Christmas starts early when you are a Goodgym member! Not in the annoying way that shops starting playing Mariah in early November, but in a Christmas task that had us preparing paper chain packs for the CAMHS project.

This is the 3rd year of us helping and it is always a fun and rewarding task to take part in. Now Halloween is over why shouldn't we start to get into the Christmas spirit...actually just bring on Mariah........and Slade......and most importantly East 17!!

Some folks met at the task, some did a loop run from the meeting point and Adam and Darren were late so did a naughty boy run on their own! Once we had all got together we crack-ered on with cutting up lots of wrapping paper to make the paper chains.

A cut above the rest

Rosie was a chopping machine - cutting the exact sized chains using her rather stylish pink guillotine! Neda was also in charge of a more traditional guillotine, the likes of which most of us have not seen since school! DISCLAIMER - don't worry they did their Elf and Safety training first

The rest of the team were a well oiled production line, writing jokes and decorating with Christmas stamps. During the task we produced a mass of paper cuttings to be used in the Paper Chain packs.

Chain in the membrane

Thankfully Michael reminded Darren to put on some Christmas tunes while we worked, this helped us churn out at a more efficient rate I'd say!

CROESO Sav

Welcome to Sav , thanks for joining your first group run. The corny Christmas cracker jokes are a good taste of what is to come at Goodgym! Yule love it here, well done you sleigh-ed this task! ;o)

The time flew by, sadly we could not Stay Another Day, it was time for us to head off into the night!

You probably thinking what is this title? Mission in Wales as I was running a half marathon in Cardiff this morning. I went to Ms A to do some weeding in her back garden. Removing weed between slabs, in the flower beds and a section of the garden. Yes the title is weeding the garden in Welsh.

As Halloween approaches, it was time to get those costumes dusted off and ready for running.

10 goodgymers heard the call, the T-Rex leader made their return, joined this year by a pumpkin, Lord Farquaad, a ghost and the mighty DUFF man.

As is usual now for this run, we made our way through the streets to cheers, car honks and laughter. It's good to brighten up people's evenings, especially when the clocks have gone back and brought darkness with them.

Our task, to help Cwtch Together prepare and decorate for their weekend of Halloween parties.

We arrived to a list of tasks, and we all know how much Michael loves a list.. 😍

• Bring in 30 + pumpkins and create a display
• Cover tables with black bags
• Put up hangings on fence, securing with cable ties
• Erect the cardboard shop / stall
• Bring in the box from the unit
• Move the wood from the back unit to the front gate, ready for collection
• Empty the cupboard under the sink
• Blow up balloons
• Hang decorations... Including the glow on the dark skeleton

Our task organiser, Sarah, had prepared well tonight. With a long list of tasks we had no problems getting straight to volunteering. We always enjoy this task, it's good fun and lighthearted, the groups got going as the photos show. A last minute task joined the list, as the paperchains that had been put up were drooping too low. With a bit of macgyver thinking we came up with a solution. Using wool and ceiling fittings, an old walking stick and a clothes peg. Threaded through the chains, then raised at either end, the paperchains were moved up and away from children's heads (we hope). The same technique was then used to hang the skeleton, a nice spooky addition.

It was suddenly time for our group photo, get those costumes looking their best. We headed back for a bit of a social and discussion of the Christmas events coming up.

10 goodgymers, another week, another new location.. Back with our friends at Grow Cardiff, helping their location at Lansdowne Surgery for the first time.

5 runners, 3 cyclists and 2 walkers made their way to the location, it got dark quickly.

Michael and Chris had already planned the task, so we arrived with our usual kit bag, no wait there seems to be 2...

Thanks to Darren for carrying the second for us. This meant we had plenty of gloves, bags, first aid kit and 6 lights to illuminate the area. Chris was already there with all the tools required and garden waste bags.

After a briefing from our task organiser (Chris) it was time to get started. The task, to remove the unwanted greenery of nettles, thistles, a lot of dock plants and creeping buttercup. Chris said, these are good but take over the bed and I don't know about you but I don't like others taking over my bed.....

It became a mission to see who could loosen some of the most stubborn dock plants that I've ever come across. Who could lift the biggest?

Dylan gave it a good go and his best length ended up in Jonathan's pocket. He didn't do so well with the next as it didn't have enough girth to get a good grip. Darren certainly did the best with the fork up of the biggest root ball.

The competition continued for who could do the best pose as Jonathan and Lucy kept those poses coming.

After a good 30 minutes of volunteering, from digging to pulling we kept ourselves warm. A quick photo for the group and it was time to make our way back.

Thanks to all for coming, and as always to Grow Cardiff for supporting us.

One Goodgymmer cleared some bindweed from an isolated person’s back garden to allow access for clearing and repairs

Song Time

• From Newport to Cardiff
• And every goodgym I get with
• My heart is pumping with love
• Pumping with love
• 'Cause I volunteer with you
• And all the things we could do
• My heart is pumping with love

That's enough of that.... I can't help myself sometimes.

A change to our usual start location, just the once this year... We don't usually change it but this was a new location that we could only help this way.

So we began tonight at Penylan Library and community centre, we hadn't started here since Covid. A quick catch up chat between Michael (goodgym leader) and Dave (Albany runners leader) before their team joined them for the evening. It's not often we meet together, but we do share members..

We welcomed our newcomer to the group tonight Andre.

CROESO

Tonight we all met at the start location, first for a while. Rosie and Dylan were walking so started early, whilst the joggers waited for the full group.

Michael, Andre, Su and Abdullah were next, jogging the lovely route 2.6 km to the task.

It has to be said that this is a beautiful place to run, and no wonder so many running clubs usually start here. We passed two along the way, with Michael knowing of a third that starts up towards the top.

We chatted along the way, getting to know a bit more about each other. And taking in the sites of the pleasure gardens, then Roath lake. As Andre said, it's a lovely part of Cardiff.

Our task tonight, was helping the 84th scouts hut, clearing a lot of brambles and overgrowth in order to open up the car park.

Lights out of the bag

All Tooled up

We started scraping tarmac to clear soil and weeds, trying our best to find the end of the tarmac. Julian had a hedge trimmer to take out the worst, unfortunately the battery died early on.

But we don't accept defeat, so Loppers choppers and all the oppors to work....

Opportunities that is.....

Brambles we churned to bits and the shovels and forks raked them out, before the leaf grabber, mastered by Su carried the waste to the relevant corner.

It was team work as always that got us through a great workout of a task. Especially the Andre squats with his shovel whilst leaf grabber Su got the bulk loads....

Soon the corner of garden waste was a nice tall pile, proving a good 30 minutes of volunteering.

It was a good energetic task tonight, but the difference from start to finish made the run back glorious.