“Night-strimming (deserves a quiet night)” (for all the REM fans out there ☺ - thanks to Jason for the inspiration)

13 GoodGym-ers headed to St. Andrew’s Church in Hove to clear overgrown areas of the churchyard, helping to maintain this important urban green space for community use and reduce anti-social behaviour.

Jogging, skipping and grapevining our way along the chilly seafront on a wonderfully welcome warm-up led by Helena, we arrived at St. Andrew’s - beautifully illuminated in the settling twilight - primed and ready for action!

Welcome toTallula who joined us for her first Goodgym session and wasn't put off by the nippy air or energetic warm up!

After a quick briefing from Rev Dan and Ian who quickly got stuck into the task alongside us, we donned gardening gloves and selected our weapons of choice from an array of shears, mowers and strimmers.

Head torches and high-vis casting dancing shapes around the churchyard, the group got to work trimming down bushes and overgrown areas. The big task of the evening was removing ivy from the back fence, handful by satisfying handful, before transporting the vines to the waste pile.

Persevering through ivy dust and giant month attacks, we got everything clear and celebrated a job well done before jogging off into the night.

The Cat Creep is a secret shortcut between the upper and downhill residential roads in the Round Hill Ward, well known by its residents. Unlike some of the other Cat Creeps in Brighton, this one was initially wider and named Lennox Road in readiness for houses to be built along it. However, this plan was eventually abandoned: Lennox Road was just too steep for coaches to negotiate!

Nowadays, if you’re on the Cat Creep after dark, don’t be surprised if you see someone with a torch apparently staring at the stairs. From February to April, a group of local enthusiasts counts toads and newts as they migrate from one side of the cat creep to the other to mate. So, we did. We counted at least 7 tods at our passage! This greatly hopped GoodGymers up to undertake the group mission that involved the distribution of more than 150 copies of the local newsletter, “The Round Hill Reporter” to the residents of the ward, especially those who can't or don't want to be online, so they can hear all about the latest news in the area. It was a blast, so we had plenty of time for a fitness session hopping up the stairs together with the tods – indeed, using our phone and head torch to avoid stepping on them – and some sprint runs up hill. The second Tuesday of the month is Brighton GoodGym’s social night, and we concluded our evening with a Quiz Night to socialise at a local pub.  

Tonight many of us returned to Goodgym victorious from the Brighton Half Marathon! Congratulations to everyone who ran there were PBs galore and thank you to everyone who supported along the route. Tonight we also welcomed a new member Thomas who was attending his first ever Goodgym session!

Unfortunately Tom picked one of the worst nights of weather we've had for a while! Already freezing cold the rain soon started to pour. We gave a quick intro to Tom and heard all the stories from Sundays Half before heading off to the task.

It was thankfully a short run and a small hill to get there. We arrived to a helpful note from the task owner with the tool shed ready to go. However, getting tools out of the shed was like a scene out of a horror film with the wind blowing, doors banging and tools falling everywhere. Each of us gathered up some tools and headed to the gardens to get weeding. It was more a case of spot the weed that wholesale weeding with the dark not helping our task. But we managed to get some work done before our hands gradually started to freeze to a stop.

We packed up the tools and ran back to the start (avoiding the bollards en route!). The run seemed to help thaw us all out before we headed home to get warm.

Thanks everyone for braving the weather. See you next week!

Today I received a magazine about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Being an overthinker, I couldn't stop thinking about one question: Can AI take over my job in the future?

Making my way to the Goodgym task I started feeling the anxiety building up, thinking how can I cope in an ever-changing world. As soon as I reached the Goodgym meeting point and was welcomed with friendly faces, my worries were suddenly on pause.

Thirteen Goodgymers braved the cold today and made their way to The Fitzherbert Community Hub that has recently opened its doors and we met Katherine, the newly appointed manager, who explained to us about this multi-partners endeavor and what help was needed by Real Junk Food Project in their venue for tonight. We all started sweeping, mopping, cleaning tables, arranging cups and there's always a few that did more chatting than cleaning!! (not naming names but do check the photos for evidence!).

We were done quickly with today's task and Angela had the great idea of having pancakes since its Pancake Tuesday! So we made our way to Munchie's Craft in the Laines where the owner was kind enough to keep the cafe open till late and served us delicious pancakes ! We took over the whole cafe and ordered sweet and savoury pancakes and some waffles by mistake! Some opted for fancy cocktails for the gram.

It was a fun social and as we said our goodbyes, I went back home with one thought in mind; AI can and will probably take over my job in the future, but it will never be able to take over the sense of joy and contentment of completing another Goodgym task :)

I asked ChatGPT (An AI platform that is taking the world by storm) to write a rap song about Goodgym and here is what it came up with! I let you be the judge of who raps better wink wink

It's Pancake Tuesday and the crew's all here,

Brighton GoodGym in the house, let's make it clear,

Lace up our sneakers, we're on the move,

Gonna help the community with a groove.

We sprint down the road, with a purpose in mind,

Helping the elderly, leaving no one behind,

We shovel snow and rake the leaves,

Making the neighborhood shine before we leave.

We finish the job, time to celebrate,

But we're not done yet, it's time to create,

A stack of pancakes, fluffy and sweet,

To enjoy with friends, while we kick up our feet.

We sit down to eat, with smiles all around,

Good food, good company, in a great town,

Brighton GoodGym, Pancake Tuesday,

A day to remember, in every single way.

Brighton GoodGym, we're the ones to beat,

Pancake Tuesday, let's get to the street,

We'll run and help, no task too tough,

We'll get it done and never enough.