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 ☀️🌙

Back onto the streets of SE7 to 'Clean Up Charlton' with today's strange star finds consisting of three shoes (no matching pair) including one belonging to Barbie. We headed down the Woolwich Road, clearing the shrubbery as we went and finding 4 full cans of cider (Cider with Toesie?) and a ton of cigarette ends.

We cleaned up Popeye's Passage and the bad area at the side of Asda's carpark - a shoe-in for the 'worst litter in Charlton' award today! Finally, we retraced our steps via the bins, with our 10 bags of litter for well deserved coffee at M&S. Thanks to everyone for a great job, and to the Council for supplying the official grey and clear bags and for collecting them. And well done to Aman on his 50th good deed!

This morning we were back at the wonderful Maryon Park Community Garden, and what a lovely morning for it. The sun was shining, the garden was looking fantastic and we weren't looking too shabby either (maybe a little shabbier after the task to be fair 🫠)

There was plenty to get stuck into. Kam and Aman took on the heavy job of shifting compost, while the rest of us split between giving the front gate a fresh coat of varnish, painting two fences, weeding and picking our affectionately termed 'runaway beans' - how apt! They will be enjoyed with Arthur's dinner provided they don't escape before then.

With the garden spruced up, it was time for some much appreciated refreshment, generously put on by our brilliant hosts, Tim and Edna.

Thank you everyone- until next time!

Rachel

When our planned task fell through at the last minute, 11 GoodGym Greenwich runners and walkers proved that adaptability is one of our greatest strengths. Rather than call it a night, we grabbed the litter pickers and headed around Charlton for an impromptu community litter pick.

Before setting off, our icebreaker question was: "What's your favourite thing about Greenwich?" Answers ranged from its beautiful parks and riverside walks to the markets, history, community spirit and, of course, GoodGym itself. It was a lovely reminder of why we're all so keen to help keep the borough looking its best.

The evening was also packed with milestones. A huge welcome to Cathy, who completed her very first GoodGym task, hopefully the first of many! Meanwhile, massive congratulations to our Norwegian pun-King Ivar, who celebrated an incredible 300th GoodGym task!

We split up to tackle litter hotspots around Charlton, collecting bags full of cans, bottles, wrappers and plenty of the usual unexpected finds. Every bag filled was another small but visible improvement to the neighbourhood.

A big thank you to everyone who embraced the change of plans with such positivity. Another lovely evening spent amongst the rubbish!

Until next time!

Rachel 😁