Straight after our group run, we descended on Voodoo Ray's for the start of our Xmas / End of Year social.

As everyone got their drinks sorted, the pizzas courtesy of Sam started to come fresh out of the oven. From 22" Margherita to 22" veggie (Green Velvet) and vegan (Queen Vegan) pizzas, everyone started munching down on their dinner.

Meanwhile, they all had to get into teams as Sam started to setup the projector and the quiz for the evening. In teams of 4 - 5, they created their team names and got ready for the End of Year / Sensory quiz. We had:

• Daryl Loves Sunderland (Alex, Benjamin, Isaac, Lindy and Nathan)
• Pizza N Mix (Folarin, James, Jo, Louise, Nelly and Paulin)
• Saucy Cranberries (Andy, Andrada, Emma, Katy and Sadaf)
• The Quizzards (Daryl, David, Gemma, Olive and Tim)
• When I Say "Pub", You Say "Quiz", "Pub"... (Anna, Clare, John, Maria and Vic)

After rounds of touching items, tasting chocolates, identifying London Transport signs, smelling candles, barely listening to the tunes of 2023 and Taylor's Songs as well as knowing what's been happening this year. The team they came out on top was...

"When I Say "Pub", You Say "Quiz", "Pub"..."

Winning on 42.5 points out of 65. Pizza N Mix came in 2nd (40 points), Daryl Loves Sunderland (39 points) in 3rd, Saucy Cranberries (37 points) in 4th and last place was The Quizzards (30 points).

The evening at Voodoo Ray's ended with an award ceremony to those GG Southwark members that reached their targets that Sam set for them plus some extra awards including Most Good Deeds (thanks to Tim for illustrating these gorgeous gifts), Most Distance Covered, Newbie of the Year and "Seen Snooping in Southwark.

Finally, a wrap up of the year was highlighted in an End of Year video summarising all the great work and achievements that was done this year.

As Voodoo Ray's closed at 22:00 (read: 22:15 when we left), we ended the evening at Nag's Head with a couple of pints and a festive cheer to the year!

Our final group run of the year.

Everyone descended upon Old Spike Roastery, but there was a new look. Most of us didn't have our running gear on as tonight's group run was going to be a group walk since the task was close enough for both options. For one last time in 2023, Sam welcomed in Andrada, Andy, Benjamin, Daryl, David, Gemma, Isaac, James, Katy, Lindy, Maria, Mikhail, Nelly, Paulin, Sadaf and Tim.

Sam did his customary GG intro speech and since most of us were walking, we skipped the warm-up and went straight to tonight's ice-breaker question.

In the lead up to Christmas, Sam's ice-breaker questions for tonight was: What is the most underated item on the Christmas table on Christmas Day?, What is your most memorable Christmas gift from Santa? and finally, What is your favourite Christmas song?

From bread sauce to brussel sprouts and from chestnuts to the all-essential water, we had the unique and standard answers for the most underated Christmas item on the table for Christmas Day. From toy sets and Pokemon cards to plush toys and the first game console, everyone has something special from Santa. Fairytale of New York had the most mentions for favourite Christmas song.

---

Secret store rooms within the Salvation Army Nunhead maze

Off Mikhail went with Andrada, Andy, Nelly, and Sadaf for their run to Salvation Army Nunhead via Peckham Rye as Sam led the walking group via a shortcut to the task.

Outside Salvation Army Nunhead, we met Anna, Clare, Emma, Folarin, Olive and Vic who had walked or cycled over to the task. As Polis, let us in, he was overwhelmed with the amount of volunteers and had to split us into 4 sub-teams:

1. First team had to take care of the shop front by replicating a design from a sheet to make it become a reality. Anna led this team as she brought on Andy and Katy to help her out.

2. Emma, Maria, Nelly and Olive stayed behind in the shop too as they helped sweep, hoover and moped the shop floor.

3. There was some organising and sorting of Christmas presents and the general space in the main hall of Salvation Army Nunhead, so Clare along with Andrada, David, Folarin, Sadaf and Vic.

4. Meanwhile, up the stairs and in the secret storage room, Benjamin, Isaac, James, Paulin and Tim moving and clearing out donations that were broken or old as Polis needed to create space in the secret storage room.

Simultaneously, all tasks took their time, but group 1, 2 and 3 finished their tasks early, so they went up to the bookstore to start clearing that room too as there are plans to change the space in the new year. After our group photo, we said our goodbyes to Polis before everyone walked, ran or cycled back to Old Spike and some went over to Voodoo Ray's immediately.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! For those who ran either one way or both ways with Mikhail who led from the front and kept the group together. Also, for taking the photos on the night. For those who decided to walk and chat on the way there reflecting on their day and week. Finally, thank you to everyone for getting stuck in with the tasks at hand! We smashed it within 35-40 minutes.

---

Thank You to Polis

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Polis for staying in the shop to let us in and for having all the tasks ready for us!

With train strikes on, Sam left work slightly early to ensure he could welcome in everyone. Newbie, Jitka, arrived before anyone else and had a chat about GoodGym with Sam. Steadily, Nathan and Maria arrived as Jitka clocked that we were going to run 3k tonight. Since she's a hiker, it was decided that she would need to leave slightly earlier than us to make it to Thorlands in time. Sam gave her the directions and off she went as Isaac, Daryl and Gemma just came in at 18:45 on the dot!

After Sam's quick speech, they agreed as a team to skip the warm up as a few people had run over and were still "warm".

---

Radio silence

Off we went through the backstreets of Peckham as Sam lead the way for the beginning part before we went off the team took lead and Sam dropped back to run with Maria. We ran up Grove Hill and down towards Denmark Hill station and King's. Thorlands Gardens is tucked away at the back on Denmark Road.

Surprisingly, newbie Jitka with a seven to ten minute ahead start made it to Thorlands first and she met Andy, Lindy, Mikhail and Sander there. Unfortunately, there was no Simon. Sam thought he might be late (though, he is usually not as he likes to prepare the tools), so he proceeded to ask the ice-breaker question:

What is the best Christmas market you have been to? or What is your Christmas tipple of choice?

There was two votes for Edinburgh for the Christmas market, but we got mentions from Manchester and Winchester in the UK whereas Brussels, Munich, Prague and Tallinn got a mention in for Europe. For a Christmas tipple, people love bubbly, but also beer, Baileys, (not a) hot toddy and whatever is going/on the table at 10AM...

By the time we made the rounds and Sam calling Simon multiple times plus leaving a few messages, he decided to call it as it was getting cold for those who had run over. Yet, not before the one and only group photo from the night. Job done for Mikhail!

It was a shame not to have the activity as we had prepared everything on Saturday to get stuck in for tonight, but these things happen. Those who met the team at Thorlands filtered off whilst those who ran from Old Spike ran back arriving before 20:00 to hit the pub.

Note: Simon messaged back to say a massive sorry as he had overslept after not feeling great earlier in the day.

---

Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It didn't go to plan, but there's always a first for everything and Simon does send his apologies! We still got in a 6k run in and managed to catch up on our week and find out all about our favourite Christmas markets.