An intent and uplifting Sunday morning mission for JP and Anita, helping Mortlake Guide’s unit leader Lynn check-out some recently donated second-hand camping kit.

With only minimal assembly instructions, progress was initially tentative but once we had worked out the shape and enormity of the task we set to work, first assembling the 7 long fibre poles and then threading them through the outer fly sheet. One by one the poles were anchored at one end, tensioned into arcs and secured in place on the opposite side. As the 3 central poles went into place the whole structure rose up, filling much of the hall.

The end result? Pitch perfect ( give or take missing pegs and the odd stain) and probably big enough to shelter the whole Guide unit.

Deconstructing the tent was a much easier task and we were impressed that such a huge tent could be folded down to fit in a single holdall.

It is strangely satisfying spending the morning tidying someone else's house, or hall in this case. We re-organised the camping equipment, sorted the kitchen utensils, and more tent pegs than a Brownie camping trip.

My personal highlight was a trip down memory lane via a stunning collection of old photo albums and guiding flags (yes I know I get nostalgic at funny times :-))

The guide leader's son discovered "the famous" automatic egg whisk.

Actually, more like the stripes marked the way the poles should be positioned. We were tasked to check the master of all marquees and check that the bags contained all the correct poles, brackets and covers. To Chris’ disappointment, we were unable to construct the marquee fully (it was way too big and would have involved more hands and possibly a bigger room!). We had to be satisfied in getting the roof part together and check the ground poles with the covers. Happy that there were no missing parts, we disassembled and placed items back into the bags for the marquee to be ready to be used for future summer events!

A mental and physical task met us at Mortlake Girl Guiding on Sunday morning. The task was to erect one of their gazebos that hadn’t been used for a couple of years and check it was in good order with all parts present and correct.

While JP generated an unspeakable number of innuendos, the rest of us put our minds to work deciphering the instructions and creative colour-coding system. Thankfully none of the pieces had been lost and we soon had all the puzzles solved to give us a nice little tent.

This was the first and smallest of three gazebos we’ll be helping with so we look forward to returning for the next challenge.

On the last GoodGym before Christmas, my true love gave to me, a load of leaves shed from a big tree! Our task at ask was to help clear the leaves outside the Guide hall in Mortlake. We met at the Tap before the 2 mile run along the A305… We had made great time until we were about 100m from the guide hall, when we had a brief Santa Pause for the level crossing. Brief was somewhat of an understatement, as we had to wait for the Polar Express to pass (or at least 4 South Western trains). Some of the group (aka everyone bar Lucy) decided to take the stairs over the crossing, but Lucy being obstinate waited for the crossing to open, and turned up about five minutes after everyone else!

We had picked up Nina on route, and the cycling gang were already waiting for us. Kat from the Guiding group led us in to the hall and provided us with the tools for the task tonight, and a pack of chocolate biscuits, which we decided would be a post-good deed treat, so got to work.

Ten Lords-a-Leaping? More like Ten GoodGymmers-a-sweeping, as we got tidying the leaves by the side of the halls. Liz and Chris helped with bag management, filling up multiple big green sacks from the leaves piled up by Nina, and Adam. Sam and Pippa had the fun task of scooping up leaves with the ‘bear claws’ and the technically termed ‘grabber’. Lucy and Ken helped sweep up the odds and ends, one with a big broom and the other with a dustpan and brush.

It didn’t take long before the job was done, and we could help ourselves to the biscuits! Alas, Lucy had other ideas and made the gang work for their treats, with an impromptu Christmas trivia quiz. If you got the answer right, you could have a biscuit. Liz and Kat got involved too, with some terrible, I mean, santa-stic Christmas jokes! We parted ways with a big thank you from Kat. The riders took to their reindeer/road bikes and the runners made their way over the footbridge (not making the same mistake twice) to glide along back to the Tap. All was well, until Sam realised he had left his bag at the Guide Hall… a nightmare before Christmas? Luckily for Sam, he had a Christmas Angel in Liz, who was able to take him back to collect his Sam-ta’s sack.

What a way to end 2023! Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night - see you in 2024, ready for the January challenge!

A path well trodden for Goodgym, we were weeding and tidying up the area for the Scouts.

It was a fairly simple task which we got through nice and easily just as the rain came down. It's always fun to catch up with everyone while helping out the local community.

Well done everyone!