An undecided sky looked down on 7 goodgym-ers, meeting outside Charlton House for this evening's task. Said sky decided to bless us with a dry evening which was handy for this outdoor group run!

A brisk walk through Charlton Park with a literal ice-breaker (discussing relevant injuries...) brought us to the streets between Charlton & Woolwich, and a literary themed task, delivering flyers for The Library of Things in Woolwich. This is an excellent scheme where items can be borrowed, from carpet steamers to karaoke machines, helping save money and the planet.

Lots of steps, hills & letterboxes later, we were working our way through the Library of GoodGym, from A Beginners Guide to Motoring (helping push a broken down car to a safer position off the main road) through Running Scared (of the numerous doggies eager to see what we were delivering...!) And then back to see how The Charlton Men ('s football team got on in their game tonight).

Proving both libraries & Goodgym are great for one's circulation, we turned to the next chapter of our respective weeks. Thanks all & catch up soon! 📚

Today was a fantastic session where thirteen GoodGymers from GG Bexley, GG Greenwich and GG Ealing came together to make a real difference at Crossness Pumping Station, built in the 1800s as part of London's first sewage system.

It was lovely to have Dinali and Ian with us for their first GG task, and celebrate Mo's 10th good deed.

We were met by Tom, the museum's Volunteering Manager who, after a warm welcome, split us into two groups.

'Team Ballast' worked with regular volunteer Rob and others on the narrow gauge railway. We dug out a shallow trench under the lifted tracks, and shoveled in ballast stones to help restore the line ready for re-opening to the public.

Rob said that it would have taken one person a whole day to complete what we achieved in just one hour 💥.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the site in the Victorian Formal Garden, 'Team Lavendar' was busy cutting back lavender. It smelled lovely! The cuttings will be used to make bars of soaps, which will be sold in the shop.

For both teams it was amazing to see how much we could accomplish by working together.

After tea and biscuits in the Ness Cafe, we had a brief look at the historical display of toilets in the museum - including one of the first flushing models by Thomas Crapper.

Then we put on hard hats and safety glasses, for Tom's tour of the incredible engine hall, giving the opportunity to learn more about the history and engineering behind this fascinating place.

We certainly put all our senses to work, including experiencing some of the distinctive smells associated with the historic pumping station and its original purpose 💩!

Overall, it was a brilliant opportunity to contribute to the local area, learn about its history and engineering, and make a positive impact through volunteering, and show that when we come together and work as a team, we can achieve so much more than we could alone.

We hope to help out at the museum more regularly from now, on so watch thus space if you'd like to join us!

8 Greenwich Goodgym-ers met in Woolwich on a warm breezy Tuesday for a painting task at Pugin Hall, in need of a nice refresh to improve its appearance as host to several community groups using the hall on a regular basis.

It's a large hall, with several areas needing our attention, so we soon got to work dividing tasks up and down the room. Some of us joined the Ladder day Saints, cleaning & then glossing the window frames, with the more down to earth team painting the skirting boards - definitely not skirting the issue...!

There were doors & walls needing a splash of colour, cue long-handled contraptions and care to ensure an even layer was applied.

When the 10 minutes to task end was announced, we were at a gloss for words, as time had whizzed by to a mellow soundtrack from a local radio station.

Great progress made, with possibly another task here soon to continue this project. Thanks all & welcome Euan to GoodGym! ⭐️"

This mission was all about stairs and we certainly were stairstruck but managed to hold it together to complete the task at hand! We tag teamed to bring a load of stuff for storage down from the mezzanine which involved navigating a very narrow, steep set of stairs. Then carried it all across the car park to another community centre and up two flights of stairs (correctly recognised by Cat as an old school for the iconic reddish flooring). After several reps the mezzanine was looking much clearer and the new storage room was full up, signalling a successfully completed task and a decent work out for a friday evening - good job team 😁

Until next time!

Tonight's task saw 12 Greenwich GoodGym-ers meet for a de-brambling session at Vanbrugh Pits in Blackheath.

Talk of favourite shops, past and present, got us through our relative journeys, and we were just about to walk on by, when suddenly, and without warning, there was this Partial Eclipse of the Sun! It got slightly dark, and there was this strange humming sound, like something from another world...🎵

OK, so that's actually a line from a Little Shop of Horrors song. Thankfully, the brambles we had to tackle weren't carnivorous like the one from the musical, but were pretty prickly, so we made good use of the tools provided, including loppers, forks, and mattocks, hacking & twirling and digging out roots. After a few trips to pile up the cuttings for collection by the local council, our time was up, and the "after" photo shows what a dent we made in the overgrown area. A total Eclipse of the Bark indeed!

Thanks all & see you soon ☀️🌙