Birthday Celebrations

I don't think anyone needs telling now that this week marks ten glorious years of GoodGym. It's an amazing movement that has spread out from humble beginnings in Tower Hamlets to a vast and successful network spanning much of the UK. GoodGym would not exist without the fantastic volunteers who join in Group, Coach and Mission Runs to have fun, improve our fitness, bring smiles to people faces and make the world a better place to be. Happy birthday GoodGym, hear's to the next ten years.

The task in hand

So on to last night's task. We were Chingford bound, so we faced a pretty long run. There was a tantalising reward waiting for us at the end of the run as long term GGWF member Nerys arrived with a home-baked birthday cake to mark the occasion. With this tasty offering waiting for us back at Mirth, we didn't hang around for long before striking out for South Chingford Memorial Ground.

With our birthday flag in tow, we made an obligatory stop at one of the borough's most famous landmarks, The Greyhound Stadium, for a quick photo opportunity.

On arrival, we were greeted warmly by the dedicated team from Love South Chingford who as every had all the necessary kit laid out and ready for us to get stuck into the task. Along with bags and litter, pickers were the much-loved hoops that keep our bags open and make the job of litter picking much more straightforward.

With the nights drawing in, I have been using this great website to look at sunset times. Until yesterday, I was unsure how dark civil, nautical and astronomical twilight are. I now know that Civil is pretty much night, Nautical there is no remnant of the day left, and Astronomical is darker than Darth Vadar's cape. I say this because after arriving at the park when it was bathed in the lovely golden hue of an autumn sunset, it wasn't long until the only litter we would have been able to find would have been a disguarded hi-viz vest.

Luckily our crew were fast workers with eagle eyes, so we collected plenty of stuff before heading back to enjoy Nerys's delicious cake.

What's coming up?

Next week we start a 3-week project to build some planters for a community gardening group. This will be an excellent task with a real sense of achievement at the end. If you have DIY skills and you know how to use a drill, that would be particularly helpful but definitely not essential. Sign-up here

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The weather has been about as variable as errm, the weather lately but today it was close to perfect. The Goldilocks Zone as an astronomer or Robert Southey might say, i.e. not too hot and not too cold. Pretty darn perfect for a gathering of a dozen fine folks for an evening of making the world a better place to be.

As a bonus, almost everyone actually arrived on time for once - don't worry Ros and Raymond you were only a tiny bit late and you knew how to find us anyway. Along with our regular crew, we were joined by pals, expert gamers and all-round good fellows, Ryan and James. Coincidentally, another pair of chums Alex and Eve also happened to drop by but entirely independently. Now the latter pair aren't exactly new to GG with over 200 good deeds between them. Nevertheless, with just a fraction of their good deeds at WF, it was a great honour to have these two perfect people to lend a hand.

We didn't have far to run tonight, which was darn lucky cos we had a lot to fit in. Within a few mins of arriving on-site, the crew were gloved up, rakes at the ready and armed with gardening hardware. With the energy of a solar-powered symbol crashing monkey at midday on Mercury, these guys went to work.

With mounds of grass piling up and time ticking away we headed off to Lloyd park for a lovely lap and some hardcore drills. Within 6 minutes of this high-intensity stuff, everyone had earned at least a couple of drinks, and after a nice cool down jog back to Mirth, we cashed in those chips.

Great night all. Do not miss next week's monthly special when, in addition to a fine run and task to Leyton Marsh, there will be a delicious meal afterwards. All has been arranged by Mr Ercole Lugari (who will be completing yet another 100 miles race this weekend!) Sign-up here (to next week's task that is, not a 100-mile run!) ☮️