Best-laid plans often go awry... and tonight was one of these times. Our resilient leader Rachel had organised two tasks for the evening (as our little group is not so little anymore!) but alas one fell through at the last minute so all 13 of us ended up together at Claremont Gardens in Surbiton. Fortunately the task here was big enough to take us all and then some.

We all congregated by the dried up pond in Claremont Gardens and task owner Georgina explained that the pond needed to be stripped back of rubbish, sticks, logs and dead/unnecessary reeds so that it could be filled up again. The liner had unfortunately failed which meant, even after all the rain fall of 2026 so far, the pond was mostly dry.

Many hands really were needed for this task as there was a whole load to do. Sticks and logs were collected from the pond bed and turned into a bug hotel up on the bank; reeds were pulled up from the driest parts; Dead vegetation was removed; huge clumps of reed roots were extracted and swathes of grass were dug up, roots and all. We found a few of our amphibious friends along the way and made sure that they hopped off to a safe spot.

The hour flew by and we made great progress. The next step is to fill the pond and hope that our work means that the water holds this time! There's plenty more work to do in and around the pond so hopefully we'll be back to check it out again sometime soon.

It was time to get in the festival spirit with a record number of GoodGymers running, walking and cycling to the British Heart Foundation.

With 18 GoodGymers we split into two teams; one on a festival themed window display and another on dining room tables.

The festival team were all about colour and fun. Shelving units were shifted and filled with tents and sleeping bags, a guitar wall was created, a pink BBQ was assembled and a swinging chair was given a good swing test. A few animals even found their way to the party to complete the display.

The second squad was the ultimate dream team of practical pros! Featuring the powerhouse lineup of Laura, Marcos, Manasa, Jonathan, Anna, JP and Sam. This group turned 'flat-pack frustration' into a total breeze.

The team channeled their inner engineers to fix and assemble table legs with surgical precision. Using pure Goodgym muscle, they hauled a fleet of tables and chairs out of storage and onto the shop floor. In record time, the empty floor space went from 'blank canvas' to 'ready for business' thanks to their hustle.

And as every festival needs a crowd we all squeezed into our mini festival for a group pic.

This evening we were back at Elm Road playground for the second time, finishing off the work we started last week.

One of the walled edges of the park has around 10 panels that at one point in time were all covered in beautiful mosaics. Unfortunately most have now deteriorated so only 3 complete panels remain. The task was to scrape clean and sand down the panels (with no mosaics) to enable a local artist to paint it with a much more attractive mural.

Tonight's GoodGymers walked, cycled or ran to the task and soon got stuck in, most of us knowing what to do after last week. It was a messy job but great to make some more progress and we're all looking forward to seeing the final result after the artist has completed their work!m

We were very honoured that the Mayor came to pay us a visit and he got stuck in, once he had removed his chains, and helped to scrape and sand like the rest of us.

We also welcomed Nikita on her first task - thank you for joining us! Hope to see you at another task soon.

GoodGym turned up in force to Elm Road Park having run, walked and cycled their way there.

Upon arrival we were provided with safety glasses, masks, scrapers, chisels and sandpaper and were spread out along a concrete fence.

The task was to remove any last pieces of a mosaic, scrape off the loose paint and sand back the surface so that it was ready for painting. The paint was stubborn in some areas and we were moved around as each section progressed until each panel was quite smooth.

We will return next week when the rain will have hopefully stopped to finish any more preparation work and do some painting so everything is ready for a new mural.