Tonight we were leafleting for Age Exchange's Christmas fair alongside promoting GoodGym!

We started out by sharing our responses to Trump's election victory which ranged from sticking fingers in our ears and going la la la la laaaaa and mine which was a compiled video of my three year old whining 'I don't like Donald Trump on 20 different occassions.'

Tonight was special for two reasons- the twins were back in Greenwich! AND we were marking Marta's mammoth 800th good deed!

That's 800 times she's... donned some gloves to do planting and pruning, or gained some guns from digging 💪🏼 or avoided the dogs while leafleting, or got splattered from painting, or filled a bin liner litter picking, or put ceiling panels up after guilding.

In short, she done a lot of stuff! 🏅 🏆

After securing the sash of glory on a well deserving Marta, we had a quick round of Simon says and ran up the hill to split into 2 groups and dashed round the streets posting as many leaflets as we could. And quick work we made of it too, with lots of good GoodGym chats on our way. Another task complete and one step closer to Marta's 1000th which she'll probably achieve in the next couple of years!

Nice work team. Next week we're weeding at Charlton URC.

Until next time!

They say that only two things in life are certain: death and taxes but at this point the other seeming certainty in life is that it will rain for the GoodGym Greenwich group run. But we’re a hardy bunch and 6 of us assembled at Charlton House in the murk to distribute leaflets for two great local organisations: Charlton house, who, after some redecoration, are now open for events again, and Bexley and Greenwich Hospice who are holding a min marathon (always a GoodGym favourite for helping out at). After welcoming Felicity to her first group run, and some questions about our favourite Easter eggs it was time to go. We soon displayed deft skills in folding the two leaflets together, then split in two and set off for different parts of Charlton. Soon whole the area had been covered and, it’s hoped, the two organisations will get lots of support for their events.

This week’s Doorstep Challenge saw 8 Goodgymers tasked with spreading the word for The Friends of Age Exchange, who are putting on another wonderful Christmas fair for the good people of Blackheath.

They say the first sign of Madness is Suggs coming up your drive. So the first sign of Christmas must be an army of Goodgymers delivering Christmas Fair fliers. Cue lots of negotiation with squeaky front-gates, desperately trying to find someone’s path, and getting off their property before any awkward encounters at the door. And I’m not going to lead you up the garden path - there was a lot to do. And it’s safe to say the team really delivered. No red van, no black and white cat? No problem. And No strikes in our workforce.

As a dark November night descended, we began with a warm up where we tried to work out what our favourite thing about winter was. A bit of head scratching for some of us, but an excellent chance to reflect and look forward.

Beginning at the sorting office (also known as Rachel’s bag), we split into two teams and set about our work, heading from Charlton towards Maze Hill and back.

We went door to door, though we didn't encounter as many dogs as we thought we would. Highlights included a cat asking to be let in despite knowing full well they’ve never seen this person enter their house in their life, (why do they do that?), and someone who couldn’t have sounded more like a burglar if he tried - loading stuff into a van and saying “I don’t live here…”

We seemed to lose contact with Julian and Steve towards the end, which can only mean they did the postie's equivalent of running away to join the circus - being tapped up by Royal Mail’s nightfreight service. We shall miss them and wish them luck in their new career.

Good job team - until next time!

I have broken a GoodGym code. Which is a code that no GoodGymer should break. And that is a code of timeliness.

For it is over 36 and nearly 48 hours since this wonderful Greenwich group got to the streets. And I've yet to write the run report.

I think - somewhere deep in GoodGym's founding documents - there's a rule that mean I should be docked 10 good deeds.

But anyway, here are my thoughts and recollections from Wednesday's happy evening.

11 of us met in our old haunt - the beautiful Royal Naval College - and we did so next to one rather big film set. So do watch out keen film buffs, for you may see some red-t-shirted good-deeders in the background of something soon...

And we were off to leaflet - to leaflet or our friends at Age Exchange. They are having a Christmas Fair at Blackheath Halls on Sunday 21 November, with all proceeds going to support Age Exchange in Blackheath, which helps people and their carers live well with dementia.

We shot up and around (in two groups) the streets surrounding Greenwich Park, spreading the news that there's a Christmas Fair in town. And it's a socially-focused and community-positive one at that.

Afer 45 minutes of word-spreading, jogging, walking, nattering, and giggling, we headed back to the lights of the College for a good ol' stretch and cool down.

As always, big big big thanks to Rachel for organising everything :)

Nice one.

20 awesome runners ran 4km to post flyers for the Blackheath Age Exchange Christmas Fair!

WOW WOW WOW what a wonderful turnout last night, thanks for being so awesome and keen, especially on a flyering task!! But maybe that's WHY there were so many of you, you guys clearly LOVE a flyering task!!

We welcomed two new runners to the group, Jade and Thomas who are over from France for five months as part of their studies. Hope you had a good first run with us! Tom actually came over to me last week when you guys were all running your 1km time trial and had to find out what GG was all about!

We had A LOT of flyers to get through. I actually had 2500 but couldn't physically carry them all with me so I brought about half of them. Each little chunk was 50 cards. We split into two groups.. I thought I sent an email earlier in the day with a map of where each group was going... turns out it was still sitting in my drafts....NOOOO! Anyway things don't always go to plan at GoodGym and so we improvise! I drew a line on a Google map screenshot, sent it to Sara heading up group 2 so we didn't duplicate any streets. What could go wrong? Well in Sara's group nothing, but in my group, everything! HA.

We headed off, up the hill and got to Westcombe Park Road where we split. My group split up again with half going to the very end of the road and then the idea was to flyer the houses and eventually meet in the middle... turns out that absolutely did not happen and I lost the whole group... good one coach. After a little jog trying to find everyone, I eventually came across one half of my team who were running down Maze Hill and then met the others back at the uni... phew everyone was accounted for! No search parties required.

Group 2 emerged shortly after and sounded like they had great success! No one got lost (always a bonus) and a whopping load of flyers were distributed... nice work!!! Clearly Sara cracked the whip a little harder than I did hahaa!!

A few flyers were left over but all in all a WONDERFUL effort. Huge thanks to those who took some home to distribute around your area! Extra GoodGym points for you!!

We ended the evening as we always do with a few good stretches et voila!

GG10 Party

Final call for the big GoodGym social taking place on Friday! All the details are here if you can make it! If there was even one person from Greenwich I think it would make Pritesh's year.

Great job everyone! If you all managed to get rid of one pack of cards that means we delivered 1000 which is pretty good going! And some of you did more than one pack so even better! See you next week when we will be going back to Ballast Quay!