July signals Chelmsford GoodGym's birthday, and this year it's been 8 years since we first started! As is tradition, we celebrated by going to the Chelmsford Beer and Cider Festival. All of us sampled the delights of different beers and ciders, other than Sallyann who stuck to her pints of wine! Andy had a puncture en route but didn't let that stop him, he had to get to the festival to compare Hawaiian shirts with Rich and Russell. Ben tried his hand (very successfully) at axe throwing, while Laurie was more excited by the chocolate churros. Fay was very taken with Caroline's doggy Bella who came along for some ear scratches and lucked out when some chips fell her way. We were really lucky with the weather and even managed to get some seats so it was a successful evening all round. We need to get our thinking caps on for our next social now, any suggestions let us know!

Maybe it was the good weather, or maybe we were all excited to hear from Ben about his trip to South America, but for whatever reason, turnout for garden clearing at Meadow View Cottage last night was huge.

We welcomed new member Daniel on his first Good Deed ever and it was a 10/10 performance from the newcomer. He’s apparently an avid pub quizzer and even brought his own gardening gloves – what a pro.

Ben was fresh from his South American hikes and Rich was fresh from a week of intense hayfever, so obviously they decided to race each other. If the Olympics are short of stunning visual backdrops, then a sprint on the downhill bit of Chelmsford’s flyover towards Aldi is what they need. By the time the rest of us arrived – via Andy-style attempts at jumps for the camera – Ben had his breath back and Rich had invented lots of excuses for why he lost.

Sometimes when you’re asked to clear a path, you have to ask where it is first. That’s the kind of weed-filled thorny jungle we faced. But with gloves, secateurs and some aggressive trowel work, you wouldn’t be-leaf how quickly we filled the waste bags. Too quickly, actually – so, proper GoodGym style, someone had to jump in and stamp it all down. While we’re talking feet – socks. By some happy accident, the sock game from Ben (odd polka dots), Dave (armadillos, apparently) and Rich (mate, why are they so long?!) was INCREDIBLE. They’ve probably got a secret group chat to coordinate this kind of thing.

By the time weed packed up (see what I did there?) there were three bags of cuttings to move. After the run there and the squats to pull up weeds, it was upper body workout time as we lifted or dragged them into the front garden for disposal.

In case that makes us sound like we do fitness – tonight is the beer festival and with Daniel on our side, maybe we can return to the top spot in August’s pub quiz… Until then, run happy!

Joe

A slightly longer run than usual saw 8 Legends meet up at our HQ and begin our journey out to Broomfield and St Mary's church. Tonights task was to put woodchips down along a path between a hedge row and a fence running along the side of th church.

In no time at all we had reached the church and met Fay and Sallyann who had walked there and then we broke into 2 teams of 5.

With some shoveling into the wheelbarrows, some moving and tipping the chips and others raking the woodchips along the path, it would appear to the casual observer that this seemed to be a well oiled machine.... and that we know what we are doing.

So much so, that time flew by and we managed to get a great deal done before getting stuck into some well deserved biscuits and squash (I may have had more than one biscuit but who's counting).

With bellies full and satisfied with a job well done we set off and made our way back to base.

Next week we are back at St Johns church on Moulsham street ( if you fancy a shorter run).

Thanks all for coming

Run Happy

Rich

After Fay and Sallyann set off walking to the task, the rest of us did a brief slow warm up and set off on a short route to Chelmsford CVS, collecting one more runner on our way.

Our host Sally showed us the wall that needed painting, which was a slightly greyish-white. Richard and Ben started off with a bit of cleaning, whilst everyone else got out the rollers, trays and brushes to paint. As ever, the group sped through the painting, leaving only the highest parts of the wall until the end. Fay made a start with the tall ladder, but decided against it, whilst of course it didn't phase Richard, and Joel braved the smaller step ladder.

As ever, the longest part of the painting task was the washing up. We witnessed different levels of attention, with Russell's brush and tray almost immaculate, and Erin's roller and tray still pretty painty. We finally posed for a photo with the very fresh white wall; Erin's eyes were characteristically shut, and Ben was very serious, perhaps because he got white paint on his lovely clean GoodGym shirt.

David turned up right at the end, didn't do any washing up, joined us in eating the biscuits kindly provided by our host, but did redeem himself by bringing brownies for those of us who made it back to ARU. They were all gone so quickly (even the one I took home) that I have no photographic evidence.

In case you missed it - we've started planning for Sallyann's celebratory meal at San in June. Thanks to all who've contributed to the poll, date to be confirmed soon.

See you all next time,

Laurie