We were back at the ICCA this week to carry on with our on-going project of painting the railings.

Accompanied once again by a slightly chilly wind, Charlie, Khiltee, Matt and Rachel set to work and managed to finish the last remaining section of railings on the half that we’d been working on (bar a few bits that we may have missed!!).

Our next job when we return will be to paint the large, elaborate gate. In preparation for this, the team spent the last quarter of an hour sanding off all the loose paint and moss which will hopefully make things a little smoother for us next time.

We’ll be returning to tackle said gate (and the rest of the railings) on 13th May - why not come and join us? The more hands we have the more we can paint!! Sign up here

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!!