Big thanks to Will for covering last week while I was at home downing lemsips.

Tonight we gave a warm welcome to first-timers Charlotte, Aidan, Bridget, Marcus, Rachel, Louise, James, Paul and Emily (phew!)

A few more regulars brought us up to 16 for the evening. It was a tad chilly - hard to believe it's June - but we were all very keen to get stuck in to some good-deeding and get-fitting.

Following a quick briefing on how everybody can get involved with group runs, missions and coach runs we got stuck into the now-famous "alien circuits" (basically core/circuit work in corn-circle type things on Highbuy Fields that were definitely created by aliens)

Nice and warm we headed off as a group to the nearby Barnsbury Square Gardens. We were met by Lucy (and a pup called Wesley) and got involved with various tasks around the garden, including edging (making the edges of the grass nice and neat), weeding (we all know what that is), remoing the old daffodils, and carefully digging around sheltered plants to improve water flow.

While we worked we debated the hot topic of the week: "When you phone in work sick, should you have to give a reason?"

Pretty much everybody felt that while you should make an effort to give some explanation, you shouldn't have to give too much detail. There were a couple of interesting tales of "throwing sickies" (we'll mention no names) and at the other end of the spectrum was Rachel, who had never taken a day off sick! Best advice for those with inquisitive bosses was to give an ultra-embarrassing reason the first time you're sick and avoid future grillings.

After a good 40 minutes of work (stopping only for the obligatory biscuit break - dark choc digestives this week) we'd got bucket-loads done, but still had some time for more fitness fun.

First was the classic "Cups and Cones" game where we got a chance to work on agility and ankle strength (and dodging bonces) Cones won and there wasn't even much cheating.

Desperate for more aerobic antics we decided to run some laps of the square. 5 reps with 20" recovery was the prescription and everybody gave a splendid effort. Nobody more so than the local dogs, who ran around and barked their little heads off and gave a little extra incentive to the GoodGymmers (as if we needed it). Check out the vid!

Pleasantly spent, we jogged back to the pool for a wee stretch before saying our au revoirs.

Remember drinks this Thursday evening, which are nice and local

Here's a link to the Bournemouth Marathon Festival that Richard mentioned, and link to the GoodGym event page

Next week we're heading up to FROGG for some more gardening. It's lovely, so see you there

Simon