For this session of painting at South Reading Community Centre, we were back in action in some of the rooms used by different groups throughout the week.

Roshan joined us for his first ever GoodGym task, and Zelie ran to the session and was showcasing her red GoodGym t-shirt!

With some bits to finish up from our last visit, Shirley and Jenni got to work in the smaller room, making sure that all the missing spots were filled in, finishing the room to perfection. Zelie and Roshan got to work in the bigger room, filling in the stripe at the top of the walls and the bottom edges where the roller hadnt reached last time. It was a group effort to finish the last wall in the big room, which had suffered from having tables and chairs against it for many years! Hopefully with another coat it will be pristine like the rest of the rooms!

With all the spots and stripes painted, it was time to call it a day and enjoy the rest of the weekend, knowing that the groups using the spaces would have somewhere lovely to meet!

It was another rainy day in Reading, so thankfully our task was indoors! Three GoodGymers helped at Reading Repair Cafe; booking in clients, allocating repairs to the experts and learning along the way!

Zelie quickly became a pro at getting clients booked in and making sure they understood the repair cafe rules.

During the session, 18 items were brought in, including a couple of vacuums, a sewing machine from Reading's Library of Things, a bag for mending, a pan, a couple of broken toasters and kettles and a few tables too!

Sevan, joining us from GoodGym Ealing, even got stuck in with trying to install Linux on a laptop, however the laptop wasn't up to the job today.

While not everything could be fixed this afternoon, 59kg of waste was prevented and we saved the CO2 equivalent of growing 6 trees, for 10 years!

Four GoodGymers met, just as the rain started, to litter pick along Oxford Road. After running there earlier in the day, it was clear it could do with picking!

Jeni joined us for her first Monday task, and got stuck straight in! We wandered and collected all sorts of stuff; crisps packets, cans, chocolate bar wrappers, but we decided that the TV we found was just too big to bag!

Monday was 'world pizza day' - thankfully no pizza boxes were found, but it did give us dinner inspiration! With the rain feeling icy, and 6 bags of rubbish collected, we went back to our starting point, and off in search of a tasty supper!

We were back at South Reading Community Centre for some more painting in their quest to give the center a face lift! This week we were focusing on some of the rooms used by different groups off the corridor we'd painted a little while ago.

After moving furniture, armed with polyfiller, masking tape, sanding blocks and sugar soap, we got stuck in with prepping all the rooms to get them ready to paint. Julie joined for her first task, and although she'd never decorated before, we had a polyfilling pro on the team!

Working around the first room with our rollers and brushes, we managed to get it looking much nicer, then we decided to divide and conquer on two rooms at once! Chris, Shirley and Julie got stuck in on the big room, while Jenni helped Harry from the facilities team with the small room. However, with a group due to use the big room later that afternoon, the race was on to get as much done as possible, so with a dash to the finish line, we got as much done as we could, with some edging and one wall still left to do...

... but we'll be back again to finish off the last bits and get to the other rooms soon!

We had four GoodGymers volunteering at Prospect Parkrun. Although the course was muddy in places, the skies stayed blue and spirits high. We were spread across the route marshalling, supporting the finish line, and helping with the clear-up once the last runner had crossed the line. It was great to see so many people out enjoying the run despite the muddy conditions, including one goodgymer Meg who managed the double duty of running and volunteering. Another solid team effort and thanks to Prospect Parkrun for having us.

On another parkrun tour I single-handedly sorted finish tokens from nearly 500 runners at Maidenhead parkrun. The Braywick Park course was slightly challenging, being fairly narrow in places and quite busy but the scenery was attractive. I did not do my best time as public transport made me later than planned which was a bit disorientating.