10 Goodgymmers met at the Community Centre for tonight’s chair mending task.

We welcomed first timer Mark to the group by introducing ourselves and naming a film starting with the first letter of our name.

The group then headed into the park for 3 rounds of meet and retreat. Runners set off clockwise and the walkers anticlockwise, when they met they did a different exercise each time (jumping jacks, squats and lunges) and then retreated back the way they came. When they met again they confused themselves and went the opposite way to the last time and repeated!

Once all 3 rounds were completed the team headed back into the community centre to tackle the task. There have been multiple chair mending tasks this year but for Adam, Anne-Laure and Mark it was their first time and so Jack, our chairperson for the night, gave a demonstration and the team set to work.

Mark, Gillian, Rachel, Adam and Anne-Laure tackled fixing the screws onto the seats, whilst Scarlett, Matthew, Amy and Jess worked on attaching the seats to the bases. Jack and Amy then caused confusion on which way to turn the screwdriver – clockwise or anticlockwise? And was it a different direction depending on how you were looking at it??! I’m not sure this ever got resolved!

Lots of screwing, poking, pushing and pulling later the team had fixed 10 chairs, saving the community centre another whopping £2250 on purchasing new ones!

Just in case we weren’t dizzy enough by this point we then played a round of musical chairs where the chairless person came up with a chair based exercise for everyone to complete. Of course we completed the rounds both clockwise and anticlockwise and were serenaded with a series of ‘chair’ based songs such as ‘I’ll be chair for you’ , ‘Reach out (I'll be Chair)' and of course music from Cher herself!

Well done to the 14 superstars who came out this evening for a slice of the GoodGym action. After the recent rain it was great to get out for fresh air, fitness, gardening and most importantly CAKE in celebration of Matthew's 50th good deed and Nicola's 100th (and her 101st!) It was also lovely to welcome Tori for the first time.

We had a change of task because our chair man wasn't available to lead the chair mending session. Instead we ran and walked the 1km to St Luke's for some more gardening. Kudos to the runners, who put in some extra laps of Kidwells Park, and to the GoodGymers who live near the school, so did the journey twice. This time the to do list included emptying planters, re-homing plants and clearing leaves.

Oh the places you'll grow!

Nicola nuts, Tori tiramisu, Angela apple, Toni duck, Juli jelly, Rachel raclette and Georgeta grapefruit tackled the planters, and did a lovely job of tucking the evicted plants into their new beds. There was also an intense chat about a drain.

On track for some terrible puns

Sophie sushi, Jess jellybean, Adam avocado, Matthew mars bar, Scarlett sugar and Ben (who missed the foodie ice breaker and is probably wondering what just happened) took the wheel barrow and hippo sack to the running track on a leaf clearance mission. Of course you wouldn't be-leaf the puns this prompted. Just as they were getting into their punning stride, we decided it wheely was time to leaf, after all there was cake to eat!

150 reasons for cake

Huge congratualtions to Nicola and Matthew, who have totted up an awesome 150 GoodGym good deeds between them. I presented them each with a medal and then we all enjoyed lots of cake. Juli made a gorgeous vegan chocolate cake for Matthew's 50, complete with the number 50 made of grapes, and Georgeta made a stunning carrot cake for Nicola's 100, which was topped with angel wings and a big 1-0-0 made by Sophie - thank you bakers!

As is now customary for a 100, we also had a poem:

Three cheers for Nicola Hine!

Fitness and good deeds she likes to combine.

And now she’s done 99

Good deeds (plus 2), so it’s party time!

Sorry I’m a bit late with this rhyme

Our GoodGyming plans didn’t quite align

And I think my writing is in decline

But we’re all friends here, so never mind!

Nicola’s in her GoodGyming prime

She’s made bunting out of twine

She made an awesome Windrush sign

And made the path a nice straight line.

She helped to clear that pond of slime

She sweeps up leaves and cleans up grime

She decorated our Christmas pine

And back marks so no one is left behind.

Communication is her place to shine

Her reels are much better than mine

Her run reports are so sublime

And her insta advent calendar blew my mind.

Outside GoodGym she doesn’t just recline

She does parkrun – even the incline!

Her blanket for niece Thea was a gorgeous design

And her travel photos are simply divine.

You’re a top GoodGymer Nicola Hine!

So let’s raise an imaginary glass of wine

Hip hip hooray we all shall chime

And on this cake we all shall dine.

9 keen Goodgymmers took on a 3rd round battle with the chairs at the community centre.

Rounds 1 and 2 were marginally favourable to the chairs but this time Goodgym had the upper hand! Top tips from previous sessions were shared; 'front bolts first', 'give it a firm push', 'patience is the key' and the team were off! Kanika and Diya got a head start after arriving early and were working through putting bolts in the last of the cushions which had been prepared in previous groups. First time fixers Matthew and Scarlet and task owner Jack set to work to fix the finished cushions to the bases whilst Juli, Sol, and Jess joined Diya and Kanika. Once the cushions were done, they also moved to fixing the seats to the base. This took on a trial and error process to work out the best way to put enough pressure in the right place to seat the bolts correctly. Yesim also joined the tribe at this point and just in time to help Juli and Jess with an extra pair of hands!

By the end of the hour the team had fixed a whopping 14 chairs! The largest number in one session so far and definitely win for Goodgym!

There are 14 of this style left to complete with out total sitting at 25 across the 3 sessions!

11 Goodgymmers enthusiastically met to tackle more chair repairs at the Maidenhead Community Centre.

The excellent work started by the team earlier in the week was carried on. Previous attendees; Jack, Jess, Juli, Gillian and Sheila were able to guide the newbies; Diya, Kanika, Roberta, Sol, Rachel and Clara through the process which included: Removing the old bits of plastic, making the holes larger, poking the binding screws through and then magically hiding them away....there was lots of fiddly bits but we did it!

It was such an enthusiastic group cheering and whooping as screws were placed and chair seats completed!

In total 6 more chairs were fully completed and wise words from Gillian - do the front bolts first!

There are plenty more to do - so join us on Tuesday for another session!

This session also included some impressive Goodgym achievements with this being the third task of the day for trio Rachel, Gillian and Sheila and the second tasks of the day for Juli, Kanika and Diya!!

Jess, Sheila, Juli, Amy, Jack and Gillian helped out at Maidenhead Community Centre, where broken chairs had been causing tears for several years.

The mission wasn't meant to be massive, but five chairs ended up fully fixed with six more started!

Various tools were used, as the tricky technique was perfected: binding bolts, metal files and even crochet hooks - all combined to complete the production pipeline and leave the people at the Community Centre sitting safely and securely.