Dodging the raindrops three Goodgymers headed to the Turning Tides donation hub. Tamsin and John arrived first, so let the pantomime begin.

Oh no it’s not… We arrived expecting to put together Christmas provisions ready for later distribution to each of the Turning Tides services. Amy, from Turning Tides, greeted us, and confirmed that the task was as we thought. “Where is the food to be packed?”, we asked. “It’s behind you”, said Amy. Actually, what she really said is, “you don’t mind going to the shop first do you?” That was fine, as everybody knows, John absolutely loves shopping, especially in busy supermarkets, especially just before Christmas…..

She’d made a list….. The reason for needing to shop was that there had been a drop in donations compared to previous years. We headed off in two cars to ensure boot space. Amy’s car screeched to a halt. She’d got the list, she’d checked that twice! What she hadn’t checked was whether she had the means to pay! A quick change of passenger arrangement saw John and Tamsin speeding off with the shopping list, whilst Amy rode back to base with a planned rendezvous at Tesco!

With trolley tokens kindly provided at the information desk, we joined our first queue - to get access to the returned trolleys! One and a half of the trolleys were full before we crossed the threshold of the store proper. 30 bags of potatoes, 41 bags of carrots, 20 bags of parsnips - you get the idea! Whilst Tamsin and John vegged out, Amy set off on the hunt for meat - turkey, ham etc. No partridge though - apparently it refused to come down from the tree.

It’s till not the end List fulfilled (all but one Christmas Cake), and several so called jokey comments about the trolley full of brussel sprouts, we joined our next queue. We’d reached the tills. Amy declared as we arrived “I always choose the wrong queue”. That soon proved to be true, and the unloaded shopping was soon being moved one till along where things seemed to be moving more quickly. Amy was right though! It was still the wrong queue! As we were waiting the customerless cashier alongside us just looked on and smiled!

Cars loaded we headed back to base. Tamsin, ever the multi tasker, made a quick detour to adjust cooking temperature for dinner that evening.

We Three (un** pac) Kings Paula had arrived in time to lead the unloading of the cars into crates ready for Amy to set up the “packing line”. We three were sent upstairs to count to ten (you know, coffee, tea, tunnocks tea cakes. That sort of thing…) while the packing area was created.

Given the all clear we began working through the spreadsheet of requirements adding items to labelled crates as appropriate. We soon realised that “paying more attention” would mean not having to take things back out and starting again. Once realised Team GoodGym came into its own. We are always most effective when we operate as a team. Amy having asked us to just “concentrate on the first four, and we’ll see how it goes” was surprised to hear us declare “finished”. The minor spillage was forgotten (fortunately the phone survived its brief cleansing) and we three headed back out into the rain heartened by Amy’s grateful thanks.

Post parkrun reward

Following the very successful parkrun we all walked along the prom, basking in the sunshine to Munch where we decided to rearrange the furniture to suit the GG worthing 'as one' ethos :) Luckily we narrowly got away with it despite a few stern words from chef Theresa.

With breakfast already pre ordered it was a ( relatively ) straight forward ordering of drinks etc. We all did slide down in our chairs when Stephen asked to alter his order ( although he was oblivious of our concern! ) but yet again, Theresa ( happily) agreed to the last minute change.

it was really lovely to see our very own mini Christmas star Jemima come along with Tamsin and what a great photo of her and of everyone by the tree:)

There were also very welcome guest appearances from Natacha , Pauls husband John, plus Nick who has been stuck on 67 good deeds for around 4 years - ha ha !

Save the date

Watch this space for our new years curry party on January 28th which our social secretary, Tamsin and I will be organising early in the new year.

Plus Bank Holiday Monday - walk and chat 09:30

Wishing you a very warm and cosy Christmas filled with love and good times.

When one becomes two

On a historic day at GoodGym Worthing our very own angel Jay ( aka Cake man) got his wings tonight alongside his amazing partner Katharine who we have warmly adopted from Brighton GoodGym and who reached her own 100th good deed a few short weeks ago in her home town of Brighton.

*I go - you go - Fitness is back - Yay !! *

We all convened at Worthing Leisure centre garden to try and chase the fading light. Gillybean was in charge of tasks whilst I was in charge of fitness. We split into 2 groups with those preferring not to join in with fitness, cracking on with the tasks, whilst I rounded up my budding boot campers who were eagerly (?) lining up ready or their session to be delivered to them.

After a few warm up running drills the team split into pairs. Jay and Katharine were 'as one' team in their own mini bubble teaming up with up with Sarah Anne and Tamsin also paired up but it was Daisy and Ricky who were the dream team tonight completely nailing all the drills and all the moves. High five you two!

After 10, yes 10 rounds of sprint relay drills we continued in to 4 rep drills.

2 minutes of the see saw you go - I go of the following moves

1 x Alternate squat jumps 4 x back ward stepping lunges 1 x press ups

Whils't in the bigger picture

Gillybean ,, Barbara,Belinda and John were beavering away with tasks in the community garden.

After fitness finished, everyone piled in to help out with the tasks in the garden - weeding. pruning and tidying.

The light went way before the tasks ran out so we will need to go back soon ( with GG floodlights ) to keep our good work going over the winter months.

Cheers to all those 100 tasks

At the end of the task John had carefully and lovingly made needle felts for both Jay and Katharine to thoughtfully commemorate both their 100 tasks/ experiences. We absolutely loved Jay's cape together with Katharines look of complete surprise that we had honoured her too, alongside Jay.

Following the task and presentations, most of us moved to the Brew House for drinks and food.

Many thanks to all of you - what a night !

See you next time

Julia xx

On arrival at the task we were pleased to see the finished result of the work we did on our last visit here. The compost area is now complete - I’m sure we will contribute to filling it on subsequent visits.

Thorny issue

Our task host Sue then made the days task clear. It was to clear! An area of brambles and ivy had overgrown and begun to encroach on neighbouring gardens. Our job was to clear the passage, and assuage the neighbours.

Roses amidst the thorns

We decided to tackle the task on two fronts! Sue, Ricky and Barbara worked from one end, while John headed to the other. Belinda took on the formidable task of reducing the size of clippings to fit them into the two green wheelie bins available.

After a short run (there was some dispute about the actual length) Sarah and Paul joined John. Irregardless of the thorns, they waded forth hacking and pulling at the over growth. Tamsin helped to provide essential debris collection in addition to photographic support.

Thrown in

We are quite used to seeing our newer members throwing themselves fully and enthusiastically into tasks. On this occasion though it appears that Tamsin and Belinda did the throwing in, in order to benefit from the crushing density of Sarah.

Back Passage declared open

Around fifty minutes later, the two groups met, and the back passage was declared clear. A quick tidy up, and digging of a border to reduce the likelihood of regrowth, the task was done, and we headed to our prearranged debrief point and some much needed rehydration.

Wowing the wig wam

We always enjoy a fun and happy evening whenever we go to Kamelia Kids and tonight was no exception. This is mainly to do with the welcome that we receive from Andy who is the caretaker and general maintenance manager for the centre.

Tonight he had a great task for us out in the playground in the sunshine. We were tasked with treating and varnishing 3 wigwams that Andy had assembled from flat pack kits. Whilst John, Sue, Gill, Tamsin and Anne cracked on with the task I took Jay, Paul, Ros and Sarah for a leg stretcher around the block.

15 minutes later we were back and all totally focused on the task . Gillybean was the only one tiny enough ( and chilly enough) to camp out in the wigwam to complete Andy's additional request to totally weather proof the inside and outside of the wigwams although Paul did a great job too as far as his reach would let him !

Whilst the others were finishing off John Andy and I hatched a combined task / social to sand down the Kamelia Kids beach hut just next to the sailing club in Goring. Save the date for Wednesday 10th August ! More details to follow.

Next week John is in charge at St Botolphs Church followed by a social drink at The Charles Dickens pub in Heene Road from 7:15pm onwards. I'm hoping to join you there after I have to put in a few extra hours at the day job in Hove.

On a stunning Sunday morning 5 of us met up for our monthly fitness session.

Worthing did not disappoint with its sunny weather. blue skies, turquoise sea and a happy people along the prom.

After a warm up around the pier we went into a lower and upper body EMOM ( Every minute on the minute ) We did 4 rounds and finished with a team buyout challenge with everyone helping each other to complete 100 reps of their chosen move.

It was really was an absolute delight to be with this gorgeous bunch TamsinAnneSarahStephen

Next months date to be announced in the next few days :)