First off, congratulations to Dave for leading our running group today - you have officially passed your Fitness Leader training!

Whilst Dave was in charge, I enjoyed a jeffing session on my way to the task. Jeffing, essentially a combination of running and walking intervals, can be a great way to build your stamina after illness or injury, or if you are brand new to running. You can read more about it here.

On arrival, Nicole had a list of jobs for us to work through. Katie and Abby went big and painted walls, whilst Sammy focused on the tiny details, painting little flower pots and putting some plants in.

Dave became temporarily lost whilst sorting out the basement, at one point thinking he'd been locked in the bank vault under the building!

We are treated to a delicious Hot Vimto by Nicole and the team, and also took home a stash of tea bags as part of a National Tea Week celebration!

We were out in force this evening at Cosham Community Kettle, and Nicole had plenty of jobs to keep us busy!

Sinead, Abby and Yvonne took charge of cleaning the kitchen, whilst Sammy, Duncan and Katie braved the cold and bagged up some rubbish that had been stashed outside.

Judy and Louis did a sterling job scrubbing up a cake cabinet whilst Dave scooted round beneath them painting the bottom. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone more excited than Judy when she realised she the top of the cabinet lifted off so she could actually get rid of all the smudges!

Lucy, Aoife and Jo tackled the most random task of the evening, painting a giant wooden race track for a Kettle Racing Event Nicole and her team are hosting. Check out the Community Kettle social media if you fancy a unique night out at the end of the month! We also got to see lots of people's concentration "faces" - some of which are a little different 🙈

Once everything was cleaned and had a fresh coat of paint, the cake cabinet was shuffled across the building to take pride of place in the cafe.

As always, Nicole was the hostess with the most-ess and as well as teas and coffees we were also able to partake in some very retro Hot Vimto!

It wasn't a jigsaw puzzle task exactly tonight but it also kind of was!

We were tasked to put together donated shelving and a donated reception desk.

We split into 2 teams and got cracking.... Solving the mystery of how to put the shelves and desk together as we went along.

The shelving team were at a slight advantage with the all the pieces being present, the reception desk was a bit more of an enigma..... It's standing but possibly not safe!!

Great work by everyone tonight and only a couple of pinched fingers sustained too ... ✌️

Tonight we took part in a true community relay. We picked up where the Prince's Trust had left off.

We were cleaning windows inside & out (cue Vicki & Val doing their best George Formby impressions), as well as trying to remove the stickers from the previous owner's branding. We were also applying damp proof paint to some of the walls and using problem solving logic skills to take down the gazebo.

Nicole also asked us to give some feedback on what we think can be done in the space.

Plenty of effort was put into every job and we left them with cleaner windows and fewer stickers to remove. We also got a cup of tea/coffee to keep us going. The Prince's Trust volunteers take up the baton again tomorrow morning!

They have an indoor picnic on Saturday, so please spread the world to any folk who live around the Cosham area.

Congratulations to Louisa on her 100th good deed tonight, I don't think we mentioned it. We look forward to seeing the "wings" t-shirt next year.

Thanks to Viv for the report title (and, yes, I did Google how to spell Wenceslas!)

Tasks of the evening were to empty the contents of a van into the Community Kettle premises and to break up all the plasterboard and put it into small bags for disposal. Jen was particularly happy to take part in the breaking bit. We also (almost) put up and took down one gazebo and then put up a smaller one.

Once the jobs were completed, Nicole had some festive games up her sleeve and the evening got serious.... although some competitors took it more seriously than others. No-one will forget the stocking fillers that Team Wheelbarrow were suggesting. Team Dasher were the victorious team and got to take home the coveted prize teapot. Hopefully Lucy and Duncan got it home in one piece. (UPDATE: it did, see photo!)

A few rounds of Quality Street, Biscuits and festive chocolate fingers later and we were ready to head back into the cold.

Have a very Happy Christmas and keep up those good deeds. See you for the January Challenge in 2023!

I don't know about everyone else, but I can still smell cleaning products even after leaving the task and washing my hands!

Tonight we were helping Community Kettle CIC to clean up their new venue and get it a little bit closer to being ready to open. They will be opening the first intergenerational community hub in the country, with the initial focus being new parents and newly retired people. There are lots of other exciting plans for the future too, we will definitely be coming back again!

The venue was previously a doggy day care so we were scrubbing floors and walls to get rid of the dog smells, hair and dust.

From polite mops to school calendars, we chatted about (& misheard!) many different topics. Tony and Dave even got to flex their lifting muscles to move some furniture.

It was another positive end to a Wednesday, bringing a bit of joy to midweek!