7 of us met as usual on a lovely summers eve ready to do some good. Unfortunately Hearing help Essex had to cancel as they weren't ready for us, so we decided to do a litter pick instead.

The shout went out on the socials and Leanne had suggested Arun park as in need of a bit of TLC. Fay and Sallyann kindly offered to walk with the litter pickers and bags while the rest of had a little run along the avenues.

We met by the playground and got stuck in and in no time we had filled 2 bags and managed to chat the entire time ( who would have thought). And just as we were about to leave a member of Springfield football club asked if we could pose for a photo outside their club house. Obvs, we jumped at the chance and hopefully will be partnering up with them in the future for some more good deeding.

Thanks all for coming and hope to see some of you at the beer festival on Friday or parkrun this weekend

Run Happy

Rich

It was a warm summer evening and we met at the usual place and it was amazing to see a new goodgymer - Maryam! She had seen us on social media and the red tshirts around town so wanted to get stuck in.

Sallyann modelled her fashionable red tshirt, red watch, and MAGA red GG hat, lamenting Strava wouldn't recognise multiple watches.

Some decent finds tonight: 1. Andy found a metal bar and some socks 2. Russell found asbestos (probably not really) 3. Maryam found a cuddly duck 4. Richard found a massive bag of tinnies 5. Jane found a jellyfish bollard to go with her story of when she used to throw jellyfish around at the beach 6. Sallyann found she can't carry a bag once it weighs a measly 8.2kgs

Clearly, someone had moved the bins but we did find one, dropped the litter, and headed back.

great work everyone! Next week is meadowview cottage and led by the ginger ninja!

I headed to the gym to do my second good deed of the day and saw an idiot driver in front, oh wait was just Andy. Mohammed arrived on his bike, still nursing a leg injury. Somehow it was the hottest part of the day but we set off. As you may expect, Andy did most of the talking on route. He's thinking of getting implants, which did surprise me when it wasn't his hair he was talking about.

Mohammed said how far it was to the task and he was right! But we made it in one piece to see Sallyann, Fay, and Leanne huddled up outside the men's toilets like it was a Duran Duran concert. It all made more sense when the task was painting the gents.

We got to work, Fay lambasting Justin Timberlake the whole time, only stopping to heckle my rendition of S club 7. She did dance later to Cotton Eyed Joe though, sorry for not getting a video. We chatted a fair bit about the heat, partly the last few days (Sallyann was fine as she has a pool at home) and it was roasting in the toilet.

After clean up and the all important photo opportunity we headed back, we left the walkers in our dust until they caught us up at the first traffic lights. Leanne took the absolute piss by living about 2 minutes from the task while I had to wheeze on. On the way back we saw someone who was doing yoga earlier who thanked us for painting the centre!

Another good task and see you all next week!

And now onto the second - the group run!

Took the bags out for Mrs S fine

5 of us met at the gym and quickly decided it was too hot to run, so a lovely walk and chat to the task was in order. Which was a also to be a lovely walk and chat.

Tonight we were to meet up with Edith from the Ideas Hub and meet some of the lovely people who are currently refugees and attending her English classes. We met at the cathedral and then walked along the bunny walks to Arun Park where there are many football pitches. Her classes must be popular as it seemed like at least 20 guys had turned up and ready to chat and practice their English.

We split into smaller groups and chatted away in the evening sun along the green pathway. Sayed and Jason are keen at sport and like to go swimming and to gym, and Hassan was curious if Chelmsford had a boxing gym ( I didn't know). But we all agreed we loved food and talked about our favourite dishes ( mine is whatever is in front of me).

We walked up to the Park and i unfortunately think that we have been challenged to a football match the next time we meet up ( oh dear). So better start practicing your keepy uppies peeps.

We walked back to the gym, said our goodbyes, shook hands and went our separate ways to have our dinners. Thanks for coming guys and see you next week where we will be going up to the Beaulieu Community Centre for a spot of painting.

and remember

Run ( or walk) HAPPY

Rich

Fay was on a mission from before the task even started, rounding up more runners and enticing them with a trip to the pub courtesy of Andy. It worked, attracting three more for the evening.

The runners arrived hot and sticky, great conditions for handling leaflets, whilst Dawn arrived in a presumably air conditioned car. Fay wasted no time in telling us to get on with it, keeping her eye on the usual chatting culprits and dangling the carrot of a cool, free drink afterwards.

Thankfully, we had Richard a.k.a 'the leaflet monster',with us, propping up the slackers (Rich at the very least) and making light work of the huge bags of leaflets.

We headed to the Endeavour, and Fay saved Andy (this time!) by buying the round. Russell headed home to do very important admin that took about 45 minutes, whilst Joel looked longingly at the mini beer festival that was being set up.

Great work in the heat everyone! Next week we have our monthly walk and talk with the Ideas Hub. Sign up here.

See you soon,

Laurie