The front area had clearly been enjoying a little too much autumn decoration! Fallen leaves had covered the grass and hidden some of the beautiful plants, while litter had also decided to make itself at home. Armed with rakes, brushes and plenty of determination, they got straight to work. They raked away the thick layers of leaves, collected the scattered litter and carefully cleared the areas around the plants. Little by little, the greenery started making an appearance again. The plants were finally free from their leafy blankets and could enjoy a little sunshine! They continued by gathering the collected leaves and rubbish, brushing the pathways and tidying the surrounding areas. By the time they had finished, the entrance looked considerably cleaner, brighter and much more welcoming. It was lovely to see how much difference six pairs of hands could make in such a short time. The leaves may have put up a good fight, but the GoodGymers certainly won this round!

Afterwards David seemed impressed and booked in a return visit with Sallyann. They very kindly made us drinks and we congregated for a short while in the seating area at the centre where we said congratulations to Sal on her 200th mission…

Sallyann joined in June 2019 so has been a part of Goodgym for 7 years. She's undertaken sessions in 3 areas, is a member of Taskforce, and a trained Run Leader.

What the 200 tasks doesn't show is all the work and effort she does behind the scenes: the tasks organised, the time spent with task owners, helping others, supporting member's running journeys, arranging socials, being a welcome committee for GG tourists, welcoming new people, ensuring everyone feels comfortable and included, encouraging people to engage further with both GG and their running, organisation of admin, and, of course, she's the architect of the phenomenon that is Sticker Saturday.

So a massive well done on your 200th task, and thank you Sallyann for everything you do for Goodgym and the people in it.

After completing our task, Heetu, Ellie, Leo, Laura and Aatefa set off on their run back to Suitcases. With another community task completed, a little exercise under our belts and plenty of smiles, we brought a beautiful GoodGym session to a close. What a lovely way to combine running, teamwork and giving something back to the community!

This report was a collaborative effort by Miriam, Laura, Aatefa and Bekah

Amina, Steph, Sallyann and me all carpooled to Sutton Manor parkrun. Many thanks to Sallyann for driving us. When we arrived we started to see some very impressive halloween costumes and all volunteers had dressed up to cheer us on and mark the route (as always thanks to volunteers who really make parkruns so special). We soon realised this was a significantly smaller parkrun than we are used to, as there were only 66 people taking part for today's parkrun. It was a misty, cold morning - everyone, but me, had wrapped up well, Steph especially. This course was absolutely beautiful, especially considering how close it is to the motorway. It is also a very challenging course with lots of hills but this also gives some quite amazing views across Cheshire and Merseyside with the Dream statue at the heart. The Dream is a sculpture by Jaume Plensa and developed under the Big Art Project by Channel 4 in 2008. It depicts a girl dreaming. The council alongside residents who also included some original miners who used to work at the Sutton Manor Colliery were involved in its design. The white dolomite was deliberately chosen to contrast coal. The base of the plinth is shaped like a miner's tally (the metal disc that miners would use to log in/out of the pit). It was orginally titled Ex Terra Lucem (from the ground, light) to reflect St Helen's motto. The mist started to lift as we walked and ran our way round. The mix of colours also felt very autumnal. Amina was super speedy making light work of the course. Once we all got round, we then turned our thoughts to the all important breakfast and chat. We dropped Amina at the train station and Sallyann, Steph and me headed to Harefield barn for a breakfast. We were delighted to be joined by Liam who was sporting his new wings 100 task Goodgym t-shirt for its first outing. Over breakfast, we started to plan more parkrun on holiday events to continue to make our way through the alphabet. Thanks everyone for a fab morning - definitely a Halloween Dream.

On the day we were scheduled to take on this task for Mr J, I needed to do a training run of 50 minutes. My thought process went thus:

Instead of doing my run, going home, and going out again, I should just run there > yes that's more efficient and in the spirit of Goodgym > but I don't want to arrive all tired and hungry, I should have a break between finishing the run and arriving > ooooh I wonder if Miriam fancies getting breakfast with me before the mission

I was delighted to get the reply "That would be lovely Bekah" with a big smile and so we had a plan. On my run it was lovely to bump into fellow Goodgymmer Aatefa, who was just finishing up Parkrun at Princes Park, both of us representing GG in the iconic red t-shirts. Miriam and I met at a lovely local place, Little Owl Cafe, and had a great breakfast and a catch up before the mission. But then it was time to get to work and, refreshed, we headed over to Mr J's.

Mr J had moved from a 4-bedroom house to a flat, and although he'd tried to cull some things, inevitably has more belongings than space. Our task was to make the floor space a little safer, and move things around so Mr J can access them and therefore sort through them and continue his clear out.

Mr J showed us the bedroom and explained the problem: a) there were boxes too high and inaccessible for him to reach, b) there were boxes blocking his chests of drawers, and c) the boxes were blocking a chair he ideally wanted to use for his computer desk. As there were so many boxes around, it was a bit of a crystal maze challenge working out where we could make space to start moving things. We cleared the dining table, to then put other boxes on the dining table, to make space in a corner which we'd then utilise more effectively with boxes from the bedroom. Some of the boxes were super heavy, and Miriam put me to shame by casually carrying some I'd declared to be a 2-person job. As we worked, Mr J explained he used to have extremely useful storage space under the bed, which he could easily access despite his mobility challenges, but someone had given him a spare mattress which now took up all that space. Our ears pricked up at this and we both felt getting that space back would be a real help to Mr J. Lifting the bed and removing the mattress underneath was for sure this time a 2-person job but we did well, with my eagle eyes spotting the perfect place to store the mattress and Miriam's tactical thinking on how to manoeuvre the mattress there.

We returned to the living room with 4 pieces of good news for Mr J. The chests of drawers were now accessible, the chair was by the computer, the ottoman had been moved and could be used for easy access storage, and he had his under bed storage back. Mr J took a look and was delighted with the improvements. We then cleared some recycling for him which had built up and took it out to the recycling bins outside, and had a re-organise of the living room to get Mr J his dining table back and make the floor space just a little bit safer.

Soon time was up. This was a mission where to the untrained eye you wouldn't necessarily see a big difference. But it made an improvement in Mr J's day-to-day and that's the important thing, and it'll also enable him to progress with his clear out.

Once again, we were back helping thr lovely people at Friend's of Everton Park, this time in the community gardens.

After some Tromboccino picking (a fitting welcome gift for our two newbies Charlieand Michelle), we were split into two teams. With one team staying to uncover a stream and the other, to clear some saplings and brambles.

The stream team were tasked with removing some foliage and stones so that the leaky lining or the stream can be replaced. It was tough work, but very satisfying and we cant wait to see the stream flowing again.

Meanwhile, the other group made great progress clearing saplings and brambles from around the rather wonderful park sign. Excellent work!

Once everyone had returned to the community gardens, it was time to celebrate as Laura has no completed a whopping 200 goodgym tasks (no mean feat!?). It is incredible to think just how many people you have helped over the years. Huge congratulations!