As ‘tis the season of traditions, we relished the opportunity to uphold one of ours with one of the Kingston Goodgym group’s favourite festive group run task! Tuesday evening’s good deed done was in support of our local SeeAbility residential home for adults with disabilities. The task was a fabulously festive one as we were called upon to spruce things up, ‘dec their halls’, (and dining room) and string outdoor lights to add some Christmas cheer to the home.

Three eager volunteers braved the elements outside to take on the hanging of the Christmas lights along the eaves of the home. Some reached new heights while others held the ladder. No need for Sabir to hold on for deer life as he was supported by both Dave and Rob providing safety and moral support at the bottom of the ladder. There were Christmas tunes being played as Rob took on the role of Rudolf to light the way with his large torch to guide them.

Meanwhile the rest of the team had snow easy task of displaying the large window decals - a beautiful winter scene with reindeer, baubles and snowflakes. They got their nails into it which were needed to remove the birds and butterflies to replace them by peeling and sticking the snowflakes and winter wonderland elements.

The tree was then assembled and decorated just in time for the team to reunite in the lounge to admire our handy work and celebrate with a bit of dancing to ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’.

It was so lovely to return to support this fabulous home with Goodgym Kingston members young, old and new! Juniper was a very popular Goodgym baby on this task and her supervision of the activities was very helpful too!

We celebrated our task by heading to the Albion for a Christmas celebration with a not so savage gift exchange of secret Santa! It is now beginning to look a lot more like Christmas for the residents of the SeeAbility home and it’s feeling more and more Christmassy for Goodgym Kingston with every Christmas task we do! We hope to see you joining us on the next one!

We do love a trip to the BHF in Kingston town centre... always a magical mystery tour assisting them with a huge variety of tasks. Tonight's mission was to create two Black Friday areas on the shop floor - one for TVs and one for reclining armchairs.

We split into two teams to attack both of the areas. This meant heading down into the basement (or Narnia, as it's nicknamed) to collect the TVs and test out the reclining chairs. Of course every function of the chairs had to be assessed, including the massage option on one of them!

Once happy with all items to be put out for sale, we utilised the lift to get everything up to the shop floor and set about displaying the items ready for customers to snap up in the Black Friday sale later in the week.

The task was complete and whilst we tucked into a few treats laid on by BHF, Emma announced that our leader Rachel has been nominated for a local borough award, the Eileen Gray Trophy. This is presented to either a coach or an athlete who inspires others - someone who has motivated and been an inspiration to others to reach their full potential. We can all safely say that Rachel has done this and more! Massive congratulations, we're all super proud of you.

Last night our group run took us to Latchmere Recreation Ground where the active friends group asked for our help to move a planter. A grand plan indeed. Thankfully we had twice the original numbers of sign ups earlier that day as it was a heavy lifting task and many hands certainly do make light work.

First job was to dig out the plants and carefully store them. Second job was to dig out the soil and the third task was to move the heavy planters. Fortunately the planters broke down into two sections they could be transferred across in two runs.

Once the planters were carefully positioned by Petra's discerning eye, Dave, Martel, Emma, Adam, Sabir and Julie positioned the plants and poured in the top soil. The massive Rosemary looked happy in her new home. Turf was then laid in the mud bath of the old planter and stamped into place. Thankfully there was rain today to help settle it.

In the meantime Rachel and Jen had removed ivy and mint from a different planter as they had started to spread and tangle up with the other plants.

The hour was soon up but not before Rachel received a card, cakes, crown and cape to celebrate 300 good deeds! A touching moment - thanks all. Then off to the Albion for food and drinks.

Ten of us - one of us using pedal power - made our way to Full Cycle, on Kingston Road, on Monday night, to help clean some of the bikes recently donated to non-profit community group, Full Cycle.

With the bikes raised up on stands, we took off their wheels and used rags, brushes and cleaning spray to get into every nook and cranny, in an effort to leave them looking like new ready for affordable resale or donation to local charities.

The other task some of us took on was to prepare old inner tubes for recycling - each one had to have their valve removed, be rolled and stacked in a box.

Giving up a small amount of our time will hopefully enable the team of specialist bike mechanics and volunteers to spend more of their precious energy on the important task of refurbishing the bikes!

This task was especially significant for one devoted GoodGym member - Dave - for whom this was task 201. An incredible achievement. Massive congratulations from us all.

To avoid the trick or treaters going out for Halloween, the run and task this week was moved to Monday - but that didn’t stop some in our group from dressing up! Any excuse! Loved seeing the skeleton onesies Rachel and Dave but Jen wins the award for her devil horns coordinating so beautifully with her red GoodGym top.