Disclaimer - if you have never heard the Jessie J song 'Price Tag', please go and listen to it first if you want this report to make sense!

8 Goodgym folks ran, walked and cycled through the pouring rain to help out at the Samye Foundation.

Lorraine at Samye was pleased to see Michael, Adam, Emma, Aimee, Darren, Rosie, Dylan and Jonny arrive; she had pinned a task list to the door for us to crack on with!

Jonny and Aimee got on with pricing up items for the upcoming plant and book sale.....they under took the....

Price Task

Seems like everybody’s rushin’

Runnin’ through the rain, no hushin’

Volunteers with soggy shoes

Still smiling, got things to do

Why is everyone so serious?

Why am I leaf-clearing in shorts?

Can we slow down and just breathe?

Or at least get a towel, please?

It’s not about the price task, task, task

It’s all about the give back, back, back

We wanna make the world run

Forget about the rain splash, splash, splash

Just focus on the impact, impact

GG just wanna make it count

Even if we’re soaked and worn out

A little kindness, a little sweat

Volunteering with no regret

I ain't writing a song for every task.... :o)

There was plenty of vacuuming to be done so Adam and Emma (and Henry!) cracked on with that. Adam also washed the walls down in the hall to de-scuff them.

Some nominative determinism was in play as Rosie cut back the roses at the front of the foundation!...ably assisted by Dylan. Michael floated around (quite literally with the rain!) helping everyone, taking pics in the process.

The group were re-leaved to leaf Darren alone to sweep and clear up the.....you guessed it - leaves.

A little sodden we all really appreciated the piping hot Carrot and Coriander soup Lorraine had made to say thank you.

We all had a chat.........mainly about the old test card (click here if you are too young for this reference!) and dried off a little.

You may have noticed a non red runner amongst the pack, Jonny was being a good sport by wearing a Norwich City jersey as he lost a friendly wager with Darren and had to spend the evening in his rivals jersey! As you can tell from the pictures he was delighted! ;o)

The rain had got a lot harder but we ventured out running, walking and cycling back home or to the pub.

The three amigos got out in Cardiff for some wet weather weeding.

Let's get our weed on

A slightly injured Michael kept back Darren on the run, but we made it in time still. Lucy joined us on her bike, all smiles and ready to tackle those paving slabs. (Her favourite)

Tonight, we were tackling the front of the community hall and next to the old church. Michael commented that the choir with no name weren't in, and was informed that they had changed locations for their rehearsals. Certainly was quieter without them, we will have to bring some tunes next visit.

40 minutes of volunteering and the slabs were weed free and looking "tidy".

We headed to our new test pub for a soft launch tryout, next week we will be starting and ending there.

Keen to work up a thirst before a gin-centred social, GG Cardiff met for a litter pick of the local area

schools are back on Tuesday and over the summer rubbish had accumulated in the fences and roads around two local schools. a quick blitz of the area left it looking ready to welcome back the kids and families from their summer break.

GG cardiff then headed off for drinks and to catch up on their respective summers

5 Goodgym folks ran, walked and cycled to St. Dyfrig and Samson church to help finish painting their railings.

Goodgym visited a few weeks ago, so we were here to get the remaining railings painted from blue to black!

"I tell you what I want, what I raily raily want"

Su, and Emma W took the inside and Darren, Emma P and Michael the outside. We were joined by some of the lovely church volunteers. The Reverand also popped by to kindly thank us for our efforts.

We chatted away happily whilst we..... 'paint it black', learning all about about the church and activities.

As a group we made quick work of the side railings and by the time we left the job was complete! Everyone was delighted, they said "We were 'even better than the 'rail thing'."

The sun was setting so there was 'no rail slim shady' left, we ran back to the pub for a well earned drink.