What a night for Harsheh to decide to join in the fun with Bristol GoodGym!

We were spreading cheer throughout the city as three teams set about a Taskmaster-style scavenger hunt to create three photos, which had to include a team member, one for each of three Bristol categories * Brunel * Cabot * Concorde (not a Bristol person, clarified on the night)

Most of you will have heard of Brunel (top engineering bloke, designed railway gubbins, a ship and a bridge or two, see one of the his best. Cabot is well known to people who grew up in Bristol but is just a shopping centre/circus and tower to some later arrivals, is John Cabot, actually an Italian explorer who went to Canada in 1497 even though they didn't have parkrun then. Lots of Concorde was designed in Bristol, with the help of some other people. Concorde Alpha-Foxtrot now lives at [Aerospace Bristol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_Bristol0, which is actaully in South Glos, not Bristol.

Anyway, three teams each of 5 intrepid GoodGymmers set about town, running and walking and using local knowledge or creative crafting, thanks to the Task Bags provided by Richard B who came up with the whole idea, armed with a trusty GG Bristol rechargeable light to enable better photo lighting on a gloomy and, it turned out, soggy night.

So much creativity, the teams were buzzing (or dripping, I can't remember which) when they returned to base, specifically Workout as it was so wet Melanie didn't have to stand outside to judge the team's amazing entries. Setting aside the task was to create three photos, they had so many brilliant creations it would be wrong to not upload them all for everyone to enjoy.

Stars of the show (as well as Richard B for designing the task) are * Jason for coming up with the idea that the Lego store might have a Lego Concorde, which they didn't but the bloke instore happened to have an actual model out the back which he was more than happy^ to bring onto the shop flower and be photographed with it and Jason * Vaguely Northern Darren lying on a cold, wet bench, dressed as Santa, to be a human Concorde * Paul (who hadn't signed up to the run, surprisingly, so I'm now going back to the register to add him and tag him), Jason and Richard also being human Concordes, at a bus stop with a Concorde sign * Alexis boldly wearing a crafted Brunel top hat in the dark, holding up Cabot's ship, The Matthew * A whole family of Brunels/friends of Brunel down at the SS Great Britain (two of them have beards, not sure of all IDs, I think Darren, Ed, Alexis, Matt and Richard B?) * Tim giving John Cabot a reassuring arm hug (is that a thing?), John also sporting a GoodGym t-shirt and Santa hat in another photo, and a Concorde paper plane in a third * A googly eyed Brunel being looked at by another set of googly eyes (there aren't enough googly eyes in the world, and they're not single use plastic they're reusable) * Googly eyes also featuring on a stylish Cabot rendition with some photo-bombing tourists * The Bristol insitution that is Brunel's Buttery, Brunel being famous for his love of doorstep bacon sarnies, which was up for sale in summer and I don't know if it sold, introducing Harsheh to an important Bristol landmark * A photo of Cabot at Brunel House (the hand holding the phone being the GoodGymmer in the photo?! * Clo, Freya, Roddy and Frances successfully avoiding all photos?

And then time for pizza, chips, snacks, chocolate Christmas Pudding prizes, pink wafers and party rings (GG Bristol staple foods) and few mince pies and festive bakewells for good measure.

Thanks for making it a fabulous GoodGym 2024, here's to 2025 being just as good if not even better!

^he might or might not have been bribed

It was back to the business of cleaning, measuring and cataloguing donated Things for the Library of Things, indoors and slightly warmer than it could have been with a yellow warning for ice after the day's snow.*

A bizarrely high number of hoes and drills were in the pile of Things to be listed (to be fair, I'm not sire what a non-bizarre number would be), along with camping chairs, DIY tools, a vintage seeing machine and the inevitable tent which we managed to get back into its slightly-ripped (not by us) bag. Its the only time us GoodGymmers are allowed to touch power tools so we made the most of testing, invluding the dreaded hedge-trimmers.

It was great to see more items joining the inventory and another Library opening soon in Frenchay so even more Bristolians can borrow items instead of buying and storing them.

We were soon on our way again, it seemed to have warmed up a bit and we grabbed a drink at Bar + Block as it was a bit chilly to sit out by the water whilst the speed dating happened at Workout.

Hopefully we'll be back at least once in January to sort through lots more Things!

*no snow in Castle Park

There was a break in the weather for the GoodGymmers who met up in the darkening warmth of Queen Square, armed with gloves, headtorches and issued with litter pickers and bags.

Off we set, the running group led by Vaguely Northern Darren in one direction and the walkers in another, with a plan to arrive at Redcliffe Nursery School and Children's Centre at the same time - which worked surprisingly well!

Three jobs to manage:

1. Clear the litter from the car park that's used by local residents and was already full of cars, so some interesting stretches (possibly yoga at a push!) and a top find of an actual (probably actual fake) Dior bag (OK, little paper gift bag)

2. Into the outdoor play area to shift sand into the sand pit - we couldn't find the sand that wasn't already in the sand pit, so claim full credit for this although it was already shifted.

3. Sweep and bag the leaves from everywhere they'd collected - this was the main event and, of course, involved climbing ONTO the equipment to check for and sweep leaves, especially by Frances whilst Roddy and Jason targeted the High Leaf Fall area of the side slide. Richard, Darren and Caroline struck paleontology gold with dinosaurs in the sand/leaf mixture.

Discussions of the evening led to punny versions of childhood songs from our resident Choir Leader Frances, especially "Dior Ears Hang Low" which is a pun we're saving for the next time we find Dior (-ish) items.

A great evening and we almost beat the rain!

It was a Great Moon, but was it really a Super Moon?

Our regular corner of Queen Square was a bit congested with filming happening nearby AGAIN (Young Sherlock?) and we even had our own security guards who were Very Chatty Indeed. Not convinced it was just the caffeine from the Monster can talking...

We set off for a lovely sunny walk or run to Dame Emily Park with lots of other people out and about enjoying the warm evening. Melanie found a phone before we'd even left the square, and that will shortly be posted off to it's owner who'd been on a visit day to Bristol from Swindon. Obviously the phone preferred Bristol, who wouldn't?

The next find was a highland cow badge, but like Jason by the M Shed, it set my camera focus to "obscure" to avoid publicity.

At the park, the runners had just beaten the walkers and Ursula was explaining the wildlife work of the evening - cutting back an overgrown hedge that was also home to a tall sycamore trying to take over, finding the bulbs and rescuing the pollen-y plants that had been trampled, clearing the tarmac waster, salvaging the wood and digging over another trampled flower bed and having loads of fun in the process.

• The hedge was soon looking smaller (I'm not sure about tidier...), with some high wielding of long-handed shears and loppers by Caroline, Vaguely Northern Darren, Ed and Jason
• Ciaran took the saw to sort out the sycamore and was joined by Marianne who relinquished her colour-matched secateurs to make sure the big branches weren't falling too far from the tree
• A few bulbs and some salvaged plants were set aside by Azzurra and Kim and the soil sieved to remove errant rocks
• A big pile of wood emerged from the tarmac and rocks and neither Richard nor Roddy fell in the small pond - the wood will be great for making the bug and hedehog hotels

And we created a new job of transforming the fallen sycamore into whips that can be used to weave a low level wildlife-friendly hedge around the pond (which, I stress, no one fell into).

As the lovely sunlight faded, the moon was looking HUGE and we later discovered it was a Super Moon - but we liked it before we knew it had a posh name. We loved the lemon and ginger tea and biscuits Ursula had carried over with her, and offered to help put away all the tools but we think Ursula may have wanted some peaceful time to enjoy the Super Moon herself, and probably wanted everything put away in the right places...

Off we trotted, walking and running back to Queen Square and saw the security guards had moved a bit and it was different guards on duty so we snuck past them and headed on to Workout where we avoided being dragged into the Speed Dating and the Liverpool supporters were sad when AC Milan scored in the third minute. But all came good in the end.