Our last group task of 2025, and on a stormy night... Thankfully the four of us were not blown away by Bram and made it to the task. Even with 4 tonight we managed a runner, a walker and cyclists.

We were back at Samye, having been here only 2 weeks earlier it was great to see the decorations that we had put up, and the lights now turned on on the trees.

How FESTIVE 🎄

Tonight though, our task was a little different. Lorraine, who we has been our contact now for several years, had started making cards for sale.

as quickly as I make them they sell.

So to help, she was asking us to cut out the felt from templates and then assemble them as cards.

What a great way to end a year of goodgym Cardiff group tasks.

There was another task, to try to fix a paper lamp (temporarily), so Michael accepted this so that everyone else could be together making cards.

We had foxy cards and reindeer....plus those doves, the dove from above...

coooo, cooooooo

It was a great way to end our year, we had soup and toasties after the task and chatted with Lorraine about holiday plans. No one was in a rush to get away tonight, but leave we must.

We finish our group tasks, having completed....

596 good deeds

We still have the odd weekend task avail e, but a big thank you as always from me. You all amaze me, every year.

Another Tuesday, we know what that means........

It's goodgym

We had a group of 8 volunteers tonight, including our tourist from Tower Hamlets Kareem.

A warm, Welsh welcome to you....

CROESO

This was our first ever time helping out at this hostel, but not our first time helping the Salvation Army.

First to set off were our walking elves, making their way directly to the location shared by Michael. Then, after a warm up led by Lucy it was time for the reindeer runners to head out.

A shorter route there, in case we needed extra task time, both groups arrived simultaneously. Michael rang the doorbell and we were let in.

Michael also works for the Salvation Army at another hostel that we have helped, so tonight he was also task organiser. A quick chat about what the hostel is, and it was time to make our way to the back yard and get busy.

Task ahoy

Tonight's task,

• Sweep the yard
• De-tangle the bramble from the clothes lines
• Weed the stones
• Cut back brambles growing from the train tracks
• Put up the lights around the railings
• Unpack and put out the new table and chairs.

Everyone got to work as tasks were handed out, Lucy and Jonathan grabbed the secauters and got chopping. Owen and Kareem we're raking it in as they weeded the gravel. Martin straight in with the brush, bum bum. Neda got down and dirty weeding the yard. Emily, with tool in hand, was on light duty. Each set of lights had to be unscrewed for the batteries, then put back together so that they were waterproof. Then cable ties secured them giving us the way glow that was needed in these Winter months.

Greenery collected was put back on the land behind the fence, where it will rot down and feed those hungry worms. All that was left was to unpack the furniture, Neda and Martin got to work on this.

We bid farewell to the support worker as we left, and took to the streets for a slightly longer run to make 4.5km in total.

Along the way, managing to pick up a student who ran with us nearly back to the Glassworks, but he had to head off to the train station. Will we see him again, who knows....

Once back, we went into the Glassworks for a games night and lots of laughs.

Congratulations to Kareem for winning telestrations and Emily for winning Exploding Kittens.

See you all again soon. 🎄

As we bid farewell to November and start to think of all those December parties coming up, 9 goodgymers met for their weekly task in Cardiff.

We welcomed, for the first time Henry.

CROESO

We also had a celebration for our Flo, who had decided to celebrate her 50th, 100th and 200th in one go. They had not fallen on group runs so tonight was a special for them.

Our walkers took to the streets first, whilst Lucy led the warm up. Once we were warmed up and raring to go we started our run to the task.

It was a cold evening, but the Winter lights were on and this made up for the temperature.

The runners arrived first at Samye, followed by Flo, and then the walkers. We were all inside warming up for the briefing, tonight's tasks were some painting in one room and then bringing down the Xmas trees from the attic and putting them up in the relevant rooms.

Before we started, Flo was given her wings to wear for her 100th.

Henry and Michael we're straight on painting duties, once our task leader, Lorraine let us into the room.

Lorraine then took Su, Martin, Lucy, Rosie, Flo, Dylan and Neda to sort out the decorations.

With Michael busy painting, Martin, Flo and Su were also on photography duties for tonight's report. Trees out of the attic and it was time to put them together and decorate.

The smaller tree had to be stripped of decorations so that it resembled a tree once more, whilst the rest we given plenty of bling for the season.

The trees were then moved around to three different rooms, but the lights will be held back until Monday for a December 01st switch on.

Now that the tasks were completed, it was back to Flo, but this time for her to pop on the goodgym Cardiff cape for her 200th task....

Well done Flo 🎉

As a treat, Lorraine had made us soup with a choice of Minestrone and Carrot. It was soon eaten, with some lovely bread and a selection of baklava that they had spare.

We gave our thanks and headed back to our start location. We will be returning in two weeks to help one more time this year.

Henry, it was great to meet and chat with you on your first run and task with goodgym, and we hope to see you again soon.

GoodGymers, join us next week as we help a new place for the first time.

Sign up here

On Sunday 16th November, I was back volunteering with Cardiff juniors parkrun. It seemed like any other Sunday, what could go wrong?

One of the storage containers for the parkrun kit, a literal black box rather than an orange recording device found in airplanes, was missing.

This meant we had no lanyards, or tail walker vests, and maybe some other things. But these were the notable absences.

Without a lanyard, the barcode scanners would not have the Event QR Code needed to upload the results at the end. I was a barcode scanner. As a run director, I also had access to the Event QR Code through the management system. This meant I could help the other barcode scanners. But, I couldn't help myself. I would have to find one of the other run directors, have them access the management system, to use their Event QR Code. Luckily this wasn't an issue.

All in all a successful event, showing that we could adapt to challenges.

You'll all be pleased to know that the black box was located by the next event on 23rd November.

Our yearly task, helping the Christmas for CAMHS charity with their paper chain project.

We met as usual at the Glassworks, then headed out for our run. Tonight, different to usual, we were doing the task at the Glassworks where we had a table booked.

Michael had started the cutting process earlier in the day, cutting 20cm strips of wrapping paper. The team were given the page of jokes and the bag of pens, whilst Michael started to cut the smaller strips.

And the work started, who could complete the most?

It was a crazy time of writing as onlookers started to ask what we were doing. And in hardly any time our task came to an end.

Everyone stayed to take part in the Christmas Charity quiz, raising money for Macmillan cancer support.

A great night, and we will return to usual next week as we run to Samye.

Well done to Flo for completing 33 on her own.

Smashed It

One goodgymer (because Michael slept through his alarm) helped Cathays Community Gardeners plant lots of bulbs ready for spring