It was Ding Ding round two on the task of turning an area of turf into new allotment plots.

In round one we made a start and left our mark on the land, but the second attempt brought in some reinforcements, including first-timer Matt and in an hour-long effort we achieved more than double what we managed last time!

With the turf turned over and the roots exposed to the frost it should soon die off and leave us with a nice patch to cultivate in the spring. There's a long way to go before it looks as neat and tidy as the neighbour's immaculate plot but we're on our way there!

10 of Luton Goodgyms elite, helped the Friends of Leagrave Park with their last litterpick of 2024. We were joined by members of the local community and 2 special guests as Father Christmas and Spiderman joined the volunteers. As ever the haul was hefty, 27 bags of waste collected with the usual intriguing odds and sods. A car tyre, a shopping trolley (of course), and a cool Thunderbirds action figure. Duncan deserves a massive shout out for pulling on the waders and getting into the river Lea to grab rubbish we feel like we've been looking at for months. Great effort team 👌 You are all amazing 👏

It was a return to the 61 Football club this week for a second go at a deep clean of the clubhouse and changing rooms.

A 2.6km chilly run out from the town centre to the club got us warmed up and we were glad to have an indoor task for a frosty evening!

With much of the worst of the mud and grub cleaned up last time, we made quick progress this time, extending our efforts to more of the clubhouse and getting things clean.

Skirting boards were scrubbed, grout was bleached, and ground-in muddy residues were mopped away. The clubhouse is looking much more pleasant and ready for the Christmas party season!

Heading back into town we took the opportunity to do lamp-post sprint intervals to really get the legs moving and build some speed up!

Another busy evening at FoodCycle and well done to the team from GoodGym who helped make it happen.

Gill had been on food collection and between her and hubby Tim they collected an amazing array of food, and with what the church had left us there was too much to choose from.

Martin and Gill joined the cooking team and were soon steaming up the kitchen as pans of soup, a vat of chilli, and fruit compôte were bubbling away on the stove. The meal was also complimented with a fresh salad, and baked potato and finished off with a bread and butter pudding.

Once again Omar, Shady and Moamal were on hand to set up the room and serve the guests. Shady and Gill got an upper body work out in as they loaded Gill's car with crates for her to return to the supermarket while Omar got stuck into a sink full of soapy. water to clean the dishes.

There were lots of happy guests, and many complimented the volunteers on such a nice meal and pleasant venue. mAnd they all got to take home two bags of produce from the food left over.

Well done Team.

And especially well done toMoamal who has helped at FoodCycle a few times now, but has never signed up as a GoodGymer.

Oranges weren't the only fruit we unpacked at St Luke's Church today, but that's only if you count the mini boxes of raisins as fruit. This was all part of the packs were putting together ready for the forthcoming Christingle celebration. Martin and Gill were keen to make a good impression as this was the first task we have done with St Luke's, so they both arrived nice and early and were soon unpacking Linda's boot and laying out the items to create a Christingle production line. Efficient as ever, it didn't take them long to walk up and sown the lune and get 100 bags packed, crated and stored ready for the event. In fact their super efficiency meant that the task had been competed before Omar arrived to help. Linda at St Luke's was amazed at how quickly we had competed the task and we hope that this will be a start of a new GoodGym partnership.