It seemed like the end of the summer holidays as we had 17 GoodGymers sign up and come for our group run tonight. Andrada, Daryl, Fi, Lindy, Maria, Nelly, Paulin, Rosalind, Steve. Once everyone had arrived, Sam talked through some changes happening at GoodGym Southwark after his time is up before continuing with his usual speech.

Tonight's ice breaker question, Sam asked everyone to think of their favourite beach as it would be National Beach Day on Friday. Yet, everyone didn't answer the question until we arrived at Salvation Army Camberwell Corps.

We had British beaches, Mexican, Greek, Indonesian, Icelandic and Thai.

---

Cleaning frenzy

Our last visit to Salvation Army Camberwell Corps. was in May, so Valentina was happy to see us as we met up with her, Mikhail, Elena and Jessie who ran to the task. After going through our list of beaches, Valentina had 4 jobs for us tonight. The first group with Steve, Lindy, Rosalind and Isaac had to clean and oil the newly donated chairs. As the other groups:

• Daryl, Alex, Andrada, Gemma helped more donations from a cupboard to the newly installed donation bin outside before helping the next team.

• Paulin, Fi, Maria, Jessie and Sam started on the disinfecting and cleaning the baby toys.

• Nelly, Nathan and Elena were tasked with the outside activities which included window cleaning and sweeping.

As we busily cleaned in various ways, the time ticked towards 19:55 as Sam called "time" knowing that it would take 5 minutes to pack up and take a group photo. Some of us were up for a pint after the run, so as we headed back we made our way to The Old Nags Head.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Valentina is always happy to have our help and can't wait to have us back in October! Thank you to Mikhail for taking the photos and to Maria for backmarking the runs.

With the summer holidays still in full effect, we had some GoodGymers away, but these mighty 8: Alex, Daryl, Isaac, Mikhail, Nelly, Phil, Sam and Vic were up for GoodGyming on a Wednesday night. Everyone bar Phil and Vic arrived at Old Spike Peckham to hear Sam's quick intros before dashing out with no ice-breaker question as tonight's run was going to take the full 30 minutes.

Once at the site, Sam did ask the ice-breaker question to some...since it was National Radio Day (the day before): "Do you still listen to the radio and what programmes do you listen to?"

It's hard to distinguish between podcast and radio now, but Isaac and Phil do listen to the radio - mainly sport for Isaac, but for Phil it more the programmes that debunk myths and stats which is useful for his job.

---

A welcomed sight

It been at least three months since we have been back to Galleywall Nature Reserve, but with their monthly Open Days and use by the local schools and scouts, it maintains itself. Yet, there are always tasks for GoodGym to do as Alan and Jane came prepared with a list.

Despite having only 8 of us, we were keen to get as many items on their list done:

• Alex and Daryl took on the first task which was to re-do the foundations of the wash basin on where people stand as it was quite wonky and needed a solid dig and fill with bricks to make it even.
• Isaac was up for cutting down to big cherry trees as Alan and Jane said they weren't producing cherries and cutting it down will encourage it to grow again.
• Vic wanted to untangle and discard the bindweed growing near the bike rack and shed.
• Nelly helped Jane identify self-seeding tree saplings to dig them out now before they grow into trees.
• Mikhail and Phil took a mattock and loppers to take out bramble bushes before they overtook certain areas of the Nature Reserve.
• Finally, Sam helped Isaac trim the cherry tree branches to put in the compost. Although, some larger straight branches were kept for planting.

Knowing that it would be a long run back, we called it at 19:55 to leave 5 minutes to tidy up and take our group photo. Sam informed Alan and Jane for his departure from the role come end of September, but he will help put in the next session in October before leaving.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! Alan and Jane were pleased to have GoodGym back and can't wait to have us again! Thank you to Mikhail for backmarking the runs and taking the photos.

After noticing Nelly had signed up during the day, Sam rushed home from work as he needed to get a vital GG item...as when everyone arrived at Old Spike Peckham and Sam went through his usual speech, he announced that it was Nelly's 100th good deed tonight! He brought out the wings for her to wear as well as the customary party hat, balloon and no ginger cake this time, but lemon cake instead.

Although, Sam did mention his ice-breaker question which was to do with National Allotment Week and National Relaxation Day, which was happening the next day: "What would you grow in an allotment?" and "What do you do at the end of a working week to unwind?"

Everyone had named every fruit and vegetable possible, but David does have an allotment and really wants to grow Brussel Sprouts. For the relaxation question, people answered from going to the gym to meditation and yoga. There were also a couple of people mentioning a stiff drink.

---

Sides and back: a hedge trim

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out through the backstreets of Peckham and climbed up Chadwick to reach the top and head down the other side towards Camberwell. Paulin backmarked the run and we met Phil and Emma at the task as they had cycled there. Also, Rebecca walked over from her flat, five minutes away.

Zulieka and her girls called us over from the Wildlife Triangle as some residents had already got going on a big hedge that needed some trimming. We split the team in three as Zulieka needed three tasks to be done:

• Emma, Steve, David, Cecilia and Rosalind took a pair of loppers each and proceeded to help the residents shape this big hedge.
• Nelly, Isaac, Nathan and Paulin took four watering cans to water the plants around the estate.
• Phil, Emma, Rebecca and Sam were the last group to be given a task as Zulieka directed them to a tonne bag of soil that needed to be emptied out into a corner as the soil was surplus.

All the tasks were done in on time with the team even taking the hedge trimmings and tools back to Elmington's allotment for safe keeping. Zulieka was very pleased and can't believe next month will be our last for the year!

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! It was our penultimate session at Elmington Community Garden for 2024 and we got a lot done. Thank you to Paulin for backmarking the runs.

Tonight's group run was going to be different. Why? It wasn't going to be Sam leading the run, but Maria. She did her Run Leader webinar the previous Thursday and wanted to apply her newly found knowledge straight away.

Before we could all get going with the group run, we needed people. Sam and Maria waited in Old Spike Peckham for Rosalind, John, David, Emma, Daryl, Nelly, Mikhail, Benjamin, Cecilia, Laura, Louise, Fi, James and Paulin to arrive.

As 18:45 arrived, Sam asked Maria to start proceedings before he went through his usual GG intro speech highlighting a few sessions happening over the weekend. Maria asked the ice-breaker question, which was a poll on whether people liked the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics or not?

It was a "Non" from most of the runners with about five saying Yes...the rain didn't help nor did the athletes parade on the Seine.

---

Litter Pick Bingo - Peckham Rye Park edition

With Maria leading the run, she took all the runners onto the Green to get started on the warm-up, which Sam normally does. She asked assistance from Emma to back-mark the run whilst she led from the front heading towards and around Peckham Rye Park to end the 2.5k at The Round Cafe where we met: Isaac, Folarin and Vic. However, we said our goodbyes to Mikhail as he was still jet-lagged from his trip from Malaysia.

Sam split the group into four groups of 4/5 and each group had at least one litter picker, a litter pick bingo card of 25 items, a black bin liner and someone recording their distance as the Litter Pick Bingo began! 30 minutes to find as many items on the litter pick bingo card as possible.

It was a tight contest as after 30 minutes all the teams came back in time....meaning no points deductions:

• In 4th place, we had Team "No Vapes" with 22.5 points (18 items found and covered 1.25km)
• In 3rd place, we had Team "R.E.A.M." with 23.1 points (22 items found and covered 1.05km)
• In 2nd place, we had Team "Trois3" with 25.5 points (17 items found and covered 1.5km)
• However, in 1st place, we had Team "Milibae's" with a staggering 35.68 points (23 items found and covered 1.55km)

With that, we had our winners: Team Milibae's who went into the lawn bowls social competition with confidence.

A few of us ran back to Old Spike Peckham to collect our items whilst the rest walked to Peckham Bowls to get setup for the inaugural GoodGym Southwark Bowls Championship. With two rinks booked, we split the semis into the two teams with five people against the two teams with four. Team "No Vapes" and Team "R.E.A.M." plus Sam took to Rink 6 whilst Team "Trios3" and Team "Milibae's" claimed Rink 5. It was a tight game on Rink 5, but on Rink 6, Team "R.E.A.M" took the first end, 4 - 0, but struggled to finish off their opponents quickly. After a few more ends and a pizza break, Team "R.E.A.M." took the game 8 - 3, whilst Team "Trois3" got their revenge on the litter pick bingo second place and book their place in the final.

Battling time and the light conditions, we played two more ends to determine the gold and bronze medal matches. Team "R.E.A.M" plus Sam took the Gold over Team "Trois3" with a 2 - 0 scoreline and Team "Milibae's" had to settle for Bronze as Team "No Vapes" came last in both competitions.

A great way to end July and I am glad we had two summer socials.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! We did good and we had fun! A massive thank you to Maria for leading the run and can't wait to have you as an official Run Leader. Kudos to Emma for backmarking and to everyone for getting stuck in with the litter picking and social!