It was a beautiful sunny evening last night, perfect for a GoodGym Greenwich foray around Charlton. We started warming up with the question:

What would be the first thing you did if you won the lottery?

Answers ranged from paying off family mortgages, taking a month away to consider what to do with the rest of life, buying one of those massive houses on Crooms Hill and giving 90% of it away. Some of the group ran a loop of Charlton and Hornfair Park and some walked directly to Charlton Manor Primary School where Michael was waiting with brushes, forks and paint. The task for the evening was finishing off painting the fences and a rather lovely trellis bench and weeding around the nursery play area. 40minutes later there was a fresh coat of paint everywhere, including a splatter which christened Mark's nice new GoodGym tee (we knew it wouldn't take long!) and one of the borders clear of weeds. Amazing what can be achieved in a short space of time - many hands make light work indeed.

We then headed to the playground for a short fitness session to top off the evening.

Thank you all - until next time!

Coming up

Sunday: Gardening at Oxleas Woods

Next Wednesday: Woodland maintenance at the Memorial Hospital

Squeezing in another good deed before our picnic we scurried around the streets closest to the Prince Philip Maritime Collection Centre with letters warning people about the noise during the community day and spreading the word on all of the activities on offer. A job well done topped off with a very yummy picnic at Well Hall Pleasuance :)

What a difference a week makes, and a glorious sunny Sunday made a brilliant day for the Hornfair Climate Awareness Community Fun Day, organised by the Friends of Hornfair Park in Charlton.

5 goodgym-ers attended at various times of the day, starting with set up tasks such as traffic marshaling & stall setup, progressing through the day with litterpicks, wayfinding & answering queries. We were based on a stall with the Friends of Hornfair, but also right next to the Friends of the Pet Cemetery, another regular GoodGym task venue.

Excellent music, lots of interesting stalls and amazing food smells made the day fly by, and the last tasks of the day involved final litterpicks and a bit more traffic marshaling to ensure the park was cleared safely.

A lovely event we'll hopefully see again next year ☀️

What a fun filled, mud filled, pun filled Wednesday evening we had this week! *Stay tuned for as many oarsome boat/ sailor puns as we could come up with in this report.

For those of us who met for the run from Charlton House, this week's icebreaker was deceptively thought provoking:

"If you could relive one moment in your life, what would it be?"

What I failed to anticipate was the immediate descent into philosophy:

What actually counts as a 'moment'? Are you reliving it, or changing it? Which self gets to choose? Your current self or your younger self? 🙄

After several minutes adrift in a sea of existential pondering, I found myself pleading, "No more questions!"

To be fair, that's something I say at least five times a day to my son, Arthur. Poor boy. But hey, someone has to stamp the curiosity out of children, right?

Responses ranged from the birth of children, to choosing that dream career that our pesky parents forbade, to extra cheesy points for Sarah for picking the moment she came along to a GoodGym session! 🧀🥳

Anyway, before we drift too far off course...

A huge welcome to Rhena and Candida on your first Good Deeds with us! And an extra shout-out to Rhena for completing her first run. We hope you're both hooked and don't immediately jump ship!

Our task for the evening was at the lovely community garden at the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, where our much-loved rowing boat had finally reached the end of its voyage. And so, with a heavy heart it was time to break up the old and make way for a younger model.

The steps were as follows:

1) Remove all the soil from the old boat

2) Smash it up with shovels (One member of the group might have enjoyed smashing the boat up a little bit too much...he certainly made his Mark.)

3) Break up the wood to wheelbarrow to the bins

4) Debate exactly how on earth we were going to get the new, bigger boat into position (this took a while)

5) Shovel out more soil and grass

6) Tow Tow Tow the boat into position and attempt to secure it with blocks of wood

At times our plans felt a little rudderless, but somehow we kept things afloat and while we may need to come back to fully anchor the boat in place, that was a job well done in the pelting rain - hardened sailors that we are!

After that, it was time to run, walk, or otherwise navigate our way home.

Thanks everyone for another oar-some evening!

Coming up This weekend we have:

Parkrun volunteering

Helping at the Family Fun Day in Hornfair Park

Clean up Charlton

Leafleting for Prince Philip's Community Day

GoodGym Picnic!

Until next time, lovely people!

Rachel