What an amazing spot of litter picking. The team amassed tonnes of bags of litter from across Windsor and Maidenhead. From Sutherland Grange, to across local parks and school runs, the team worked hard. Well done everyone!

It was a dark and stormy night - no, it actually wasn’t this time…it was a night of no particularly memorable weather as 18 Goodgymers met at the Community Centre to help the Maidenhead Community Allotment. It was great to see so many people, and to welcome new face Adam, for the last Wednesday session of the January challenge. This was combined with towel collecting for the other last task of the month, as we’re all really quite obsessed at this point. We may not have won but we absolutely smashed our target and that’s what really matters. On a slightly less cheesy note, this will also provide motivation for when we crush everyone else next year. In a nice, community-spirited way. There was also a distinct lack of rubbish along the route to the task, conclusively proving (because I say so and I’m the one with the words) that we’ve had a real impact with all the litter-picking-up this month.

Once at the task, we were divided into groups and given a number of things to do to help the allotment prepare for the new year. There was moving piles of dirt to the correct places, stamping on said piles of dirt to make it look nice, digging up weeds and artichokes, ensuring the weeds and artichokes were put in separate piles, and a bit of drama over some leaky butts. I have been given permission to use as many butt puns as I can think of but, despite the temptation, I don’t want to make you all crack up too much.

The time flew by and suddenly we’d done all the things that needed to be done and were being herded into a circle for the fitness part of the night - a Goodgym classic where one person chooses an exercise for everyone else to do and then runs around the circle. We left the task with a sense of both achievement and exhaustion, bags full of artichokes, and a little more exercise as we tried not to step in the remainder of the water from the (now no longer leaky) butts.

9 keen Goodgymmers took on a 3rd round battle with the chairs at the community centre.

Rounds 1 and 2 were marginally favourable to the chairs but this time Goodgym had the upper hand! Top tips from previous sessions were shared; 'front bolts first', 'give it a firm push', 'patience is the key' and the team were off! Kanika and Diya got a head start after arriving early and were working through putting bolts in the last of the cushions which had been prepared in previous groups. First time fixers Matthew and Scarlet and task owner Jack set to work to fix the finished cushions to the bases whilst Juli, Sol, and Jess joined Diya and Kanika. Once the cushions were done, they also moved to fixing the seats to the base. This took on a trial and error process to work out the best way to put enough pressure in the right place to seat the bolts correctly. Yesim also joined the tribe at this point and just in time to help Juli and Jess with an extra pair of hands!

By the end of the hour the team had fixed a whopping 14 chairs! The largest number in one session so far and definitely win for Goodgym!

There are 14 of this style left to complete with out total sitting at 25 across the 3 sessions!

What do the dinosaurs, Viking long boats, Queen Elizabeth I, Mars the Roman God of War, a Sphinx and a pyramid, the silhouetted London skyline from WW2, and Windrush all have in common?

Not only are they all important symbols, moments or characters from history, they are also all the subject of sculptures and artwork created by GoodGymers Claire, Yesim, Hannah, Tessa, Nicola and myself.

And what would you need if you wanted to step back in time and visit all these fascinating parts of history?

Either a TARDIS... or a reading festival, packed with books, visiting authors and interactive activities to help bring the past to life.

Lucky for the people of Maidenhead, we have both!

A TARDIS lovingly created by Scarlett, AND a fantastic celebration of books (and for this year's theme, history) in the form of the Big Read festival.

Many thanks to task owner Tessa from the Big Read committee, who invited us to make these decorations for the library ready for the festival. It is the third year we have been involved in this creative project and it's always a joy to see what people make. This year's theme was 'Stepping Back in Time', so we had the whole of history to inspire us.

Special mention to Yesim's husband, who sailed her amazing viking long boat down to the community centre to welcome us back from our group run this evening.