As Sam opened up Old Spike Peckham, he was met by Richard who came for his first ever GoodGym experience as he wanted to get more involved with his local community on the days that would allow him. With his son, who practices karate on Wednesday nights, but had a week-off, Richard made sure he could be present and get his document checked for the DBS checks.

With Alex coming back from a weekend road trip to Berlin (to support England) and Emma getting ready for her trip to India in a months' time, we all contemplated on the lack of a summer in London. Yet, the night belonged to David, who on Saturday reached his 50th good deed, but we celebrated his milestone with the traditional black cape, ballon and party hat! Congrats David on reaching this first major milestone!

Sam got going with his usual speech and his ice-breaker tonight was about World Emoji Day as well as World Snake Day (which was the day before). The snap poll showed that half of us are afraid of snakes, but he also asked that: "What emoji would you be?"

🤗😬☺️🫶🤝

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Hampton Court edible garden

The eight of us headed out for a quick warm-up in the humid weather before dashing off to make it to Dawson's Heights in time. With Sam leading from the front and Maria back marking, we took it in our strides to make it to the top of the Overhill Road to meet Ellie and a few Dawson's Heights residents including a few of the young ones.

Ellie told us that they had a whole edible garden donated to them from the Hampton Court Flower Show. Although, the garden was beautifully re-planted, it still needed to be mulched, watered and have a woodchip path going through the middle.

Emma teamed up with Paulin to collect, wheelbarrow and dump the woodchip whilst Alex, David, Nelly and Richard collected bags of mulch to spread around the new garden and the existing garden beds. They all had a few little helpers as the young kids of the estate wanted to get involved where they could. Maria took on the last remaining job of watering all the plants, but needed to get the hose from the garage.

Despite the simple tasks we had, we still needed the full 40 minutes to finish off all three tasks. By the end of it, we had a thick woodchip path, all plants mulch and absorbing all the nutrients and minerals from it after being watered.

We said our goodbyes knowing that the next time we come back would be our last session in 2024. Emma and Richard dashed home from Dawson's Heights whilst the rest of us enjoyed the downhill run back to Old Spike Peckham.

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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 Dawson's Heights allotment after going there for four sessions prior. We have been a massive help in getting the allotment setup. Let's finish it off with a bang on the 7th of August. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

Is it coming home (it did for the Women's back in 2022)? That was the thought on everyone's mind as England's Mens team had their Semi-final game against Netherlands on the same night as our group run. Yet, 13 GoodGymers opted in for doing a good deed before the game. Sam messaged the task owner to bring the task forward and asked those who signed up to come between 18:30 - 18:40 to Old Spike Peckham, so that they could fit everything in within an hour and a half.

Tonight, we had not one, but two newbies. Well, technically, Audrey is not a newbie, but new to coming to GoodGym Southwark. However, we welcomed Hannah who came for her first good deed! Welcome!

Andrada, Cecilia, Daryl, David, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind all came along on time as Sam started his extended speech due to the newbie and then presented his ice-breaker question. Tonight's ice-breaker was about the Euros, so he asked: "Who will win the tournament?"

Most said it would come home, but a few Spain and one Netherlands vote...

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Kick off...

We headed out without a warm-up as Sam knew he had to get to the task within 18 minutes. Paulin backmarked to ensure no one got left behind as we climbed up Chadwick Road to come down the other side to Camberwell. We made it in time to meet Zulieka and her girls as Emma arrived with her bike.

Zulieka had three tasks for us to do. We left Daryl, David and Andrada with a pile of woodchip, a wheelbarrow and a tonne bag in a shopping trolley to move to a site where woodchip needed to be laid. As we went around the estate, Adrian and Audrey with two pairs of shears were given the task to cut back a tree/bush in order for the residents to get to a watering unit as the hot summer days are a head of us and plants would need to be watered. The rest of the group went around the corner to weed a garden bed that was temporarily taken care of by the council, but they didn't finish the job. Using hand tools and shears, Cecilia, Emma, Hannah, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind took of the task of transforming this space within 25 minutes.

Running around to ensure all groups were fine, Sam counted the clock down as there was a hard stop at 19:30 to ensure the team could run back in time to see the start of the game. However, Zulieka wanted help to take back the tools and two wooden pallets she found on the estate, so we duly did so before rushing off back towards Peckham. The boys probably clocked a few PBs as they sprinted the 3k run back to Old Spike as we had a table booked in 80-20 wines next door. Everyone arrived just in time for the kick-off...

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. A very quick session due to the football, but we did get a lot done in the 30 minutes that we were there for. Zulieka sends her thanks and looks forward to see us next month. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

Has it been half a year already?! With Summer solstice behind us, it was time that we came together to celebrate the summer in true GoodGym Southwark fashion - summer social at a rooftop bar in Peckham!

However, before we could get to that stage, we needed to put in a good shift. The night started with everyone feeling the heat from the hottest day of the year as they arrived at Old Spike Peckham. Sam opened up coffee shop for Maria, Sarah who came visiting from GG Greenwich, Emma, Nelly, Paulin, James, Nathan, Daryl and Louise. Sam knew a few GoodGymers would meet him at Cossall Estate, so even before it turned 18:45, he got going with his usual speech and his ice-breaker question. Tonight's ice-breaker was a little bit depressing as it was Day Against Drug Abuse, so he asked: "If I mention the word "Druggie" or "drug abuse", who do you think of or what film, book, documentary?"

Books like A Little Life, Films like Trainspotting and people like Pete Davidson and Matt Healy were mentioned.

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Breaking soil ground

We headed out to the Green to warm-up, but since it was already warm in terms of temperature...it didn't take much to get an elevated heart rate. After the warm-up, Sam led from the front and Maria from the back as we run half of Peckham Rye Park before venturing towards Nunhead to drop off Paulin, James, Nathan and Emma who kindly volunteered to help with a last minute second task that wasn't completed on Sunday and so the task owner, Serife, asked for a small group to complete the job on Wednesday, which they did.

The rest of us ran another kilometre and a bit to reach Cossall Hall to meet the other GoodGymers: Folarin, Jess and Sander as well as Alan, Jaki and Oscar (the dog).

Alan needed four people to come with him to litter pick Kirkwood Nature Reserve, so Maria, Sarah, Nelly and Louise went along with litter pickers and bin bags to pick up unwanted and discarded items throughout the Reserve and in front of both entrances. Whilst Daryl Folarin, Jess, Sander and Sam followed Jaki with a trolley and wheelbarrow of tools to tackle the growing beds which had loads of weeds, grass and nettles growing in it. However, the task proved more difficult with hard soil. Still the group managed to fill 10 bags of garden waste...

Time flashes by during our GoodGym sessions and after 40 minutes, we had to put away tools and throw away the bin bags. A quick photo call inside the courtyard of Cossall Hall before we said our goodbyes and had to rush off back to Old Spike Peckham as we had the other group waiting for us as well as a social to enjoy!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. Two tasks done within 40-45 minutes and a delightful time spent at Frank's Bold Tendencies for our summer social and to celebrate our achievements so far. Great to see faces that I haven't seen in awhile and hope to see you soon. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

Last night 11 goodgymmers went to Elmington community gardens to help out. Sophie , David, Lindy, Nelly, Daryl and Alex met me at Old Spike to run there together. We did a quick warm up followed by an ice breaker question before setting off. The ice breaker this week was "What rhymes with woodchip?", which was surprisingly hard! We took the hilly route to Elmington community gardens, during which Daryl shared that he is the Strava local legend of Chadwick road! 👏

We arrived at the wildlife triangle just as Emma was walking her bike up the road and Laura was already there. Benjamin soon arrived on his fancy new bike. Catalina from Elmington community gardens split us up into groups and put us to work.

Daryl, Benjamin and Alex did pruning in one section of the estate. Sophie and Nelly did weeding nearby. Meanwhile, Emma, Jess and Lindy planted some wildflowers and weeded. And Laura and David did some pruning nearby. I floated in between, doing some litter picking.

Before we left, we tidied up after ourselves, putting the cuttings into the compost heap and then did the group photo. We were just about to leave... only to realise that Laura had been held up by a friendly neighbour, and had missed the group photo! After group photo number 2, we set off, most of us coming back to Old Spike, and onwards to our social in Peckham Rye park. 🌳