It was the second part of our two part task last night at Traid, and it was a race to get everything done before the shop could open the next day completely restocked.

Luckily Delphine and Susan were on hand to help, and bagged themselves a great upper body workout in the process!

Traid is on a mission to stop the harmful effects of fast fashion, and in doing so funds projects all over the world to make sure that everyone who contributes to making our clothing, whether that’s farmers or garment workers and their families, gets fair treatment and control over their own future.

The pile of bags to sort and pack up were very evident from the moment we walked in - a massive blue sea upstairs and a mountain more downstairs to move up.

We started with a warm up, quickly forming a human chain to pass hundreds of bags up the stairs. It was hard work but strangely satisfying!

Our next step was to put clothes on rails. Sounds simple enough but there was more to it. Not only did all the garments have to face the right way with the hanger facing in, but they had to be arranged in a pre determined colour scape which tested our sorting skills! Towards the end of the power hour Gemma, the manager, put us back into our chain formation to bring up the rest of the stock. Turns out it was a great finisher which left us with wobbly arms and the sense of a job well done!

Next Tuesday evening we will have the group task as usual, which is just being confirmed - keep an eye out for next week's challenge.

Friday night is for most people pub night and maybe a pub quiz to start off the week end. Two Goodgymers decided to join Mind at their Mind Quiz and Curry night at St Stephens church in Richmond. Susan arrived early to help setup and give hand in the kitchen. Steph Ducat a bit later to meet lovely Jo and Suzanne who he already knows from the Elf Mind fun run. Assigned to raffle tickets with some great prizes. The quiz master kicked off the evening after everyone had their lovely home made curry. MIND your business was the rule for the evening : no cheating. Susan was minding her business with the other volunteers in the kitchen. Half time and it was rush hour at the bar and raffle table for more drinks and chances of winning a fabulous prize. Fantastic evening and yes 2 undercover Goodgymers - GG Tops under the Mind T Shirts.

This evening we kicked off February GoodGymming with a trip out to Mortlake where we helped to tidy up the leaves and weeds in the outside area. Lovely task owner Lynne had been trying to get it done but with six extra pairs of hands it was a much faster job and the green bags were soon full.

On top of this, the railway crossing that almost always breaks our stride when we head out this way was up for both the outward and return journeys, what a lucky start to the month!