For tonight's session at the Oaks Amy went for a chat with Mrs C and talked about her geordie upbringing and why she moved to York. Laura went to play dominoes with Mrs J.And Abigail, Lucy and Ed stayed in the main room and played various games with the rest of the residents, starting off with keeping a giant pink balloon up in the air until it burst. Fortunately quackers the emu was on hand to keep spirits up!

Tonight's visit to Hartrigg Oaks saw us make the most of the dry weather and last of the lighter evenings by heading out for a walk around the bungalows that surround the Centre

Lucy, Amy and Ed were each allocated a resident in a wheelchair and we were also joined by a few other residents who were more stable on their feet. In total 8 Oakers, 3 GGers and taskowner Nicola made up the sizeable walking group as we ventured off towards the back of the bungalows and over to the beck to see the water levels before meandering back to the Centre.

As we made our way back we were joined by a black cat who followed us all the way to the front door and also reappeared as we were leaving. I'm pretty certain it would have happily come home with us if Lucy or Amy had let it into their cars.

We'll be back to the Oaks on 13th Nov, potentially for a game of bingo!

For this month's visit to the Oaks we welcomed newcomer Grace who was doing her first ever GoodGym task 👋. Grace also happened to let on that she was a physio, so I'm sure will be made to feel very welcome at GoodGym!

The Oak's Activity Coordinator, Nicola, was on hand to welcome us and get us set up for the evening's fun. And as we're starting to get back into the swing of things we were now allowed to take residents for a walk outside of the centre, so Ed was chosen to accompany one resident for an evening stroll.

Grace stayed in the conservatory to play games with a group of residents, whilst Amy and Lucy were whisked away to for individual one to one conversations with a couple of the chattier residents.

After walking a lap of the area surrounding the centre, Ed and Mrs Z returned to find Grace leading a very competitive game of bean bag toss. Not to be outdone by the residents, Ed and Grace made sure they had a go as well!

Amy and Lucy returned from their chats just in time to find Ed stroking a fake cat that made real purring noises and even rolled over to have its belly stroked! We then said our goodbyes and headed to the stag for a group photo.

We'll be back next month for more fun and games at the Oaks

After 4 and a half year absence(!) GoodGym were finally back at Hartrigg Oaks for the first time since the start of the pandemic. A fair few things had changed since our last visit with a new Activity coordinator, tighter security and some new residents. But once we the games came out it was just like old times!

Joyce, who had been a regular at our previous sessions, had been singing the praises of GoodGym to Nicola (the new activity coordinator) so it felt like we were back by public demand!

We started off with some introductions and recognised a few faces from before, which was fab. However, for those that used to come regularly, the lady that always used to greet us, Jenny, is unfortunately no longer with us.

We then paired up and took a lovely stroll around the gardens looking for sculptures that the partner of another resident had made. Joyce gave Ed all the latest gossip the the Oaks whilst Amy, Lucy and Laura started on the garden games.

Connect 4 and Ring Toss were a big hit, although the promise of scrabble was scuppered by a lack of letter tiles!

Nicola disappeared for a bit before returning with a giant yellow balloon for the residents to bat around, but it definitely entertained the GGers more!

It was genuinely amazing to be back and we'll be setting a regular monthly session up, so the more the merrier (although you will need a DBS check ✔️)

😁 21 fantabulous GoodGymmers met on a cool but dry Monday evening ready to #runbrightatnight for our group run 🌠

💪 We were thrilled to congratulate Michal and David on their epic Ultra running this weekend. Incredible stuff guys 🏆

🥳 As the task was a bit further tonight, Laura led a party pace group who led the way to the task, into the moonlight 🌛

🎆 Meanwhile, the rest of us named, numbered and warmed up whilst stating our favourite thing about Bonfire Night. Turns out there are a lot of fire-lovers among us (and food-lovers, but we knew that anyway) 🔥

🏃‍♀️🏃 Soon, it was time for the rest of us to set off, with Pete leading this group to Derwenthorpe, along a pleasant route via a well-lit cycle path. After some confusion (and much wandering whilst Google Maps-staring) as to which part of the housing estate we were meant to be, we made it and were met by a very happy Maria from St Nick’s. She was excited at the prospect that work on the meadow was soon to be completed, having started a good few months ago 👍

🌾 Maria showed us the tools available and we were particularly excited by the prospect of a brand new tarp (as well as a few with holes in, aka what we’re more used to!) After trying to trick as many people as possible into using quite possibly the world’s heaviest rake, Max got to work, along with the rest of the group. Smaller groups were formed as we divided to conquer the meadow. The rakers raked whilst others (particularly David) enjoyed pitching said rakings onto the tarps to be dragged to their collection points 👨‍🌾

🍄 Oh, and Abi found a large mushroom, which was cool 😎

👌 Pete and Jenna were so efficient that by the time I’d reached them with some extra pairs of hands for their patch, they’d finished! En route to help, Abigail and I spotted more rakings to be gathered and tarped. Cue the embarrassing moments when we subsequently lost said rakings temporarily. They were eventually rediscovered and gathered into the fold with the rest 🧐

📸 The overwhelming efficiency of (most of) the group meant that we finished our task with aplomb, much to the joy of Maria (and the rest of us). It was therefore time for a group photo before we said goodbye to our party pace crew (significantly larger than on the way out). There were still a few brave souls left for our “explosive” (tenuously fireworks-themed, obviously) fitness session, which we continued into the run back to base with inter-lamppost-sprints. With four different paced groups on the run back, we were soon reunited back at base for stretching. And then it was on to The Ackhorne for our monthly social, good times everyone, and thank you for a great evening 🍻

This week at the Oaks we took a break from Bingo and went back to the tried and tested card game - Newmarket. Fortunately Debs remembered the rules so we could get the game started whilst Ed played around with the Oaks' new toy, an electric card shuffler!

As the night progressed some key themes emerged. Big wins at either end of the table, some terrible shuffling by Ed, and Tristan and Beryl coming absolutely nowhere near winning whatsoever.

The games drew to a close with the offer of a glass of Sherry. This time Louise had well and truly learnt her lesson that sherry was not for her!

We'll be back again on 17th March, hopefully for a little wheelchair walk!