We always love love love being at my CWA and tonight was no exception.

We weren’t sure what the task was going to be but we knew it would be a good one, as it always is at My CWA.

As always, before getting stuck into the task, we headed out for our weekly exercise session. Three of us tonight: the lovely, Karen, Nigel and me. We put the world to rights as we did a circular route around the town centre. I always love an opportunity to catch up and find out how everyone’s week’s been and what they’ve been up to. And we were thrilled that the weather was so kind to us after a particularly wet day. I was preparing for a very wet exercise session, but luckily the weather gods were kind to us!!

Back at the task, the lovely Maria set us to work with a job for the evening, which was clearing a room (which was pretty full) to prepare it for being an office. I’m not going to lie, when I looked at the room, I wasn’t too optimistic that we were going to get it done! We had the job of clearing the room and sorting the contents into two piles-one for the skip and one for keeps. It wasn’t an easy task, as our opinion of what needed to go in the skip, and theirs was possibly very different, lol! Once we’d sorted it, we had to move it down to Narnia! (If you’d like to know more about what Narnia actually is, leave a comment in the box or drop us a message).

We set to work and got the room cleared, surprisingly quickly. Maria was completely thrilled with our efforts and so grateful bless her. We were pretty chuffed too!! oh, and while we were at it, we also clocked up almost 5 miles! Narnia really is a long way away.

We had a really enjoyable evening, helping this wonderful charity. We hope to be back for another task soon (did I mention that we love indoor tasks in the winter months :-))

I love the fact that three people can go and spend an hour and achieve so much and make such a difference to a local organisation. Well done both, you’re amazing.

Have a great week and hope to see you soon.

Lots of love Nicola xxx

Parkrun is always a joy, but this week, it was made even more enjoyable by volunteering with our lovely GoodGym posse.

Today, Emily, Karen, Nigel and Nicola took to their volunteering roles at Crewe Parkrun. Karen took the role of funnel manager, Nigel took the role of timekeeper alongside the lovely Emily who was also a timekeeper. Nicola was Park Walker, a first for her. I think there may have also been a bit of token, sorting and event close down in there, too!

As always, the atmosphere was lovely…. full of encouragement, support and enthusiasm from runners and volunteers alike.

Parkrun is always an absolute pleasure and the best way to start the weekend. TodY was no exception!

Well done everyone! Loved being with you today as always xxx

Tonight, the splendid 7 we're back on the Sherborne estate to help support with some weeding and digging in preparation for some wildflowers to be sown. We hope that these will really improve the local area and give people something lovely to look at and appreciate.

It was wonderful to have Emily back with us tonight. We've missed you Emily and it was great to have you back with us again.

Before getting stuck into the task, we set out for our weekly exercise. Tonight, we did a circular route setting off from the Sherborne community hub, heading out down towards the crematorium and back round. It was lovely to catch up as we walked and the weather stayed dry for us which is always a bonus.

Back at the task, we were greeted by the lovely Hazel, who always gives us a wonderful warm welcome. Hazel led the way to the area that we were working on and explained what needed to be done. We split into two groups. Karen, Emily and Maurice took one section and Hazel, Ian, Nigel and Nicola took another section. Armed with our trowels, rakes spades and forks, we commenced our work of weeding and raking. The soil was quite rich which made the task much easier. We saw lots of insects... spiders, woodlouse, worms, snails and a beautiful red admiral butterfly.

Quite a few local residents passed us by as we were working but we couldn't manage to persuade any of them to muck in lol :) Hopefully once they see an improvement to the area, it might encourage them to help keep the place looking nice or to maybe even get involved in future volunteering...

We achieved a fair amount in the time we were there this evening and we all felt that the area looked much tidier once we'd finished. It's definitely a work in progress and will probably need some more support, but at least we helped a little this evening.

It was great to have 7 of us there tonight!!! I really enjoyed being with you all and catching up with you all as always!

A BIG shout out tonight to Nigel for this week’s pun!! You’re a star!

Have a great week everyone and see you all soon!

Lots of love Nicola xxx

Who’d have thought September could be so hot?!!!

It was wonderful to be back with Kimberley, Ian and Maurice this evening at one of our favourite tasks, My CWA. It’s been a while since we did a task there, and we were excited to be back again.

Before we started our task, we headed out for our weekly exercise session. With the heat as it was (28°!), we mutually agreed that we’d all prefer a walk!!

We decided to have a walk out towards the park in the hopes that this would be a slightly less busy route – perhaps it was, marginally! As per usual, we had a lovely chat as we did our 2 miles. It’s always good to catch up with everyone and find out about their week.

Back at the task, we met the lovely Maria, who is the new volunteer coordinator for My CWA. She gave us a lovely warm welcome and some well received glasses of water. Our task this evening was to move some furniture around in the various rooms of the building. My CWA support victims of domestic abuse and this involves providing many services including counselling and other support services. It was our job this evening to create a quiet room by moving some of the furniture around and improving the space. It was a simple but lovely task to undertake and it was really rewarding to see the rooms looking so lovely when we’d finished. We had a few issues with squeezing tables through doors but we managed to resolve this with a bit of creative thinking. I think Kimberley was in her element with the interior design aspect of the room and did a great job of dressing rooms with lovely cushions and throws– Kimberley, you’ve missed your vocation!

The task was soon completed and the rooms were looking lovely. Maria was thrilled with our efforts, and we’re excited to be heading back there again very soon!

Thanks for having us, My CWA, it’s always a pleasure to help and we can’t wait to be with you again soon.

Well done everyone on completing another fab task.

Lots of love Nicola Xxx

PS hope you’ve all cooled down now!!

Tonight, it was wonderful to welcome our lovely new member Kat!! We hope you enjoyed your first task and that you’ll come back to join us again sometime soon. You were a great addition to the team and we loved having you!!

We started our evening with our usual exercise session. We split into two groups. Maurice and Nigel did a walk and Karen, Kat, Phil and Nicola did a circular run. We did a very similar route to last week, just in a different direction!

Our run was a chatty one and it was great to learn a little bit more about our newest member, Kat, whilst catching up on news from Phil and Karen.

We were back at St. Andrew's again tonight. The lovely Andrea set us to work once again. We started the evening with some more furniture removal – it required lots of muscles, as well as some intuitive thinking! We shifted a large roll of carpet from the church to the church hall, as well as a large cabinet and a smaller (but much heavier) cabinet.

Once we’d moved all the furniture that needed moving, we set to work with cleaning. Between us all, we cleaned the windows, hoovered all the cobwebs up, brushed up, did some mopping and put sugar soap on the toilet walls to prepare for painting. It was a really productive evening and you could see the difference once we’d finished.

It was great to spend the evening with lovely people as always and help this lovely local church. Thanks for having us Andrea. We hope you’ll have us back again soon!!

Well done everyone on another amazing task done! It was great spending the evening with you - as always - the highlight of my week!

Lots of love Nicola Xx

It was a wonderfully warm and pleasant evening to be out with our lovely Goodgym friends! After a rainy start to the morning, the afternoon and early evening brought perfect weather to lighten anyone’s mood and to enjoy a lovely evening walk and a good physical Goodgym task!

Tonight, Karen, Nigel, Ian and Nicola opted for a brisk walk before getting stuck into our task. We did a circular route which took in some delightful sites including Crewe Alexander Football Stadium and the old Police Training College - which was originally a convent founded by the Ursuline Sisters - a French order of nuns. It was built in 1911 (thank you Ian for that insight!). See, Goodgym isn’t just about exercise and good deeds – it’s an education too!

We were delighted to be back at St. Andrews Church in Crewe this evening. We haven’t done a task there since before COVID and it really was a joy to be back there again. We were given a lovely welcome by Andrea who explained about the task and why we were there. The playgroup that is run by the church needs to move out of the church hall and into the main church but to do this, some things needed to be transferred from the church to the church hall in to make space for the group to meet.

We set about carrying chairs, drawers, a wardrobe and one or two other bits and pieces from the church at one end of the street to the church hall at the other end of the street. It was a good physical task and was easily achieved with 4 pairs of hands! We got plenty of steps in and did some good work on our muscles too!

Andrea was chuffed with what we did and we’re looking forward to being back there again next week!!

As we had a little spare time at the end of our evening, we headed over to hops bar for a cheeky drink and few nibbles – it was a perfect end to another fantastic Goodgym task!

Well done everyone – another fantastic evening!!

PS - Loved seeing you rocking your fantastic new Goodgym T-shirt Ian! PPS - Thanks for the pun Karen - you've saved me hours of brain wracking!