Maybe it was the good weather, or maybe we were all excited to hear from Ben about his trip to South America, but for whatever reason, turnout for garden clearing at Meadow View Cottage last night was huge.

We welcomed new member Daniel on his first Good Deed ever and it was a 10/10 performance from the newcomer. He’s apparently an avid pub quizzer and even brought his own gardening gloves – what a pro.

Ben was fresh from his South American hikes and Rich was fresh from a week of intense hayfever, so obviously they decided to race each other. If the Olympics are short of stunning visual backdrops, then a sprint on the downhill bit of Chelmsford’s flyover towards Aldi is what they need. By the time the rest of us arrived – via Andy-style attempts at jumps for the camera – Ben had his breath back and Rich had invented lots of excuses for why he lost.

Sometimes when you’re asked to clear a path, you have to ask where it is first. That’s the kind of weed-filled thorny jungle we faced. But with gloves, secateurs and some aggressive trowel work, you wouldn’t be-leaf how quickly we filled the waste bags. Too quickly, actually – so, proper GoodGym style, someone had to jump in and stamp it all down. While we’re talking feet – socks. By some happy accident, the sock game from Ben (odd polka dots), Dave (armadillos, apparently) and Rich (mate, why are they so long?!) was INCREDIBLE. They’ve probably got a secret group chat to coordinate this kind of thing.

By the time weed packed up (see what I did there?) there were three bags of cuttings to move. After the run there and the squats to pull up weeds, it was upper body workout time as we lifted or dragged them into the front garden for disposal.

In case that makes us sound like we do fitness – tonight is the beer festival and with Daniel on our side, maybe we can return to the top spot in August’s pub quiz… Until then, run happy!

Joe

With the Race for Business happening in the park and a few of our usual Wednesday night group helping them with some marshaling, we were a little short handed for our leafleting this evening. With only a few hours before the task was meant to start i was the only one who had signed up.. arrgghhh lol

On mentioning this to my fantastic wife, Jane, she said she could help as she was going for a run anyway but hadn't sorted dinner yet. So once we had finished could I get us some thing to eat in town? Being the superb husband that i am (wink) i agreed (meaning i would get some dinner too) and said i would meet her at an agreed point.

Shortly after this i noticed Nisar had signed up and Fay had said she was relieved from marshaling as they had too many. fantastic

As I arrived at our HQ i noticed Saeed walking towards me and ready to do some good tonight. Helping him sign up to the task just in time before it hit 6:30pm.

We walked over and met Fay and Jane along the way and started posting the bundles of leaflets in what must have been a Guinness World Record, and we were done so fast that Andy didn't have time to join in the fun. Sorry Andy, you should have run faster at the Race for Business lol

So, from being just me, it turned into 5. And was completed in record time... and only cost me a Big Mac and fries ;-P

Thanks all for coming, and hope to see you all again soon

Run Happy

Rich

After a brief discussion on the best way to Beaulieu Community Centre, we set off with Joel leading out in the sunshine. We mostly worked it out along the way, apart from some confusion over what sort of looked like a path, but felt more like an uneven grass verge next to a busy road.

We found Fay and Sallyann with cloths and buckets in hand, so the rest of the group picked up sponges and cloths to clean every possible surface in the Heath Room, ahead of the Centre's open day this Sunday.

David went straight in whilst everyone else loitered for a short period, but his work clearly wasn't evident as the window he cleaned first was cleaned at least twice more by other members of the group.

Best use was made of Andy's and Joe's heights, by asking them to clean the tops of windows, whilst Martin and Nisar took the two sponges and did a great job of cleaning up the marked walls.

I spotted a couple of cobwebs on the ceiling, so suggested Rich and Joe give them a good swipe with their cloths, which ended up more of a posing opportunity for Rich than actual cleaning (followed by another posing opportunity with David and a dustpan and broom).

We finished with a lovely group photo, and then thought we were leaving Fay and Sallyann to walk home. Much to our dismay (mostly Andy, David, and Rich) they popped around the corner for chips on the way, whilst the rest of us were at Andy's mercy for his choice of the running route back.

We didn't let it dampen our spirits too much, and we took a celebratory photo with Nisar in his lovely new red t-shirt, before heading home for our less fun dinners than Fay and Sallyann had.

Great work everyone! Let's hope we get invited back to Beaulieu Community Centre for more tasks.

See some of you at parkrun on Saturday for volunteering, and the rest of you on a run soon.

Laurie