Three of us met at the gym. Three grown men. Zero sense of direction. Off we jaunted, weaving in and out of housing estates, Martin regaling us with tales of his jeffing, Richard with tales of his son's projectile vomiting, and me with tales of world class half-marathon running.

We arrived to greet the other three angels to get to scrubbing. Sallyann helped clean the cooker hood, or would if she could have reached, Jess is training to be a celebrant so she can officiate Goodgym socials, and Leanne is training to be a personal trainer because merely being a martial arts instructor she is worried she might not be able to completely kick my ass.

We polished off the cleaning (get it?) with the shiniest unit you have ever seen, blinding the Von Trapp family.

We set off to run back, thankfully Leanne showed us the way to go so it was slightly less of a distance back. Great work everyone - and remember, Moto pizza this Sunday at 9!

What a day out.

Our first volunteer at Junior Parkrun, a warm welcome by Paul leading to a world class whistle test, followed by the Parkrun!

We all had different roles, from barcode scanning, to marshalling, to funnel management, to tokens, and more, but everyone whooped and hollered the kids along. They were very quick!

The main shoutout has to go to Richard Perry, who did his sensational 250th Parkrun volunteer! And contrary to popular belief, the good deed this time wasn't bringing cake to the run. But the cake was very welcomed.

Afterwards we went to Wetherspoons and I am shocked to my core that the £1.50 haggis I had did not make me feel good for the rest of the day.

Great volunteering everyone, nice to do it at Junior Parkrun too to mix it up. We've been asked if we will help out at Writtle Parkrun too!

Only six of us braved the slightly concerning forecast last night, including newcomer Scott! He joined Jen, Joel and myself jogging the short distance to our task, where we met Jess and Sallyann, and our host Jennifer.

We were shown to the Scrap Store, a treasure trove of crafting items, but in need of organisation. Thankfully, there were lots of shelves that needed also needed organising.

Jen demonstrated her inner Stacey Solomon and rallied us all into getting things into place. We moved shelves, cleared spaces on the floor, and Jess put countless rolls of fabric onto shelves.

And as a reward, it was dry for those of us who ran back!

A great task, and loads of sorting done for Artists at the Meadows. Thanks all for coming, and a big well done to Scott for starting with us on a wet January evening!

See you soon

Laurie

Our final group run of 2025!

We met the lovely Callum from Active Essex, joining us to learn a bit more about GoodGym so it can be promoted to more people around Chelmsford.

It was a very important evening for us: not only the last group run of 2025, but we were also going for drinks and takeaway afterwards. I made it clear that there was no time to waste with chatting - specifically aiming this instruction at Rich, Andy, and Russell.

Fay, Jess and Joel set off walking with the leaflets (beautifully folded as ever), whilst the rest of us took a slightly longer way out to run to meet at our starting point on Broomfield Road. We didn't get off to a good start at all - the first lot of houses had no letterboxes. We sped off up Swiss Avenue, and meandered our way round the surrounding streets until we got all the leaflets delivered. Apologies to Russell - he didn't time waste and probably delivered the most leaflets.

I was SO focused on getting the task done, I only took one photo. It's a good one though, especially of Jane. Hopefully Callum's photos were good and I can add them on afterwards!

Thank you all for a great 2025, and see you in 2026, if not at Christmas Day parkrun.

Merry Christmas!

Laurie

Hello Chelmsford!

Both our battlecry and the theme of the night's mission. On a freezing Wednesday night we met for a walking tour led by Alan, a bit of a local legend.

Really interesting tour with some highlights below!

• County prison in 1660 was where Toni and Guy now is, presumably where Andy used to go for his crimes against fashion
• Chelmsford is named after Coelmaer's ford, from the Saxon times and that spot is the roundabout outside Tesco!
• From 1-5 July 1381 chelmsford was the capital of England! (Well technically Writtle but Leanne and Jess said that counts as Chelmsford)
• Charles Dickins stayed at the MetroBank, not a Metro at the time but a pub, check out the blue plaque, and clearly lived up to the first four letters of his surname saying after not being able to find a newspaper on a Sunday, "If any one were to ask me what in my opinion was the dullest and most stupid spot on the face of the Earth, I should decidedly say Chelmsford".
• Alan's first blue plaque in Chelmsford was Dr Ben Pugh, just above the Cornish Bakery and there for a legend who helped make Chelmsford one of the first towns to get rid of smallpox and developed a pipe to clear baby's airways after birth which is still recognised today. All some forceps which sounded unpleasant...
• In 1808 there was the great fire of Chelmsford leaving about 11 dead. Glad we don't have private fire brigades now
• Ben studied the difference between a public and a private blue plaque (Marconi on Saracen's Head). Or the drink deals, not sure which took his eye.
• Judge Tindall was the first to use grounds of insanity to not convict someone. I've attempted to use this to my wife when I miss the last train but to no avail
• Only three buildings in England have the same recipe of white stone as the part of the cathedral which retained it after the collapse when they dug a grave too close to a pillar and it all collapsed (sounds like a task GoodGym could have done better!) . The other two aren't as famous as the second smallest cathedral in England - King George Chapel in Windsor and Buckingham Palace

There was also loads more information on the tour - and Alan runs loads of these with the Chelmsford Civic Society. Check them out: https://www.chelmsfordcivicsociety.co.uk/index.html

I will be looking out for the tours of the Shire Hall once permission is received!

Armed with the local knowledge the plan is to use it for our walk and talk sessions to help develop language skills.

Happy running and wrap up warm!

We did our annual foodbank reverse advent calendar collection and got a lovely boot full to donate. Well done everyone who took part, it's for a great cause.