An Elfy and jolly evening was had in the warm and welcoming Level Best Art Cafe. Our long-term friends who do wonders with adults with Learning Disabilities.

A huge GG Colchester welcome to Becky and welcome to Colchester and Balkerne Hill!!!

Our task was to wrap over 60 presents for the trainees to open next week! I will not give away what Santa has got them but I think I can smell a successful gift.

As we left Level Best we managed some Hill training, with a 75% effort and sprint triple and then conquered the whole of Balkerne Hill as a December treat. The ice was gathering on the pavements and we carefully jogged and jeffed home.

Stars, planets and helicopters shone above Colchester as the Goodgymers helped invite people to Level Best Art Cafe's Christmas Market (2nd December).

We delivered door to door before going into the city centre to check our the Christmas Light display. The High Street sparkled and Lion Walk was crowded due to presence of stormtroopers and batman!

Such big crowds for a Wednesday evening...the festive season has begun.

An indoor task for a drizzly night? OK then...

Frazer's 12 Hill runs was the perfect warm up for a brisk walk and a work out whilst cleaning.

Our task tonight was to clean up the former home of Level Best Art Cafe, D'Arcy House. It was quite strange working around some old art work, a few remaining tables and chairs and the old coffee machine. We have some good memories in this building, from Valentine meals to wrapping Christmas presents so I can't imagine how much the clients of Level Best achieved here. And as you can almost see in the photos, they have moved on to an amazing new cafe and gallery. Well worth a visit for a great coffee, cake and jacket potato. (Not to mention the Xmas pickles)

Well done us!

Lets just say it was chilly, but the four of us made light work of leafleting and spread a little Goodgym love to as we approach Valentines day!

The main task though was to tell people all about this: "Level best are very excited about our current Archive show! Every wall filled with paintings, prints, sculpture and textiles." So on Staurday 11th February from 10:30 to 4pm pop to Level Best and see if any artwork takes your fancy!

Goodgym Colchester are super excited to see Level Best move premises to Abbeygate Street and this will be some send off!

Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend readers!

We met at the Mercury and after a quick briefing from Helen, headed across town to Level Best to take part in an epic Christmas Wrap Battle. Tav was away this evening, picking up an award for GoodGym's work in strengthening communities in Essex. Thank you Tav! Congratulations to everyone involved. On arrival at the café, Emma gave us a warm welcome and explained the task. She'd laid out several gift wrapping stations, each beautifully appointed with paper, scissors and tape, a big pile of named presents, and hot and cold drinks. As winter goodgym tasks go, this was pretty much heaven!! At the top of the tree in the wrapping stakes was Crazee Fraze, motoring through his present pile with glee - Sleigh Bob and Tinsel Stu were right behind. DJ Dizzee-Ness made steady progress with the sellotape, and Team Santa, consisting of Ace Alex, Mighty Molly and Lil Charlie completely smashed their goal by running out of gifts to wrap. Last but by no means least was Phil, who managed to wrap several items despite an injured thumb. After jogging back to the theatre, we did a few more laps round the block as it was so cold, then headed home.

‘Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.’ - Helen Keller

Keeping our faces in the sun we kept ourselves busy with a quick task and social on Tuesday evening.

After enticing 8 of us to our new spot by the theatre and a quick jog through town, we quickly got to work clearing the space around Level Best Art Café. Aiding them for the upcoming Anglia in bloom, we swept floors and gathered litter, a spot of weeding and Tav’s improvising to ‘clean’ the window ledge, it was quickly looking better along with the space outside Prezzo and Culver St.

With Louise narrowly avoiding a flattening from a reversing 4x4 and Andy’s attempted backflip, we all managed to avoid injury, working up an appetite for some Caribbean food. Another quick trot through town for our meal at Turtle Bay, we enjoyed drinks icy and spicy, ate some delicious foods (they were out of curried goat - thanks Natalie for the pun), and discussed films, periods, and our great rivals BadGym.

It’s always fantastic to spend some time with fellow GoodGymmers, the social benefits of GoodGym are often underappreciated, especially for those of us who can’t easily get babysitters. A bit more garden work planned for next week, there’s no better time to be outside.