GoodGym Nottingham returned to the Sherwood Community Centre this week to assist with various tasks. We LOVE coming to this place for our sessions as our host, Louise, always has some interesting and varied jobs for us (as well as our on-going painting project in the basement which we’ve been enjoying over the past few months).

On this occasion, Dayna, Hollie and Paulina took on the painting, continuing to paint over the old yellow colour in the toilet and corridor downstairs.

Khiltee, Leah and Rachel washed down the walls in the main hall with sugar water to prepare them to be repainted. The room is used for various activities including a children’s playgroup, and the walls have seen many-a sticky finger, painty brush and rogue felt tip pen over the years!

Meanwhile, Nigel and Will had the fun job of remounting some of the borders around the display boards in the hall. The existing paper borders had become too tempting for little fingers to pull off and so were looking a bit worse for wear. After measuring up and trimming bits of hessian, Nigel and Will enjoyed using the staple gun to secure this on the boards and make them look neat and tidy once again.

Before tidying up and taking a few groups photos, Khiltee and Will also helped Louise reattach the welcome sign in the foyer of the centre which had fallen down. The team also hung up a few lines of bunting in preparation for Sherwood Art Week (there will be more bunting-hanging at our next task on Friday 5 June – see details and sign up here).

Another great evening’s work in the bag, and a big welcome to first-timers Hollie, Paulina and Will. We hope to see you again soon!

We spent a lovely Wednesday evening at Edwards Lane Community Centre for this week’s session. Seven of us met Hya on arrival who tasked us with clearing and tidying the area out the front of the building. This was in preparation for a big event taking place at the centre at the weekend.

The original plan was for one of us to be jet washing the concrete but, sadly, the hose had escaped somewhere so the machine could not be used. Much to everyone's disappointment as we've not had the pleasure of jet washing yet! Instead, we all got stuck in with weeding the beds, scraping and sweeping the paths, and generally making things look a little bit neater.

After an hour’s work and with the fading sun leaving us a little chilly, we packed up and had our group photo. Despite the pressure washer not being used on this occasion, Nat ensured that it still featured in the photo and, somehow, Leah still managed to jet wash herself! Before we headed home, some of us took a little look inside at the toilets that we’d started painting on our last visit to Edwards Lane (see report). We can confirm that the painting is now finished and the loos look great.

We welcomed Sian and Susan to their first GoodGym tasks – lovely to meet you both. They joined Dayna, Leah, Matt, Nat and Rachel. Good work everyone!

GoodGym Nottingham returned to the Bridgeway Hall this week. Usually we are working in the foodbank, but as the clocks have changed and the weather (apparently) more favourable, our task for this time was to help with some tidying in the garden area in preparation for the summer months.

As we all made our way to the task, we were subject to dark skies, rain and hail stones. Thankfully, by the time we arrived the sun was shining again as we met our host, Dave, who showed us what he wanted us to do.

Unfortunately, someone else had gone home with the key to the shed meaning we had limited tools and gardening gloves, but we made the best of what we had and most of the group – Khiltee, Nat, Leah, Lindsey, Peter and Rachel - spent the hour tackling the weeds in and between the raised beds.

Meanwhile, Dayna turned her attention to trimming the branches that were poking through the fence at the back of the yard, and Matt and Nigel put in some hard graft splitting up some wooden pallets, preserving as much of the wood as possible which will be repurposed as benches for the front of the food bank.

After an hour of physical work and, as usual, meaningful conversation covering running, modern languages, how to hoe and what a bat would look like in a bowler hat, we packed up and went on our merry way.

We wished a belated happy 50th GoodGym task to Matt who was already proudly wearing his black t-shirt. Also, a big shout out to Peter who is running the Manchester Marathon this coming weekend – good luck Peter!!