Who says Christmas ends in January!!??

Well, quite a few people actually. Because there's 12 days. And those 12 days end in January. And you can't really get around that. Because it's set. And established. And that's that really.

The end. It was a good Wednesday run.

OH COME ON ALEX DON'T GIVE UP SO EASILY.

Who says the Christmas spirit has to end in January!!?

Now we're talking. Because we had a festive-esque task ahead of us last Wednesday.

This merry (pun absolutely intended) group were off to the lovely team at More 2 Childcare in East Greenwich, and we had some Christmas trees to sort out.

One tree - having given love and happiness to More 2's team and kids over the last few years - was due to be taken out and recycled into chippings - and one other tree - young and small and having just had its first Christmas inside - was ready to be planted and nourished.

And so we headed over, singing carols and wearing bright red suits and hats (perhaps), with a little Christmas spirit in our midst.

Met by the wonderful Eve (no pun intended), a few green-fingered folk amongst us volunteered for the tree up-rooting and tree down-rooting tasks. Whilst others volunteered themselves for cleaning, and sorting, and mopping, and fixing. And we got busy doing some of the jobs the team at More 2 don't have the time to get to.

40 minutes later, we were smiles and goodbyes, with some heading straight off to the east of the borough, and others jogging westward back to our starting point.

One tree in, one tree out, and one community nursery healthier than it had been just 60 minutes before, this group captured an evening of generosity, friendship, and kindness - so perhaps the Christmas spirit did follow us last Wednesday :)

Thanks, folks, see you next time!!

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!

Wowser, what a morning, I’ve got to say the best start to the weekend just has to be attending parkrun. Today the gang did all sort: timekeeping, marshalling, token sorting and plenty of us ran too!

Head to a hypothetical supermarket, I said, here's a hypothetical blank cheque, I said, what would your mind and stomach desire, I said...

And we had caviar, and champagne, and wines from across the globe, and sweet delicacies of the wonderful variety. Our friendly group, huddled against the cold and wet of last Wednesday's evening, filled our imagined table with life's finer things.

A fantasy banquet, fit - you could say - for GoodGym royalty.

Until I went for a Creme Egg. As well as Steve. Artisan delights please, plus 2 creme eggs...

Anyway, onto our evening!

Which was cold and damp, but at least we didn't cramp.

I am sorry, folks.

About that last bit. That last bit of that sentence above. What am I like! Completely and utterly unnecessary! Lured by the rhyme, which had a nice chime, a true writing crime, send me down for time!!

Okay, stop this, Alex!! Just write the darned report!!

Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday.

Which was still very much a Winter Wednesday. Not that it dampened this lovely group of altruists. Metaphorically, of course. Because it absolutely dampened us literally. Soaking, we said!! Oh yes, that was it!! I remember saying look at how soaking and freezing we are, folks, and just think about how warm we'd be if we'd decided to stay inside, but aren't we still having fun, folks, being out in this freezing drizzle!!

Just get on with it, Alex!!

Okay, so after our imaginary dinner and royalty-themed warm up, we took a little moving respite from the cold by jumping under the river via the foot tunnel, emerging into Island Gardens with bags and gloves a-ready for a little community sprucing.

Which is what we did, with smiles and stories and whilst collectively shooting the breeze. A few years back, Millwall Park in the Gardens was haven to a few too many packets and bottles and left-behind waste. But last Wednesday, we were pleasantly surprised. We picked and whilst we certainly greened the area, we had to search a little harder than previously. Which was a welcome surprise as we filled our bags a little less than we'd thought we'd need to.

And then it was bags in bins, back through the tunnel, and off to the pub for our monthly social evening.

Top work, everyone. You turned our community cleaner and a Winter evening much brighter. Here's to next time :)