This week we returned to the 61 Football Club to start a series of indoor tasks for the winter.

We spent the summer days giving the football ground a spruce up outside with some fresh white paint on the railing posts and brick red on the clubhouse, but now the winter weather is on the way it's time to head indoors where it's warm and dry!

We gave the changing rooms a good scrub down in preparation for a coat of fresh paint at our next visit. Walls were wiped, stains were bleached and the muddy floors given a good scrubbing.

We left the place looking much fresher and it will surely look very smart when we return to paint it! by

This evening at the Sikh Temple Shri Guru Ravidass Sangat in Luton, Goodgym formed an international and interfaith team of cookery students learning the kitchen arts of Langar.

Our hosts welcomed us all on arrival with chai and spiced fritters called pakora, and an introduction to our meal plan for the evening. Langar is about offering a simple nourishing meal to share.

The many hands were turned to chopping, stirring, seasoning, mixing, kneading and rolling. The many stomachs were rumbling in anticipation as the spices blended and the flavours wafted. The many hearts were warmed with a common hospitality. The kitchen was busy to busting.

The supper table seated folks from India, Ireland, England, Italy, Iran, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Morocco and Libya.

Langar is community, connection and cooking, ensuring no-one who comes through the temple door should leave feeling hungry.

And no-one did !! In fact we left with full bellies, recipe books and aprons.

P.S. Jhakaas is hindi for 'awsome'

With Storm Beret incoming we had a race against time to complete our drizzly group run before a band of torrential rain arrived!

Our task for evening was a long wet run away from the start point at the Town Hall, all the way out in Bushmead, where the Bushmead Community Hub is in the middle of a garden transformation.

A group of 4 puddle-dodgers made their way through the weather to meet three more Goodgymers at the hub and complete our team.

Matt from the Wildlife Trust showed us the task, a shrubby area that is being transformed to a bee friendly flower garden. We were to remove the shrubs using some excellent mattock work to lever out the stubborn roots.

Task complete, we disappeared again into the rainy night before the worst of the weather arrived!

This week we were tasked with a delivery job, or a few hundred of them!

We were delivering notices to houses and businesses on the route of the Run Fest, Luton's biggest running event, letting them know the road will closed for the morning.

We split into walking and running teams and set off. Walkers started delivering immediately while the runners ran out to the furthest road and worked their way back into town.

Leapfrogging each other along the rows of houses, with 8 people posting we made rapid progress and before long the two groups met in the middle and we had time for a nice deep stretch in the park, plus a cheeky plank!

This week the GoodGym Luton team gathered once again at the Town Hall for our weekly Group Run.

We were heading for the Penrose Roots to Recovery allotment project where their team use gardening to engage with people recovering from lives of crime and addiction, give them a place to talk through their issues and help them stay on the right path.

The garden has grown tons of produce this year but one of the heavier jobs, harvesting potatoes, was right up our street.

We set off at dusk with our usual walking and running groups and made it to the garden in good time where we armed ourselves with forks and dug for the buried potato treasure.

Loads of potatoes were uncovered as we made our way across the plot which we had thoroughly prepared for planting back in the spring, so it was nice to return and see the final product!

With all potatoes tucked nicely away in the poly tunnel we headed off to the nearby Wardown Park bandstand for a good stretching session to keep ourselves nice and limber.

We met up at the town hall for intros and a warm up before we set off with a mix of walking, running and biking through the sunset to our task at Kingway Recreation Ground.

The 61 Football club were waiting for us with a fresh pot of brick red paint, with just enough brushes to go around we were able to get everyone painting the walls of the clubhouse and during the session we almost finished off the whole 5 litres!

Darkness set in during the task reminding us all that its time to bring headtorches out on group runs from now on, its only going to get darker and we never stop!

With the paint all on the walls we made the return journey back into town for all important stretches and goodbyes.

The morning started out so well, despite it being a Bank Holiday the weather was fine and the team met at All Saints to complete the work started on Saturday. I would say there was a hive of activity, but under the circumstances of what happened later, that may be a pun to be avoided. Musa was back on path clearing duty and Assine did a marvellous job. Jelena started work on clearing the litter from the pavement and inside the grounds then joined Abim on cutting back some more of the shrubs. Yasin soon got busy cutting the bits of holly and ivy that had protruded through the fence to the pavement with Ehsan getting busy with the secateurs and broom. Although a late arrival Assine was brilliant at moving the mountain of cuttings, with Amir taking charge of the barrow. So that just left Gill who really should have stuck to her weeding and raking. Unfortunately she decided to help out with the secateurs and inadvertently cut into a large wasp nest. And boy were those wasps resentful of the intrusion - not content with attacking Gill, they started on Ehsan and Jelena too. But it was Gill who took the brunt of their ire. The rest of the group became a SWAT team, doing their best to swat the wasps off their companions. By the time the task ended, despite her hubby bringing antihistamine tablets and cream before taking the rubbish to the tip, it was clear that she and Ehsan weren’t too well. After driving home Gill was then treated to another Bank Holiday outing - by ambulance to the hospital to be treated for anaphylactic shock!!! Despite the drama, our team of Busy Bees did an amazing job of clearing and tidying, and once the vicar has got someone to exterminate the wasps, this will again be a lovely space for community use.