The Shindig 2026 Sunday walk had something for everyone, combining history and nature along 5km of trails around YHA National Forest. With nods to the area's industrial past in a beautiful countryside setting, 25 GoodGymers joined for a very mindful morning.

We walked through Conkers, along the Ashby Canal, past Moira Furnace and around Donisthorpe Woodland Park, before heading along part of the Ashby Woulds Heritage Trail (a disused railway) back to base.

The highlight was stumbling across a Living History Camp as part of an event at Moira Furnace Museum. As well as a history lesson, we got a snapshot of the more simple parts of wartime life. Not something you see every day!

Good movement, good time in nature, and good connection, what better way to round up another beautiful GoodGym Shindig weekend 💛

Taskowners Emily and Margaret greeted us on approach, at Approach Gardens - a lovely community food garden in the heart of Bethnal Green, home to bees and frogs. They helpfully divvied up the various tasks that needed doing between our large group. These included:

• Beautifying the area round the pond (home to at least 3 tiny frogs), trimming the hedges etc
• De-weeding various areas within the garden and along the borders outside
• Giving the greenery a 'haircut' around the outside edges
• Clearing the path leading to the beehives

This was a task where we split into little sub teams, working away in our own areas, wheelbarrows full of foliage going back and forth throughout the hour. It was only at the end we could stand back and appreciate how much had been achieved. Well done all!

A big shout out to Emma for completing her first Goodgym task!

We also said goodbye (for now!) to Kat and Asad, as they move to the Chilterns. Some of us headed to The Camel post task to toast them with a drink. You will both be very missed (un-frog-ettable some may say...) but I'm sure our paths will cross again soon.

This Monday evening, we headed to Ocean Youth Connexions in Limehouse. Task owner, Kamal greeted us there after we rang the small, but very mighty doorbell. Many thanks to Kamal for hosting us after a last minute cancellation. Before starting, we gathered in a the shape of a digestive which was apt, given that we soon introduced ourselves and our favourite biscuit. Bourbons, jammie dodgers, ritz, ginger nuts, hobnobs, Biscoff, French raspberry jaffa cakes, malted milks, Choco Leibniz, and others were mentioned. Great biscuit preference diversity within the Goodgym demographic.
As usual, there was a range of tasks to occupy us:

• Simon and Kim headed upstairs to tidy the offices there. Tidy seems too small a word as what they accomplished was a changing-rooms-esque transformation (without any tears).
• Darren, gave the front of the building a makeover. A lone worker at first, by the end this was where the party was at and he was joined happily by several others
• Jack, supported by Sam (and a ladder) got to work giving the backyard hedge a trim. This task came naturally to Jack given that his mum is a professional hairdresser.
  
• Kirsti , Ciarán, Chantal and Chloe did a mix of weeding and rubbish clearing in the back yard.
• * John and Jack got to work clearing the back-backyard.

An array of equipment was used to aid clearing: from litter pickers to broomsticks (the latter not just getting a mention here so that the report title makes sense...)

Shout out to Chantal for coming to her first task and getting stuck in the weeds, in a good way!

Congrats to Chloe for recently completing a milestone 10 tasks (this being her 11th)! A keen tennis player, Chloe has quickly established herself as a familiar and valuable member of the team - one could say she has 'set' the bar high for new joiners, always on the 'ball' and 'game' for all goodgym tasks.

This was a productive evening with many bags of rubbish cleared. Group photos taken, and a record number of shout outs and announcements announced, we said our goodbyes and went off in different directions.

Until the next time!

The Felix Project's Saturday morning session provided GoodGymers the option to either help in the kitchen or the warehouse. With Jack and Ciarán both never having attended a Felix Project session before, Ciarán assumed he should join the warehouse team while Jack was directed to join the kitchen team. This lead to a case of star-crossed GoodGymers, where although Jack and Ciarán were enjoying the company of the other non-GoodGym volunteers and staff members, they didn't actually see each other.

Luckily however, while Jack was on a quick break, he managed to spot Ciarán who was sorting through good and gone off carrots in his red GoodGym t-shirt. Crisis Averted! The two were finally able to introduce themselves and have a nice chat before getting back to work.

Ciarán, who had signed up to be the designated photo taker still managed to forget to take any photos, however, since he lives quite locally, he was able to grab a quick picture of the front entrance on his bike ride the following day.