Wowee, Wednesday night saw it all! One of our largest turn outs this year, and two new faces joining our ranks - well done Franki and Yuliia on your first group run. We had a lovely task ahead of us in our favourite location, but before we headed to the task we quickly went around and discovered how we would fight our enemies. A lot of the team chose ways that would bore their enemies and an overall preference for using their special talents. Great to see a lack of violence other than my mind when thinking up the ice breaker.

Following a juicy little warm up we headed off through Charlton. We wound our way through the residential streets onto the bike path that takes us straight to the side entrance. The back half of the group did get disconnected but, I, your brave leader journeyed back to reconcile the two groups and lead us into the warmth of the Maritime Museum's Collection Center.

Matt greeted us and showed us the purpose of our task, which was to take down ceiling tiles, which then the golden age group would "gild". The tiles came from a special room in a separate building, where the records and archives are stored. The tiles are part of a room for discovery for younger visitors. The task was large and we started a chain, but not before intellectually planning how we would identify the panels and their homes in the roof. The time passed very quickly and all of a sudden it was time to head back to Charlton House.

The group managed to stick together this time and we got back with time for a good stretch and a chat. See you all next time folks, keep plugging away at the good deeds as we are in close contention with our group for the January Challenge!

In hindsight, we couldn’t find it. Litter. At the great December litter pick, where was the litter?

We met by Charlton House, grand and stately (the house, I mean), and we chatted about plenty things, but mostly the cold. Because the thermostat dial had plummeted and there were icicles forming on the ends of our noses. Huddled, and moved from the grass to avoid some spontaneous forming dog muck, we discussed French pronunciation.

Blan-C-mange, said Alex. Bluh-monj, said everyone else.

A popular dessert in the eighties, but apparently not since, we considered other sweet culinary delights and we indulged and imagined what type of dessert we were. In GoodGym Greenwich, as you might have suspected, we’re an incredibly sweet group comprising a flan, a tiramisu, an apple crumble, a pavlova, a jelly, and an ice-cream sundae!

But not sugar-coating it, the area started to stink due to the spontaneous forming dog muck, and so we moved to the Charlton House green. Here, we warmed up with an improvised version of Stuck In The Mud – with a shouted ‘1!’, Julian chased us, but we could only walk, and we pumped our arms and legs furiously and it felt like we were flying, but we were actually moving really quite slowly – with a bellowed ‘2!’, we side-stepped until our adductor muscles nearly detached from our thighs – and with a ‘3!’, we sprinted around and around and around (until Julian or Chan caught us)!

Warmed and out of breath, we headed to Charlton’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital where unfortunately there’s quite a lot of ‘litter’. And I’m talking fast food waste, discarded masks, and other bits of rubbish. And there was plenty to fill bin bags with, which we got to in teams of three so that either side of the road got a good and healthy sprucing.

But – litter! I thought we were out to find litter! In the traditional sense of the word, etymologically meaning BED, from the Latin, lectus. I thought I was going to have a nice sleep – a great December sleep!! And I was mighty tired, and it was awfully cold, but instead – we picked up rubbish. I’ll have words with the run leader, I can assure you…

Still, by 8pm, us two teams had picked two bin bags of ‘litter’, and we headed back to Charlton House along much cleaner and healthier roads. Great work everyone and looking forward to the next time!

After a few weeks of rain, we were treated to dry evening perfect for a red-light-green-light themed warm up by Woolwich station, with jogging, squats and lunges, led by the wonderful Jen. A sprint finish ensured we were ready to go!

Cockles thoroughly warmed, we headed through Woolwich and a snappy uphill run took us to our task of the evening at Glyndon Community Centre in Plumstead.

The community centre is a familiar location for GoodGym Greenwich, and this time around we were tasked with cleaning and painting the skirting boards black, as well as touching up the paint on the walls in two of their function rooms. In true GoodGym style, we all got stuck in with impressive speed, with Martin moving furniture, Marta taking up the plight of masking taping the rooms and Jenny even took the painting to a whole new level, aka the floor, where she made light work of painting free-hand! 🎨🖌️

The palm trees on the walls in one of the rooms certainly helped brighten our evening, as we raced to paint as much as we could. Time flies when you're having fun... and when you're painting skirting boards, it seems!

With a quick jog back to Woolwich Crossrail, we were able to fit in a cool down and stretch, as well as a useful discussion about where to get light bulbs that change colour (Ikea - we only discuss the important stuff!)

Another enjoyable evening and a task well done ✅

This week’s Doorstep Challenge saw 8 Goodgymers tasked with spreading the word for The Friends of Age Exchange, who are putting on another wonderful Christmas fair for the good people of Blackheath.

They say the first sign of Madness is Suggs coming up your drive. So the first sign of Christmas must be an army of Goodgymers delivering Christmas Fair fliers. Cue lots of negotiation with squeaky front-gates, desperately trying to find someone’s path, and getting off their property before any awkward encounters at the door. And I’m not going to lead you up the garden path - there was a lot to do. And it’s safe to say the team really delivered. No red van, no black and white cat? No problem. And No strikes in our workforce.

As a dark November night descended, we began with a warm up where we tried to work out what our favourite thing about winter was. A bit of head scratching for some of us, but an excellent chance to reflect and look forward.

Beginning at the sorting office (also known as Rachel’s bag), we split into two teams and set about our work, heading from Charlton towards Maze Hill and back.

We went door to door, though we didn't encounter as many dogs as we thought we would. Highlights included a cat asking to be let in despite knowing full well they’ve never seen this person enter their house in their life, (why do they do that?), and someone who couldn’t have sounded more like a burglar if he tried - loading stuff into a van and saying “I don’t live here…”

We seemed to lose contact with Julian and Steve towards the end, which can only mean they did the postie's equivalent of running away to join the circus - being tapped up by Royal Mail’s nightfreight service. We shall miss them and wish them luck in their new career.

Good job team - until next time!