This week we welcomed back Liam from an incredible hiatus in Central America! But sadly we also said goodbye to Pippa, who has become such a big part of the GoodGym Brighton community recently but is heading back to London. I hope the London Goodgyms know how lucky they are to have her.

After some hellos by the statue we headed up to community kitchen- a favourite task of ours where we are always greeted by the ever organised owner. The task started with a brief impromptu rundown on the do's and don'ts of using induction hobs: no one with a pace maker is allowed with arms length of one, and don't drop salt on them - though many of us were dubious about this one!

We also found learned that the kitchen has recently had their funding stopped for their regular dementia cookery group, which had been providing valuable community and structure for people living with dementia. The team have been working hard to source extra funding from various places, and they also have a just giving page, in case anyone would like to support the initiative: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/dementia-food-project

We then divided up the list of tasks between everyone and set about cleaning windows, chairs, stools and cupboards, alongside tidying drawers of kitchen implements. The list seems to get bigger every time we were are there...but we always manage to get through. By the end of the night we were celebrating every task satisfyingly ticked off!

After the task we said our farewells to Pippa, who will hopefully be back for plenty of visits in the future, before all heading our separate ways.

On a personal note, tonight was my 250th good deed with Goodgym Brighton, and one of the best things has been all the lovely people I've met through GoodGym over the years. So whilst its always sad to say goodbye to people I feel very lucky to have had the chance to get to know them. So thanks for being such a lovely group of people to run with!

So much fun building the bedframe piece by piece and so very rewarding to gradually see it all come together! Luckily one of us (not me!) is an IKEA master 😀 and is very clever at deciphering their cryptic drawings. Bed all set up in the end except for one small issue of missing 1 slat on the bed base on both sides - slightly frustrating! Owner will put in a call to IKEA. We have offered to return to swap the replacement slats over when they arrive. Job will then be done 👍

This Sunday I headed up to Queens Park Junior Parkrun to marshall a misty course for all the young runners. There was still a good number of runners who came despite the bad weather predictions. There were also plenty of speedy finishers with some adults looking more tired than the runners!

Everyone stopped for a quick photo at the end before packing up and heading home feeling all the better for our run or good deed.

This week at Queens Park Junior Park run we had over 60 runners and 30 volunteers to put on a spectacular community day. I was a volunteer coordinator this week and also helped with the timekeeping.

Six Goodgymers met on a lush spring day for a trail run in the South Downs. Meeting outside Dobbies (with the worst hill already behind us), we set off round Brighton racecourse and wound our way down to the sea. We finished with a run along the Clifftop Path, followed by most of us heading for a well-earned recovery lunch at the Laughing Dog on the marina 🥞☕️🍄 The blue sky and the sun on our faces gave us a little taste of trail runs to come...bring on the longer days!

On a beautifully sunny Sunday morning, new GoodGymer Diana and I, along with 30 or 40 other volunteers, met at Banjo Groyne to take part in a Surfers Against Sewage beach clean.

After a friendly briefing, we were kitted out with gloves and bags, ready to tackle the task.

Note to self: next time, bring a litter picker to grab those cheeky bits of plastic hiding on the far side of chain-link fences!

After an hour or so of scouring the beach, we gathered back at the groyne to weigh our collections. Between us all, we’d removed a brilliant 56kg of rubbish from the beach — a fantastic team effort!