So the rain held off for tonight's session and what a fun session it was! Runners Graeme, Daryl and Caprice met at King's Park for the group run to the task. Eleanor made her own way their with a run along the seafront, literally on the sand! We love her determination. Tonight's session was to help The Friends of Boscombe Chine Garden clean and paint their wooden hut located in the community gardens. The runners were greeted by Jane and Rosemary who had already started clearing away the overgrown bamboo and shrubs. Graeme, Daryl and Caprice got to work clearing away the dust and cobwebs. Eleanor arrived ready to start the good bit.... painting!! Starting with the front of the hut, Daryl and Eleanor tackled one side, whilst Caprice and Graeme painted the other. It's amazing how much they achieved, the GoodGymers, Jane and Rosemary successfully finished the front part of the hut, it looked amazing and the gang will return Monday 5th August to attempt another side of the cabin.

Four Goodgymmers, Caprice, Eleanor, Keith and Lea, turned up at TOSH again for our last session before the grand opening on Sunday. In Dutch they say: “de laatste loodjes” (literal translation “the last bits of lead”) in English “on the home stretch”. Yes, again bits and bits to be done: Keith putting up rope wires, Caprice and Eleanor clearing brambles from a wall, Lea cutting weeds away on a to-be kiddie trail, more weeding, filling in holes and even more bits…. it’s all looking really lovely! Doesn’t it feel good to know we played our part in getting to this stage. Thanks to everyone who joined in at some point! Hopefully some of us will be able to attend the grand opening this Sunday between 2 and 4. Cake and tea for everyone.

Four Goodgymmers, Roger, Chloe, Caprice and Lea, turned up for another day at TOSH. It was Roger’s first official deed with us. He has joined us unofficially on a few previous occasions, but he certainly looked the part today in his new tshirt. Mind you, Roger, it’s not a proper Goodgym shirt if it hasn’t got stains on it… well, according to Lea! (You can guess the state of her shirt!) Anyway, all in bits today. As it is one of the last sessions before the grand opening of the garden on Saturday 20-7, a lot of “bits” needed to be done. There was Roger taking away the bricks lying all over the garden, Caprice, in spite of an injured finger, happily sweeping the paths, Lea pulling off the sticky tape from the grouted tiles and Chloe cleaning the bits of grout from the tiles, joined later by Lea. Chloe then cut long grasses away from around the entrance. Roger got ace at stringing wire between posts. Lea and Roger carried big unused slabs from the garden area to a van. And Caprice aced the jigsaw puzzle of getting all the tools back into the tiny shed. All in all… lots of bits done, so lots of things ticked off Melinda’s list. Tuesday is our final session there, more bits to be done to tick off on the list. And then the grand opening on Saturday, with a party to which all the Goodgymmers are invited!!

So tonight's session was a little bit different to our usual quiz. The GoodGymers were expecting to just meet the residents for a 'social' but on arrival, the residents were keen to have a quiz. So much so, that one of the residents came prepared with some paper, a pen and an old Mastermind quiz that she had found in newspaper which she was saving for a rainy day. Perfect! (and it was raining, literally!) Everyone moved into the lounge where Daryl and Janet got to making everyone a cuppa. Even the biscuit tin got cracked open! After a bit of a natter the room split into two teams, Caprice, Keith and Janet joining Team A and Chloe joining forces with the ladies (and Brian) Daryl being the good sport that he is nominated himself as Quizmaster, carefully choosing appropriate questions from the bumper newspaper quiz. There were some pretty tricky questions this month but both teams did incredibly well. The ladies team scoring 9/20 but the winners this month were Team A scoring a decent 13/20. Well done to Daryl for his efforts and thanks to Abbeyfield for welcoming us. We really do love our visits and it's clear to see that we were missed last month. Due to popular demand it looks as though we will be back in one month. We hope to see you there!