We had a wonderful evening sprucing up the football club. We mopped, scrubbed, painted and washed everything until it was sparkling. Nearly everyone ran and Susannah did her first long distance brisk walk for a while. Thank you so much to Cliff for the chocolates and squash afterwards!

Although we were expecting 4 or 5 GoodGym volunteers at High Town Church today, there was one solitary GoodGymer who turned up to deep clean the kitchen. Working solo, Gill donned her rubber gloves and got stuck in to giving the kitchen a spring clean. She wiped the grime off the top of cupboards, then emptied them all so she could give them a good clean inside and out. There was a certain thrill at being able to organise the contents as it was all put away again, and although she was on her own, Gill managed to get all the cupboards and drawers cleaned and reorganised. Hopefully we will be able to get a small team out next week to complete the other half of the kitchen and get it all looking sparkly and clean.

We had a tree-o of GoodGymers working under the trees by Rivebank School this morning. with rakes and garden forks they were put to work clearing a section of the woodland area in preparation for planting bulbs. It was quite a work out as we needed to dig deep to remove bricks and rubble and lots of deep rooted brambles and ivy. But it was good fun. We were especially pleased to welcome Mustafa as it was his first task with GoodGym. Hope he comes back for more GoodGym capers.

We spent a beautiful day serving hot meals and sweets to people in need in this very cold weather. I hope we were able to put smiles on their faces. ☺️💐💙 Abdulrahman

It was a busy evening as FoodCycle were very short of volunteers, so it was great that so many GoodGymers turned out for the first FoodCycle meal of the New Year. Gill had been on food collection last week, and turned up early to unlock the church and start weighing some of the produce. She was then the project leader in the kitchen and supported the other volunteers in creating a delicious three course meal, including her cho chip pudding with hot chocolate sauce.

Another first for the day was Teklay, who, as a newer member of GoodGym made his debut at FoodCycle. He was soon allocated the role of potwasher, which he embraced wothout complainnt and was soon elbow deep in the sink, washing and drying pots, pans and dishes. Abdulrahman, Neill and Susannah then joined the hosting team. Susannah was a fabulous Maître D, welcoming the guests and providing them with a tiket for their goody bag. Neill and Abdulrahman completed the setup of the hall, were great waiting staff and did a brilliant job of tidying up at the end of the meal. We served over 40 meals and as Abdulrahman said, put a smile on all uor guests faces. Gill

Four GoodGymers were keen to get the Tub2Pub challenge off to a good start. Either that or they were keen to get rid of the evidence of all the chocolates they'd eaten over the holidays.

Laura was first to complete the task on a very icy Saturday morning at The Grove Pub in Welwyn after orienteering in the nearby woods. Later that day Ella made a trip to the Biscot Mill, unfortunately there were on cages this year, and the staff were a bit cagey.

On Sunday morning Gill dropped a tin off at the Ewe and Lambs who were a little bemused. Omar was busy walking to the Biscot Mill with a tub, and on the way found several more in a bin which he rescued to take with him. As they still did not have the cages out he called on Gill for some reinforcement and together they took the tubs into the pub. Again the bar staff was quite cagey. I wouldn't quite say they snubbed us, but Gill needed to use her persuasive skills to remind them that they are doing the Tub2Pub scheme and that they would love to take our tubs from us to raise funds for Macmillan.

A merry way to close the year at the cafe! Weldone to every goodgymer for their relentless support year round. Wishing us all a happy holiday!