It was a bonus Wednesday session this week saw four of us back at Heene Community Rooms where we are starting to demonstrate that Worthing GoodGym is as determined as those pesky weeds.

One El of a GoodGymer

El arrived at the task with a tin of freshly baked biscuits. Really delicious biscuits they were too!

Don’t change, Barbara

Barbara regaled us with tales of wearing the same clothes day after day and not going as far as the toilet to pee. She then told us about her recent adventure. She seemed particularly proud of having avoided being eaten by a puma.

Puppy love

Roxy got a round of a paws when she arrived with her new charge Mali who spent the task peeping out from the bag over Roxy’s shoulder.

Weed had a good idea. It worked!

Where we had managed to lay and cover the pieces of cardboard on previous visits you could see that the weeds were gradually admitting defeat. They clearly still have some fight in them, but their resistance is becoming rather, well, weedy for want of a better phrase. We focused our attention on the path side of the garden clearing remaining weeds and planting a range of plants provided by Val. It’s good to see some wanted planting going in to replace the seeming mountains of green we’ve removed over a number of tasks.

Light evenings are back again

What an absolute delight it was to arrive and finish the task in the light. Head torches and Uncle Ivo's GoodGym lights be gone!!

It's kind of traditional that we kick off BST at one of our favourite tasks at St Botolphs Church with our hosts Val and Rik.

Val is always super organised and has all the tasks they would like done listed alongside their intensity level, meaning everyone can make a considered choice.

This evening Belinda and John chosen the more challanging option of sawing a large tree trunk into 3 pieces. This was quite some task which they completed very successfully illustrating what 37 years of marital team work can do!

Roxy and Stéphane got stuck into some digging with Ricky also joining them too.

Meanwhile Mel was bare handedly stripping ivy out of the wall which appeared to be quite therapeutic after a stressful day working !

Gillybean and Paulgot stuck into some fine pruning of trees and bushes on the outskirts of the church wall.

It was great to see our OG Beth back in the borough. She wasted no time in getting stuck into cutting up prunings that Gill and Paul had kindly provided ! El and Sarah got stick into removing ivy from the wall surrounding the doomsday font that we unearthed a few years ago. Sarah was fresh from her recent seamless move with Ryan into a beautiful new town house nearby whilst El had the brilliant idea to ask if we could take a look around inside the church. We didn't need to be asked twice and all processed into the church behind Rik who was the keeper of the keys! We all really enjoyed marvelling at c the size and beauty of the church and I was particularly interested to see a large lady chapel being there too.

We got back to work after our impromptu visit before finishing up fur the week.

Thank you St Botolphs - you didn't disappoint!

Monday night is GoodGym night

It was great to see the team tonight ! Thank you to you all that turned out to the task.Apart from anything else we had a really nice chat and catch up.

4 weeks ago we were at The Heene Community Garden laying cardboard under the soil to try and prevent the weeds growing. We went back today to ensure the cardboard is doing its work - and , it really is! Apart from some bindweed and few tiny weed shoots across the freshly dug soil we seem to be winning the battle. However if we had left it another 4 weeks it may have been another story! Tonight we weeded and cleared filling 2 bags! We will continue to win the battle 😇😊

Many thanks to Paul, RoxyElRickyMel and Paul for your time and energy today..

Next week,with the clocks springing forward,meaning light evenings again, we are returning to St Botolph's Church which is a GG Worthing favourite. I hope to see lots of you there!

Have a great week!

Julia xx

On a stunning evening on the extremely sunny south coast 10 of us gathered at Heene Community Rooms garden on our mission to finish laying cardboard under the freshly dug soil.

Congratulations to Mel on her first half marathon at Brighton at the weekend - the first of many I think! Also well done to Paul who pulled a great time out of the bag despite having been ill.

Megan and Stéphane headed out for some interval sprints down to the seafront and back. They were worked on a perceived exertion scale gradually increasing the effort over 5 repetitions of the same distance. Suffice to say I think they had a great work out!

Ricky worked on removing tape from the cardboard that I had acquired whilst the rest of the team worked on digging up the soil and digging it in.

Shout out to our very own ultra runner Roxy who despite all her recent kilometres, put some energetic digging. Many thanks to you all for some serious effort with this task - I actually feel we may have finally cracked it !

El came up with this great pun after I had mentioned to John that it was fine to take a break from his energetic raking !

During the task eagle eyed Belinda spotted our very own Worthing fonder member Beth running by with her brother and Dad. I hackled her enough that she couldn't ignore it so she stopped for a brief chat and photo :) What a lovely surprise!

Many thanks to Paul for completing his task force training - maybe a task report may be a first chance to flex your TF muscles?!

Looking forward to seeing lots of you next week - I'm not quite sure what the task will be but watch this space !

300 good deeds done

What a night to celebrate our wonderful Barbara milestone. Our very own Babs has been doing good since May 2017 . She not only attends the group sessions but also volunteers at Wadars, our local animal shelter, at least once a week. Congratulations and Thank you ! We cant imagine GoodGym life without you :)

Cardboard City

The community rooms have been a long term project for a few years now. Every time we go back its overgrown again so this year we have come up with another plan. Tonight John and Belinda kindly recycled their recent electric bike purchase packaging to lay below the freshly dug earth. However firstly it needed to be dug!

Whilst the star of the evening headed out to get some steps in with Belinda and Daisy , who it was lovely to see again ( Happy New Year :) ) the rest of the team set to work.

Paul got stuck in the end of the garden that we had barely touched before. He was joined by Paula and then also Belinda, on her return. Our ultra runner Roxy did some amazing energetic digging perfectly preparing the ground for a generous layer of cardboard to be laid. Barbara joined in with Roxy on her return from walking.

It was so nice to Gillybean back on a Monday night. Special mention goes to Gill who has been busy volunteering at the food bank Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays too. Shout out to any of you who may be free on a Wednesday as the food bank could do with regular extra volunteers please.

Sarah and John worked and chatted as they always do - take a look at one of the photos of them together - I reckon we could have a caption contest :) John was in charge of the cardboard arranging and beavered away whilst some of us stood and admired his handiwork !

At the end of the task and to mark the special day, the team formed an arch with their tools for Barbara to run through - we managed to capture it with a video and photo too. Some then said their farewells whilst the rest of us headed to the pub for part 2 of our celebrations.

Barbara generously bought us all a round of drinks before we presented her with a beautiful engraved glass gift that she can drink her vegan hot chocolate in. What a lovely evening it was. Makes me feel very proud to know you all.

Here's to the next celebration - Will it be Sarah's 100th ?!

Have a good week.

Julia xxx

301 good deeds

It was good to be back with the gang tonight and especially to be with our very own John, who was celebrating his outstanding 301 good deeds . John's GG journey started during the January 2018 challenge. Literally from the sofa to the tasks John has completely embraced the groups activities. You may or may not be aware that he also gives me a lot of support behind the scenes for which I truly appreciate 🙏

John was very relieved to see Megan back after her first task with us last week when he was in charge of the team ! Luckily Megan appeared happy to be back and together with Stéphane set off for some fitness running interval drills. El joined them for the warm up rep which was ideal for her for this evening. Megan and Steffe did some escalating interval training. Same distance each time but with increased effort using the perceived exertion scale.

Meanwhile the rest of the team were ready for the big dig ! We have been visiting this community garden for a while and its been an up hill battle to keep on top of the weeds. With a great number of participants this evening and plenty of forks everyone was able to work together and get a real grip on the task. I couldn't help but notice that Paul had a very impressive fork , Roxy , Anne and Ricky andEl all dug in hard clearing around 75% of the garden. We will return!

After their fitness session. Megan and Steffe helped tie up the bags and transfer them to my car. John and I then drove to the seafront bins where the refuse team will ( hopefully ) pick them up.

Finishing up, we headed to The Brew House for a cheeky drink. We presented John with an engraved tankard to mark this special occasion. We also celebrated that Megan was wearing her new red GG teeshirt! Nice one Megan - same time next week?!

Looking forward to seeing you all next week :)

Julia xx