No one is raining on our parade

On one of the wettest bank holidays since the last one we were blessed with a short window in the weather to do a combined task of a tidy up of our seafront flowerbed together with a litter pick.

It was great to warmly welcome back Roxy to the group and we all hope to see her again very soon!

Sue and Belinda quickly got stuck in to pulling up the spring bulbs together with some general weeding. The bulbs will be safely stored until we replant them again in November.

Ryan and Sarah together with GillybeanandRoxy headed off on a litter treasure hunt on the beach. Apologies I didn't get a photo of Gill and Roxy tonight. The rain started again and the group dispersed pretty rapidly!

We were also joined by Paul and John who helped carry the bag of bulbs and equipment back to Belinda and John's house where we were treated to a wonderful GG social together withnshelter from the torrential rain that followed!

Belinda had been hard at work making two chillies, one of which was vegan ( this was my personal favourite) There was also superb choice of side dishes including delicious salsa's and guacamole together with tortillas, rice and warm wraps to accompany the chillies. John took us on a tour of his incredible, must see, Dr Who collection in the tardis room. An absolutely outstanding labyrinth of stunning memorabilia. If you havent seen it then I recommend you book a tour with John!

We were joined by Natacha and Steve who shared news of a GG baby boy on its way in October - wonderful news to share on such a happy evening!

Thank you to our amazing and generous hosts - we were truly treated tonight!

See you all next week

Julia

Thanks to a weather front bringing air from the Arctic it certainly didn't feel like a late April evening ! Although lovely and light and luckily not windy, there was certainly a chill in the air!

We all convened and went straight out armed with litter pickers and bags. We headed west along the prom picking up stray litter as we went before arriving on the beach at the far end of the lido. With the tide out this meant that we could get under the structure of the Lido and then the pier to do a scavenger hunt for rubbish that had been dropped together with other debris that accumulates along or shore line.

With the team partnering up then mixing up it provided a perfect opportunity to have a lovely relaxed walk and enjoy social chit chat and banter with each other.

Sue had just returned from her travels and it was lovely to catch up on her news together with her Jurrassic walk and Kilimanjaro climb that are both fast approaching! She is under the watchful eye of coach Barbara !

It was also good to hear all about Ricky running and work progress together with his race plans. ! Good luck Ricky!

Sarah pulled a practical joke on her partner Ryan when she found a discarded parking ticket and planted it on Ryan's car before photographing it and presenting it to him. The phrase 'Gotcha' springs to mind when I saw his face ! Luckily Sarah fessed up just as Ryan headed off to do battle with the traffic warden! Craig was much kinder presenting Sarah with a rose instead !

After the beach we headed through the gardens to our finish line. With some light hearted competitiveness in the group led by Daisy and after careful consideration of the weight and size of each bag, I announced that John and Ryan had won Daisy's competition!

On our return to the start point we played a new game of GG inspired hoopla with a cone and the litter picker rings which had held the bags in place. Thanks Paulfor helping to pick up the rings whilst I was photographing ! Ryan was victorious in this 👏👏👏 . Very well deserved especially after the shock of the phony parking ticket just a few minutes earlier !

Lovely evening ! Thanks everyone 😀

*Social walk *

Thanks to a weather front bringing air from the Arctic it certainly didn't feel like a late April evening ! Although lovely and light and luckily not windy, there was certainly a chill in the air!

We all convened and went straight out armed with litter pickers and bags. We headed west along the prom picking up stray litter as we went before arriving on the beach at the far end of the lido. With the tide out this meant that we could get under the structure of the Lido and then the pier to do a scavenger hunt for rubbish that had been dropped together with other debris that accumulates along or shore line.

With the team partnering up then mixing up it provided a perfect opportunity to have a lovely relaxed walk and enjoy social chit chat and banter with each other.

Sue had just returned from her travels and it was lovely to catch up on her news together with her Jurrassic walk and Kilimanjaro climb that are both fast approaching! She is under the watchful eye of coach Barbara !

It was also good to hear all about Ricky running and work progress together with his race plans. ! Good luck Ricky!

Sarah pulled a practical joke on her partner Ryan when she found a discarded parking ticket and planted it on Ryan's car before photographing it and presenting it to him. The phrase 'Gotcha' springs to mind when I saw his face ! Luckily Sarah fessed up just as Ryan headed off to do battle with the traffic warden! Craig was much kinder presenting Sarah with a rose instead !

After the beach we headed through the gardens to our finish line. With some light hearted competitiveness in the group led by Daisy and after careful consideration of the weight and size of each bag, I announced that John and Ryan had won Daisy's competition!

On our return to the start point we played a new game of GG inspired hoopla with a cone and the litter picker rings which had held the bags in place. Thanks Paulfor helping to pick up the rings whilst I was photographing ! Ryan was victorious in this 👏👏👏 . Very well deserved especially after the shock of the phony parking ticket just a few minutes earlier !

Lovely evening ! Thanks everyone 😀

Daisy and I picked up a significant amount of rubbish on a stunning day in sunny Worthing whilst we put the world to rights chatting.

it was a beautiful stroll along the fore shore doing a bit of good on our gorgeous beach.

I was intrigued to find out about our very own local Tiny Forest so, after spending a long time working out how to get into the field, Hudson and I took a short run around the recreation field and the local area having a look.

Coincidentally there was a lone volunteer in the tiny forest strimming the grass. We had a chat and he said volunteers are hard to find locally.

Planted in 2021, it really is a stunning area with 600 trees 🌳 which are all getting very well established.

GoodGym will return to help very soon!

The task

Our amazing group of small but dedicated volunteers met this evening to celebrate Paula 50th good deed. We combined this with a social event that celebrated her achievement together with doing a good deed within our local community.

We all met at SPLC at 6pm armed with gloves, litter pickers, and bags- As it was so windy i also brought along the hoops that the bags fit into. This was the first task of the evening, working out how they fitted.

We all set off in twos and threes with Gillybean and Anne and Ricky heading off to Denton Gardens together with Paul John and Duncan who were also joined by Barbaratargetting Beach House Gardens.

Lucy joined us and also headed off to Denton Gardens where her her journey with GoodGym started in July 2017! What a journey Lucy has had since then!

Paula and Belindaconcentrated on the hedges near Splashpoint as they were jammed full of rubbish and debris that had accumulated over recent months from visitors to the centre.

Task over, and on the way to our meeting point Belinda spotted the cute squirrel that seemed pleased to pose for us so I obligingly took a few snaps!

Social Drink and Meal

After the task we headed to the Egremont pub to unwind and celebrate Paula's 50th achievement. We enjoyed a well-deserved drink and awarded Paula with a framed collage of photos of her 50 good deeds with us. As we looked at the amazing memories we shared stories and laughter from Paula's various volunteering experiences ( and escapades!)

Wellie pun

Let me just explain about this. One week ago I popped ligaments in my right foot. Today I had taken my spaniel Hudson out for the first time since my accident. At the time, because of all the rain I thought it was a good idea to wear my wellie boots. Unfortunately my injured foot swelled up so much whilst walking that I couldn't get my boot back off again. This meant I had to wear my wellies to GG and keep them on until my husband got home later that evening and painfully extract the boot off. Scissors were also at the ready but I had followed Nick's instructions to keep my foot vertically in the air until he got home ( ha ha ) so thankfully I saved my MUCK wellie boots!

See you all next week!

Julia xx