Hilary led tonight's task and after briefing it was random weekly question time ("What's your favourite country?") - we are truly global group...Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, England and Wales....sorry to those I missed. We headed along the greenway, lots of cyclists and runners out tonight.

Hilary took the lead with Kevin and I making sure nobody was left behind. Richard and Bernadette, who are part of the Barts NHS volunteers coordination team, met us and let us know the task for the evening.

We split into two teams and headed to the two of the hospital's tranquility gardens which needed weeding, dead plants removing, shrubs cutting back and sweeping up. Time does go so quick when you're busy and in no time we had several bags of dead plants and leaves cleared.

Some final photos and off we went and of course now it's September, the sun had disappeared and we headed back down a darker greenway, head torch season is here. Some top quality streches to finish the session before heading inside for quick oj and lemonade to finish of the evening.

Just awaiting confirmation of next weeks task,see website for details later in the week.

The day when the far right riots were met with a proper London response, as counter protests swarmed the weak-minded, and over in Newham we cracked on as we always do. A sombre discussion about politics and violence to start, not a stock ice-breaker, but a pertinent one.

The Greenway, our flight path to the hospital, and also the lubricant for conversation, including but not limited to: Parkrun on the 17th, Eugene's first parkrun, marriage, altitude training, Mayans & Incas, Italian cyclists, 500 years of Black British music and the surveillance state.

Nancy snapped our picture on arrival, asked us to fill out a form, then led us to the garden. We were to chop, trim, weed, sweep and paint - a makeover of the sensory gardens. Hopefully so patients get a bit of respite and even perhaps to be used as a physio zone. We got stuck in and did our thing, forty minutes later and we had cleared at least ten large bags, tidied up all the paths and even painted a bench (minus a leg).

Quality work guys, made a huge difference and that longer run will serve you well. Next week I'm waiting on Ange to respond, but as a back-up will be Abbey Gardens. hopefully get confirmation soon.

Till then,

B

Canal exploring walks, Margate tourism, working on Steve Coogan's new show, heading to Wales, taking in Rye, egg art and puns, watching a mental bike race in France and lastly going three days on the bounce to the pub. All of these activities have one thing in common, a long weekend. We need a four day working week people!

Smooth tarmac miles on the Greenway, with the ritual "is it this intersection?" chat, it's the fourth, someone please remember that! Mbemba welcomed us, showed us the tools and gave us the normal relaxed instructions, "trim here and weed there" he clearly has a lot of confidence in our gardening know-how. I don't think we let him down. Many bushes and trees were trimmed back to a more sightly and practical size. Weeds were weeded. At the end there was ten bin bags of green waste - decent for thirty mins work.

No session was done on the way home, I had planned one, then realised I wouldn't be able to keep up, felt very weak on that run. T'was all good, we had a nice chat as we trotted into a rather majestic sunrise.

Next week we head to Get Out Sign up here

Decent little clan of us yesterday on another balmy October evening. A sizeable run ahead of us, we did some looseners then went into the RWQ "What was the highlight of your weekend?" As always a superb range of different activities: Autumnal walks in Epping Forest, smashing pumpkins, performing at a long waited gig, a fiftieth b'day party shenanigans, brick pointing at Cody Dock, a delicious chicken pie, time with the wife, a satisfying bike ride and East is East at the National Theatre. Reckon I'll recycle that question, easier to answer than some of our other questions, handy to have up the sleeve.

Once at Newham Hospital we got to chopping, weeding, pruning, sweeping and bagging. There was some light directions given, but the gist was understood - give the gaff a haircut - and that's what we did. I counted eight bags in the zone I was in, I know the other guys did a thorough and transformative job in their patch. Think the gardens had been neglected since the pandemic, hence the overgrowth. I bet they'll be very appreciative of our efforts, hopefully it will be used even more now as a result.

It being Social Night (last Wednesday of the month) - we nestled into the PrintHouse, getting some pizza calories in, plus well-earned isotonic drinks. Was a great night and good to bed the routine firmly back into the diary.

Need to organise the next few weeks, had a couple of hopeful tasks, that haven't materialised, but will list a bunch of sessions tomorrow, apologies.

Right that's all from me, check the parkrun chat on the whatsapp group, there's a team going,...and have a great weekend.

Until next week,

B

Congratulations to Rosa on reaching her 100th good deed down at the Covid-19 vaccination centre in the ExCel! She was joined by me and Graham from Newham and possibly some other GoodGymmers (hard to tell with all the masks) along with about 30 other Barts NHS volunteers. Numbers of people coming to get their jabs have been picking up recently, with about 1600 given on Saturday. We had a range of tasks between us from welcoming and directing people arriving into the car park, showing them which queue to join, then managing people going in and out of the pods where they're given the vaccine. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get a (socially disctanced) team picture as Rosa was sent home early for reasons that are not completely clear to me (I'll assume it wasn't because she was being disruptive or anything like that) so we'll have to make do with the one we have of Graham rocking the Barts tabard.

Look forward to going back for another shift and hopefully seeing some more GoodGymmers there soon.

Thick smoky clouds engulfed the majority of a dusk sky last night, not sufficient to scare off our red warriors.

Siobhan's 100th and Clara's 2nd GG run yesterday. We did an extra efficient intro chat, inc a pre-asked RWQ: "what phrase irks you most?" A great cathartic exercise, I thoroughly enjoyed watching us all vent. We had phrases and words from 'reaching out', 'taking it back to base camp', 'cascade it down', 'living your best life', 'genre', 'a game of two halves', the incessant use of 'like', 'no offence, but', the default use of male of pronouns and many more.

Longest run on the GGN books at the mo, 9k in total, though seemingly not a big deal for most of you. Remember a year or so back, we had a similar distance run, and was a big effort getting back. Shows how much fitter this group has got collectively, mindset change too.

Once we arrived at the hospital, weeds were yoinked out, flowers and bulbs were planted, bushes were trimmed and tidied. The Dementia garden looked miles better 25mins after you'll left. Nice one guys.

Next week we are at Manorfield School, sign up here

Before I log off, two things. Huge credit to our Siobhan, who climbed into three figures yesterday. Our intrepid traveller who's been absolutely superb in pumping out social media posts, evidencing your efforts. Good luck with your masters and see you in December mate.

Second, we've got another birthday next week, GGN turn 5, dinner and drinks after our session. Looks set to be a corking 5 year anniversary.

Have a quality weekend and catch you soon