As many of us are now connecting with friends and family using Zoom and Houseparty for video chatting, it was time for a different type of house party. After giving our brains a workout last week, this week we connected and caught up over a game of Hoy Bingo. What bingo, I hear you ask? Well, if like me you have enjoyed (or even endured) many family holidays incarcerated at a certain (not red coated) holiday camp, you’ll be familiar with this high stakes game, that uses playing cards instead of numbers. Fun for all the family – so much so that my brother-in-law was roped in as a special guest to be our caller!

Having set ourselves up on Zoom, with the customary glitches that have neatly replaced the usual GoodGym Swindon Strava palaver, it was time to welcome Dave (or was it Claire? If so, lockdown has hit her hard) to explain the rules. Make a 3x3 grid of 9 playing cards and when your card is called, turn it over. Shout when you get a line, stand up when you only need one more card, and when you’ve got a full house, shout Hoy!

Having made the executive decision to mute everyone – Mike Etiquette is not a new GoodGym member but may be Adam’s best friend – we got underway. Soon players were on their feet, waiting for that one last card and the sweet taste of victory. It turns out that we are quite a competitive lot! I wonder if Emma the Trainer has ever had so much excitement on her birthday?!

With cats, dogs, children and the occasional husband all joining in, the games flew by and we kindly released Dave/Claire back to what passes for normality.

Hopefully everyone had an ace time!

But of course, it wouldn’t be a GoodGym Swindon gathering if we didn’t chat long into the night – the Oasis lockins may be off the cards for a while, but that didn’t stop the usual chatty suspects until it was time to jack it in when the laptop battery died.

We’ll be meeting up again next week for more virtual fun – meanwhile, stay safe and if you haven’t already, why not sign up to our Community Mission to write letters to our friends at Margaret Matthews and Prince Rupert Court? For further details and to sign up contact Emma at emma.s@goodgym.org