Due to a delay in coming back from the GG Shindig we were one person short. The job didn’t have any heavy lifting so Linda decided to go it alone.

Mrs S needed help sorting her books. As Mrs S has ADHD it was a bit difficult to get her started and to keep her focused. We decided to tackle one box at a time and created separate piles for correspondence, stationery, recycling, rubbish. books to keep and books to go. Once the system was in place Mrs S got into her stride and the more organised it got the easier it seemed to be for her. It is still a big job, we got a couple of long shelves sorted before having to pack away. It is to be hoped another session can be set up and hopefully our Shindig wanderer will have returned by then.

Metro Caring supervisor Greye will be leaving us, so it was a bittersweet shift. He will be missed. Happily, at today’s mission, AJ met a fellow former Londoner / marathon runner, Kirstyn 🏃‍♀️ AJ explained the GG concept to Kirstyn so maybe she’ll join the GG family. 🙌🏻. We had a good supply of energy bars for all to enjoy.

A typical English summer(ish) morning... in other words, rain + sun + drizzle + more rain

Ofcourse that does not deter any Goodgymmer nor Parkrunner/walker

So a set of GG'ers descended on Valentines Park to help out and/or run in prep for more GG activities...

• Ed guarded & managed the main car park entrance in his usual enthusiastic style - must be approaching 250 times by now?
• Linda rode down and braved the rain to guide a VI walker round for a lap (hence dog pic)
• Sharon G joined the scanning crew
• James stepped in on short notice to Marshall the vital first corner / 1st 2nd lap split
• Peter juggled finish tokens and handed our 426 in total

And last but not least, GG Newham Queen Hillary (sorry Sharon P) joined for the run before taking charge of a lovely local community mission later in the morning - see report here (once posted and link edited)

P.S..... animal pics courtesy of Linda, showing off the lovely sides of Valentines Park

The first job when we got there was to move the room sized piece of carpet out of the way, it had been left in a heap and we needed the space so we did our best to straighten in out and roll it up. It was heavy work especially with a cute (if unhelpful) cat darting about on it 🐈‍⬛ 😂 but a lot of sweat and a few choice words later we managed to get the carpet condensed in volume by quite a bit. After ensuring little puss wasn’t rolled up in it, we moved the carpet out of the way and shifted our attention to the next task.

Mrs S had been given a previously owned canvas wardrobe but without any instructions or idea of what it should look like, she’d had to admit defeat when trying to put it together alone. Linda found a photo of something online which looked like it might be a comparable construction and Louse had had some previous experience with a shoe rack which was similarly built. Still very little to go on but we worked together, figuring it out and (despite there being a couple of bits missing) we managed to put together a serviceable wardrobe. There was a cover which we fitted that finished the job off nicely and we fully zipped it up to keep the nosey Kitty out.

Looking round the room we felt we had made quite a difference in there during our two visits and Mrs S agreed.

Mission accomplished by AJ and the regular Tuesday crew of volunteers who were kept busy restocking fresh fruits and veggies along with a barrowload of fresh rooted basil which could be repotted for use at home. Result!

Heatwave over, the weather was distinctly more unpredictable.... clouds, drizzly, rain...

But none of that stops a Goodgym crew, especially with a Babybank session in the calendar. So it was no surprise to see 6 assemble at the Cornerstone Church, joined by a 7th once S figured out she was at the wrong church.... not the first mixup of the eve it turned out!

A dark room and locked door did not bode well... Adam is usually well on time and starting prep before we get there. A call went to voicemail, but very quickly after Adam was in touch, it turned out there had been a little calendar mishap at his end. 10 minutes later, our session did get going after Adam dashed over and as per usual a string of bags and a couple of crates got checked & sorted, finishing at 8 as usual.

15/6 - a little tidy up at our 'home' of Wanstead House 13/7 - next babybank session