Cold, dark and busy Saturday evening on the Strand which saw 4 goodgymers turned up to serve hot vegetable biryani, biscuits and hot beverages. Hot drink session was busy as cold evening. Tonight's rice was not as much in demand as usual as the previous group left later than usual and also served rice. We still had some containers which Gurseva crew was going to drop at a local care home. Tonight we welcomed Ines on her 1st ever Goodgym session : well done on doing a 1st mission outdoors in very cold conditions.

It was a beautiful sunny morning for five of us plus Arthur to join Annie for a spot of clearing in the Hervey Road sports field garden.

After a trundle over with the wheely bin full of tools for the jobs at hand we got stuck in giving the lavender we've previously planted (and that's now thriving and becoming a little unruly) a trim, digging up alkanet, clearing leaves and making numerous trips to empty full bags and return for more.

You'll be pleased to know the final pair of secateurs were located in Annie's house but that was after Arthur and I returned to painstakingly look through all the remaining leaves (or in Arthur's case having a whale of a time kicking them all over the car park 🫣)

Anyway thank you all, the lavendar is looking much better tended to after an hour of work so great job team and kudus to you all for doing the litter pick today 💪

Until next time!

Rachel

A trio of south London litter pickers made a difference in three boroughs. Adi was the earliest - enjoying stunning frost and early sun in Sydenham’s Mayow Park,

Paul also enjoyed the frost on Saturday morning, plogging with a couple of friends from The Green Runners after Southwark parkrun. Ivar seemed to have missed the rain on Sunday morning, litter picking alongside the A2 on his way to Junior parkrun in Charlton.

Well done everyone!

Don't run with scissors! So they said, before the event where I asked everyone to bring scissors. Hmmm...what an irresponsible Area Activator I am, but hey ho good thing we have such sensible GoodGymers in Greenwich, for the most part. And well done to our runners, meeting at the Naval College for an uphill dash, led by the fearless Geraldine .

Last night was something different for us. Instead of painting, getting our knees dirty weeding, clearing bottles of wee off pavements and all the other glamorous things we get up to on Wednesday nights, we were sitting down enjoying a drink and crafting! So we saw each other in a very different setting, with some people donning glasses we didn't know they needed, and a few who wished they'd brought them if they'd read the listing properly hahem. We also learned that Ashton is just as quick churning out paper chain slips as he is filling bags of litter. And yes, I will be finishing the rest of the jokes in all of my spare time over the next few days so I'd better get on with this report so I can get back to that.

Anyway, three shout outs are in order for last night. Firstly, we had Esha along for her first task, and what a sophisticated session you picked as your first one! Lovely to have you along Esha and just be prepared to look less sophisticated for the next one you join 🤓 Secondly, it was Iyabo's 50th good deed last night! Congratulations Iyabo, it's been a wonderful getting to know you this year 🥰 Thirdly, Cecilia recently completed 200 good deeds, a super speedy achievement from probably our smilyest GoodGym face!

The reason for sitting down, looking sophistacated and enjoying a drink and crafting was to support Christmas for CAMHS. Their mission is to make sure the young people on CAMHS mental health wards over Christmas feel remembered, special and included during a time that can be especially difficult to be in hospital. We were busy measuring, cutting Christmas paper strips and writing jokes on them and we'll send them off to CAMHS who then distribute to children in hospital to finish the job and fashion them into paper chains whilst enjoying a cracking jokes along the way.

Our icebreaker question was: “If we could invent a new holiday, what would we choose to celebrate?”

The ideas ranged from parties to help us get through the winter months, to a cheese party, a dumpling appreciation day (Esha’s suspiciously well-thought-out response – and, by the way, I’m absolutely down for that), a day to bring volunteers together to socialise and celebrate, a free public transport day, a day dedicated to learning about neurodivergence, a Neighbours’ Day, and so many more beautiful ideas.

It was lovely to see such a wonderful mix of fun, thoughtful and community-minded suggestions! Let's see how many of these we can implement during the GG calendar in some way!

Well done team paper chain!

Next week we're back at Prince Philip.

This weekend we're gardening at Hervey Road, clearing the Eaglesfield Pond and cleaning up Charlton.

And remember our Christmas do coming up soon!

Until next time, lovely people!

Rachel 👋🏻