Oh, what a feeling, when we’re gilding on the ceiling...

This wintry Wednesday night, a merry band of Goodgymers made possibly their last trip to the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre. Meeting at Charlton House, we shared our estimations of how far we’d get in a zombie apocalypse (and judging by responses, readers of this probably shouldn’t count on us). Jen had us warmed up in no time with games involving fun facts, compliments and shoo-ing of imaginary sheep.

We followed Fearless Leader Julian, one of the few in South-East London undaunted by the fact every street between Charlton and Kidbrooke looks the same, to the Collections Centre. Upon arrival we found out we’d be replacing ceiling panels in a room where kids can get hands-on with history (I’m copyrighting that phrase for a future educational company, just to say). And these weren’t just any panels, they were gold-gilded panels! Now that’s been established, I can now pepper the rest of the story with gold-puns. What a golden opportunity. an open goal dying to be scored.

The always friendly, funny and inspirational Matt showed us to the room, and the golden hour began with an explanation of how to take down and replace the ceiling panels which I’m fairly sure three of us understood and the rest, me included, nodded at attentively. Gold stars to those with the clipboards, and we soon all caught up.

The team taking down panels had to label them (A1, A2, A3 etc.) so they went back in the right place. My apologies to this team, who whilst busy working out the labels, had me cracking jokes about their size which only confused matters further.

The room was a treasure trove of curiosities from a golden age of seafaring. Including a Horseshoe Crab which, folks, is arguably the most successful animal ever to walk the earth, as it still looks like it did back in the age of the dinosaurs. Why evolve if you’re already perfect? The gold standard of all the species, if you will.

Once finished for the evening, we said our goodbyes to Matt, who is making the incredibly selfish and unhelpful move to Amsterdam to join his partner. A golden opportunity if ever he saw one. Not only does he have a heart of gold, but he’s truly worth his weight in gold too. He’ll be very much missed. A big thank you if you’re reading this, Matt.

See you all next week!