Actually, more like the stripes marked the way the poles should be positioned. We were tasked to check the master of all marquees and check that the bags contained all the correct poles, brackets and covers. To Chris’ disappointment, we were unable to construct the marquee fully (it was way too big and would have involved more hands and possibly a bigger room!). We had to be satisfied in getting the roof part together and check the ground poles with the covers. Happy that there were no missing parts, we disassembled and placed items back into the bags for the marquee to be ready to be used for future summer events!

A mental and physical task met us at Mortlake Girl Guiding on Sunday morning. The task was to erect one of their gazebos that hadn’t been used for a couple of years and check it was in good order with all parts present and correct.

While JP generated an unspeakable number of innuendos, the rest of us put our minds to work deciphering the instructions and creative colour-coding system. Thankfully none of the pieces had been lost and we soon had all the puzzles solved to give us a nice little tent.

This was the first and smallest of three gazebos we’ll be helping with so we look forward to returning for the next challenge.

On the last GoodGym before Christmas, my true love gave to me, a load of leaves shed from a big tree! Our task at ask was to help clear the leaves outside the Guide hall in Mortlake. We met at the Tap before the 2 mile run along the A305… We had made great time until we were about 100m from the guide hall, when we had a brief Santa Pause for the level crossing. Brief was somewhat of an understatement, as we had to wait for the Polar Express to pass (or at least 4 South Western trains). Some of the group (aka everyone bar Lucy) decided to take the stairs over the crossing, but Lucy being obstinate waited for the crossing to open, and turned up about five minutes after everyone else!

We had picked up Nina on route, and the cycling gang were already waiting for us. Kat from the Guiding group led us in to the hall and provided us with the tools for the task tonight, and a pack of chocolate biscuits, which we decided would be a post-good deed treat, so got to work.

Ten Lords-a-Leaping? More like Ten GoodGymmers-a-sweeping, as we got tidying the leaves by the side of the halls. Liz and Chris helped with bag management, filling up multiple big green sacks from the leaves piled up by Nina, and Adam. Sam and Pippa had the fun task of scooping up leaves with the ‘bear claws’ and the technically termed ‘grabber’. Lucy and Ken helped sweep up the odds and ends, one with a big broom and the other with a dustpan and brush.

It didn’t take long before the job was done, and we could help ourselves to the biscuits! Alas, Lucy had other ideas and made the gang work for their treats, with an impromptu Christmas trivia quiz. If you got the answer right, you could have a biscuit. Liz and Kat got involved too, with some terrible, I mean, santa-stic Christmas jokes! We parted ways with a big thank you from Kat. The riders took to their reindeer/road bikes and the runners made their way over the footbridge (not making the same mistake twice) to glide along back to the Tap. All was well, until Sam realised he had left his bag at the Guide Hall… a nightmare before Christmas? Luckily for Sam, he had a Christmas Angel in Liz, who was able to take him back to collect his Sam-ta’s sack.

What a way to end 2023! Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night - see you in 2024, ready for the January challenge!

A path well trodden for Goodgym, we were weeding and tidying up the area for the Scouts.

It was a fairly simple task which we got through nice and easily just as the rain came down. It's always fun to catch up with everyone while helping out the local community.

Well done everyone!

On a very wet and windy May Bank holiday the plan was for Goodgym to do gardening work for the Mortlake Guides but due to the horrid weather Lynne from the Guides kindly switched the tasks to indoors. Monika and Mel started off by putting up a room divider to create a safe storage area for the Guides camping equipment, Rebecca set to work on putting up the freshly washed curtains. The next task was to erect a gazebo in order to take photos and list for sale to raise money for the Guides. Simple right. Johnny, Laura and Monika led on this only to discover we were missing several poles and despite the expert engineering analysis we were unable to safely put up the gazebo with the poles we had and admitted defeat and the gazebo is now destine for the tip. We still managed to tidy up the main hall and do some heavy lifting (with bent knees of course) for Lynne. Hopefully we can be back soon in nicer weather to work on the garden.

5 GG’ers met on this chilly August day to help Mortlake Girl Guides.

Before anything else, we congratulated Nat on her 50 good deeds; with a sash, clap and cake (courtesy of Salwa) 🍰😃 Well done to Nat for doing amazing stuff for our community!!!

We then got stuck in with some tasks.....

Nat helped to assemble camp beds, she completely ‘cot’ the hang of building them and.... she didn’t even sleep on the job!

On the other side of the Hall... Salwa was puzzled to pieces trying to sort out the bits for two Gazebos ...amazing work Salwa!

Monica, Rotsitsa and Naomi, got stuck in on some fence/wood painting . We brushed the fence down and got to work painting.

Two hours passed very quickly and we were happy to have helped the girl guides with some of the tasks that they needed helping with. Great work everyone!

We were then very happy to go to a local cafe to celebrate Nat’s 50 deeds and get warmed up with some hot drinks 🥶- BROWNIE points to Nat! Keep up the good work!😀 And.... BROWNIE points to Salwa for making a very delicious cake to celebrate Nat’s 50 good deeds.