I was finishing up a family phone call outside the Liverpool Irish Centre when I saw someone trying to catch my eye. When I approached, it turns out it was new member Fred, who attended his very first session yesterday at Princes Park, and enjoyed it so much he came back to another session today! Although I hadn't met Fred yesterday, he'd recognised the distinctive red GG t-shirt - the t-shirts work! - and so we were able to head in together and introduce ourselves to the team.

Goodgym Liverpool have worked with the Liverpool Irish Centre before, a few years ago, before my GG time. Due to lockdown and personel moving on, it's been a while, so when we saw they were holding a Volunteer Open Day, we thought it the perfect time to head down and re-introduce ourselves.

Fred and I were swiftly given our first task: masking-taping and painting Gold the bordered edges on the walls. Fred carefully and effectively added the masking tape, and I started to paint. That first border was, frankly, underwhelming. The 'gold' was a somewhat murky brown, and so opaque it looked like it would need at least 8 coats to cover the green and white paint underneath. Fortunately for me, Fred quickly ascertained that the paint needed to be mixed, all the colour was at the bottom. We looked around and asked for a suitable stick, and after a false start involving a couple of straws, were handed a fork to use. Fred got stuck into the paint can with the fork, and in front of our eyes it turned into a beautiful rich gold colour. Lucky indeed ☘️

We continued on our with our masking-taping and (now much more effective) painting, and before we knew it had finished an entire wall. On to our next job! Touching up the jade green paint wherever it was needed around the room. I got the torch out and eagle-eyed any minor imperfections, and Fred expertly touched up everywhere needed. Around 2 hours after we'd arrived, we were offered drinks and the promised 'refreshments', which turned out to be a sizeable buffet of pizza, wedges, mozzarella sticks and mac & cheese bites. Whilst I grabbed a plate and settled down with the team, slipping into 'Goodgym Sales/Business Development' mode, Fred put me (and us all) to shame by continuing on, casually refusing the suggested break.

It was of course during this brief break when I was sat eating pizza (in sales mode!) that Sallyann and Liam arrived, straight from work. They got straight to it and joined Fred on paint duties. Shortly after I managed to tear myself away, and Fred and I continued our quality-check whilst Sallyann & Liam got to painting the stage area.

The official Volunteer Open Day finish time of 8pm soon arrived, and Fred and I decided to call it a night. However Sallyann & Liam were full of enthusiasm and offered to stay later, much to the delight of the task owner who still had a lot to do (they could still be there now for all I know...)

It was great to reacquaint ourselves with the Liverpool Irish Centre and we're already discussing when we can go back. The team have done a huge amount over the past few months to renovate the centre, and there's still more to do. We look forward to returning to the Emerald... centre.

Twelve Goodgymmers gathered on a lovely summer’s evening at the cemetery below the impressive cathedral and help the Friends of St James Gardens continue their amazing work caring for this beautiful and historic area.

Michael gave us a warm welcome and soon had us divided into three task groups. The main focus of the session was weeding the paving around the monument, while the other two groups took on a couple of outlying tasks: litter picking and clearing the nettles and undergrowth around the tunnel entrance to the cemetery

But this wasn’t just any Goodgym evening. It was a night of reunions. Lucien and Sian were back in Liverpool and, naturally, made sure a Goodgym session was part of their plans. bringing along Sian's Mum Karen who we had met not long before Sian moved away. Although they no longer live in Liverpool at the moment, Sian and Lucien are certainly not absent from the Goodgym brainpower. Both continue to suggest ideas, come up with plans and keep things moving from afar. As Sian describes it in her WhatsApp title, “Task Force in Absentia” — proof that moving away doesn’t get you out of Goodgym responsibilities! It was so lovely to see them both back. They are such active members of GoodGym Liverpool, and it’s brilliant to see that their enthusiasm and commitment to Goodgym continues even though life has taken them to Spain and Staffordshire at the moment,.

And for Lucien, it was a particularly special evening because this was his 100th Goodgym task! 100 tasks is no mean feat at the best of times, but Lucien has managed it while undertaking his PhD, moving home and city, and undergoing significant surgery. Quite an impressive list of life events to fit around 100 Goodgym tasks!

It was also a joy to see Leo back after his time away with family. Great to have his positive energy back in the group — Leo we have missed you. Dina and Leo were talking about Fado a particular type of Portuguese music... I had to go away and look it up... Goodgym brings so many new things into our lives we never stop learning from each other.

The evening flew by in a blur of chats, laughter and hard work. Minutes became an hour almost without us noticing, and the transformation of the paved area around the monument was a joy to behold.

A truly precious moment was as Ellie uncovered a huge piece of turf covering a gravestone or ledger stone. She peeled it back — and underneath was the inscription from the gravestone, with the engraving preserved in relief in the bottom of the turf. Robert Merchant's inscription echoes from stone to earth uncovered by our Ellie.

The next day on our WhatsApp group it led to a discussion on the use of gravestones as paths and flooring ... I tell you Goodgym Liverpool has the best people to learn something new every day.

Back to our Monday task and with the work done, it was time to celebrate Lucien’s 100th task with some well-earned sweet treats. Nobody seemed particularly keen to rush off. People lingered, standing around chatting and catching up, enjoying the warmth of the evening and each other’s company. Goodbyes became long, lingering goodbyes, as conversations continued and nobody quite seemed ready to call it a night. It was just one of those evenings .... A beautiful summer evening, a brilliant piece of work completed, an unexpected glimpse of history uncovered, reunions, laughter — and Lucien celebrating his 100th task.

Congratulations again, Lucien. We’re looking forward to seeing you back in Liverpool — preferably wearing your wings T-shirt. And what better place to earn your wings than in St James’s Gardens? After all… Earning your wings is no grave thing!

It was the annual Choir With No Name summer concert at the Everyman theatre on Hope Street. Two Goodgymmers Steph and Steph were performing with the choir and our Area Activator Ema, who is also manager of the choir was in attendance which was a real treat for the choir and us Goodgymmers because we have really missed her while she has been ill. Aatefa, Dina, Suren, Liam, Heetu, Sallyann and myself met with Kate from Choir With No Name who explained our role in selling merch, signing people up as fans and collecting donations.

To be honest we were well and truly on it, we love being a part of this event so we knew the drill. The puns on the merch were so fantastic we knicked one for the title of this report. All song lyric puns, you had tea towels ‘Never gonna wash you up’ (Rick Astley) ‘Hate to say I toweled you so’ (The Hives) and tote bags with ‘Bag to life, bag to reality’ (Soul II soul). Sallyann was please that a bag with ‘Bag a do do do’ (Black Lace) sold as it was the last one and she hated for it to be lonely.

The concert was typically phenomenal, our Steph put in a fantastic solo in a Chapel Roan medley and Heetu commented that her favourite song was their rendition of Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that hill’ it was amazing.

A really special part of the concert was special guest, Scouse poet, Joseph Roberts who puts his poems to music. The CWNN provided a haunting backing vocal to his poem about mental health called ‘luggage’. It was stunning. There was a moving testimony from one of the choir members called Skye who spoke about grief and surviving suicidal thoughts and how she had found a home in the choir. It was so moving and definitely moved the audience.

The audience showed incredible generosity in the bucket donations and merch sales. We think that merch sales might be the most successful we’ve ever known with the new tea towels proving particularly popular.

Well done to the Stephs and so wonderful to see Ema, we all left on a high. Special shout out to Aatefa and Sallyann who did the TRIO on this day… parkrun in the morning, Everton Park Games in the afternoon and CWNN concert in the evening, it was an epic day for them.

Goodgym Saturdays are the best!