Another chilly Monday night and another great-sized group of GoodGymers over in Limehouse!

Tonight we were back to the Community Transport base, where Ocean Youth Connexions lead Kamal is heading up the building makeover project.

A new base for the charity, the team are keen to open up facilities for workshops and room hire, and expand the options for community transport, to enable more opportunities for groups to get out and about.

We were greeted with another well planned list of activities. It was a delight to see the group grow one by one - and great to welcome the running group who'd made their way from the Town Hall Hotel, expertly led by Jacob!

As usual, teams spread out all over the site: one large team headed out to the car park area to begin the huge task of removing the last of the leaves and an enormous amount of soil; another to the container, to sugar-soup and then paint ready for the Spring. There was a team at the front of the building doing a cracking job of pruning a tall and wide overgrown bush, and preparing the railings for paint. The team at the top of the building made a start on the balcony railings, finishing the paint-prep scraping before grabbing the gloss and aiming for at least one coat.

It was all go.

As one task finished, another started. The team were unperturbed by the chilly temperature and a flat wheelbarrow tyre - on they went, until St Anne's chimed 8, and we started to think about calling it a night.

We started to wrap up at 8:10, and were back inside posing for our report pic at just after 8:15.

A few of us headed outside for a chatter, another pic, and a quick can of Athletic Brewing, before heading home, satisfied with another productive night.

Well done, everyone. Another lovely start to the week.

Until next time.

GoodGym has been supporting the Hollybush Estate for years, and the wonderful Margaret and Ash have transformed every bit of spare space in the area into a thriving green oasis.

On a drizzly Thursday we were continuing to shift soil from old planters which had been demolished, ready to be planted in brand spanking new ones!

Most of the team were on shovelling and wheelbarrow duty, moving the surprisingly heavy sold, from huge containers to other huge containers.

The green fingered among us (Nada and Theresa) started work on planting saplings in some of the filled bags.

After a swift 40 minutes we had emptied the last bag, before packing up the spades and heading off into the cold December afternoon.

One by one the GoodGymers arrived at Rocky Park this evening, ready for a big lifting task.

We've been enjoying regular sessions with Margaret and Ash this year, on this particular project which has seen old planters demolished, new ones built and filled with new soil.

Margaret and Ash, on behalf of the Estate's TRA, support the Estate gardens, which, over the years has seen multiple sites transformed into allotments, orchards and play areas.

We've enjoyed sessions right through from the summer, with Task Force leading many weekend sessions, and throughout the Autumn too, which has seen us shovelling and wheeling in some pretty rainy conditions.

Tonight we were continuing with the emptying and relocating of tonne bags of soil in Rocky Park.

With a short briefing from Margaret, the team soon dispersed throughout the garden emptying large bags at a great pace. It was heavy work, but rewarding to see the bags speedily empty with a good bit of teamwork.

It was fun, it was fast- and it was fab to see some familiar faces. And as usual, the time flew.

As we approached 8pm, Margaret indicated which bags we were to finish up with, and then the team gathered shovels, rakes and brooms to load into wheelbarrows, ready to be packed away.

It seemed like no sooner had we arrived were we gathering for the final pic, before leaving several members in the capable hands of Chris and the Central team for some final GoodGym pics and soundbites.

A great evening's work, and particular shout-outs to Team Pun, headed up as usual by the legendary Lucinda and Ilana.

Next week, it's another big leaf clearance over at Cranbrook.

You snooze, you lose…

Until then.

As Old Spike filled up with GoodGymer's, it signaled it was time to head out from the warmth and into the cold. There was just time for a reminder about the Christmas Party before we set off (11th December - 20:15 - Voodoo Rays)!

On arrival, the task was clear, we needed to clean all the toys to make sure they're clean for when they children play with them! Armed with the tools (soapy/dettol water and some clothes) the team set about cleaning every toy in sight. Even the sofas didn't escape a thorough clean, which is good because they needed a wipe down too!

A team of 4 went to sort the craft supplies, throwing out dried up pens, sharpening pencils and making sure everything was in a more organised order.

With not long to go and a lot of plastic balls still to clean and all the toys to get back into the cupboard, everyone stepped in to get the last bits done!

After a quick photoshoot and goodbye to task owner Valentina, it was time to head back to Old Spike which had the promise of Athletic Brewing beers.

Well done to everyone for tackling the 6km run with enthusiasm and also thanks to Daryl for leading us a much nicer route than I had planned!