What a fun filled, mud filled, pun filled Wednesday evening we had this week! *Stay tuned for as many oarsome boat/ sailor puns as we could come up with in this report.

For those of us who met for the run from Charlton House, this week's icebreaker was deceptively thought provoking:

"If you could relive one moment in your life, what would it be?"

What I failed to anticipate was the immediate descent into philosophy:

What actually counts as a 'moment'? Are you reliving it, or changing it? Which self gets to choose? Your current self or your younger self? 🙄

After several minutes adrift in a sea of existential pondering, I found myself pleading, "No more questions!"

To be fair, that's something I say at least five times a day to my son, Arthur. Poor boy. But hey, someone has to stamp the curiosity out of children, right?

Responses ranged from the birth of children, to choosing that dream career that our pesky parents forbade, to extra cheesy points for Sarah for picking the moment she came along to a GoodGym session! 🧀🥳

Anyway, before we drift too far off course...

A huge welcome to Rhena and Candida on your first Good Deeds with us! And an extra shout-out to Rhena for completing her first run. We hope you're both hooked and don't immediately jump ship!

Our task for the evening was at the lovely community garden at the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, where our much-loved rowing boat had finally reached the end of its voyage. And so, with a heavy heart it was time to break up the old and make way for a younger model.

The steps were as follows:

1) Remove all the soil from the old boat

2) Smash it up with shovels (One member of the group might have enjoyed smashing the boat up a little bit too much...he certainly made his Mark.)

3) Break up the wood to wheelbarrow to the bins

4) Debate exactly how on earth we were going to get the new, bigger boat into position (this took a while)

5) Shovel out more soil and grass

6) Tow Tow Tow the boat into position and attempt to secure it with blocks of wood

At times our plans felt a little rudderless, but somehow we kept things afloat and while we may need to come back to fully anchor the boat in place, that was a job well done in the pelting rain - hardened sailors that we are!

After that, it was time to run, walk, or otherwise navigate our way home.

Thanks everyone for another oar-some evening!

Coming up This weekend we have:

Parkrun volunteering

Helping at the Family Fun Day in Hornfair Park

Clean up Charlton

Leafleting for Prince Philip's Community Day

GoodGym Picnic!

Until next time, lovely people!

Rachel

Last night, 10 of us met at Charlton House for the run, with a few heading straight to Thomas Tallis School ready to get stuck into the task.

Our icebreaker was: What's one thing you can cook or bake really well? Judging by the answers, next week's picnic is shaping up to be a feast 😋

When we arrived, Kim welcomed us and led us to a collection of second-hand school uniforms that needed sorting. Our mission was to size everything up, organise the good-quality items into the correct categories, and separate out anything that wasn't quite cut from the right cloth.

We got straight to work and, in just half an hour, had made short work of the mountain of shirts, jumpers and PE kit. It was a refreshingly low-sweat task, but we were kept busy, dotting the i's, folding the tees, and making sure everything was neatly stacked and ready for its next owner.

With the crates sorted and tucked back into storage, it was time for a quick run back, a stretch, and then we buttoned up another successful Wednesday evening.

After all, when you've got 10 GoodGymers working together, it's easy to make shirt work of sizing 'em up.

Congratulations to Mark on earning your nice shiny red Tshirt! You're already part of the furniture 🤗

**All credit to Aman and Ivar for the puns (well, the best ones anyway!)

Coming up

This weekend in addition to the Parkruns we've got:

• Helping at Maryon Wilson

• Building playground equipment with Halstow Primary (and BBQ!)

Next Wednesday we're back at the Prince Philip Collections Centre

Until next time!

Rachel 👋😁

After a scorching hot few days in London, 12 GoodGym-ers were grateful for a minty fresh breeze at the Community Garden at St Alfege's School in Greenwich. An ice (coffee) breaker & game of shark attack and we were ready for a short run from the Naval College to this oasis of calm in Greenwich's busy town centre.

Our tasks were as expected at this time of year: basil-ically tackling some stubborn weeds while preserving the other plants/herbs 🌱 Plenty of volunteers meant the task was shared out nicely, but everyone worked dill-igently with no chiving allowed, digging, sweeping, watering & currying heaps of vegetation to the stack.

O-Kale...so the thyme parsley-ed quickly enough, and soon we had to be tarragone...for a quick post-task social which made for a lovely end to the day.

Thanks all & hope to cress paths again soon 🙂

Eight GoodGymers headed to beautiful Morden College, a residential home for older people, last night for an evening task that quickly became one of our favourites yet.

Meeting at Charlton House our ice breaker question was: 'If money were no object, where would you retire?' Answers ranged from Australia, Miami, Tenerife and London...and by the end of the evening, several of us had of course changed our answers to Morden College 😎

Special welcome to the crew to Mark on your first good deed with us - lovely to meet you and hope to see you back again soon!

After a 3km run, Meryl and Zoe from Morden College welcomed us warmly as we got stuck into sweeping the pathway and pruning the hedges outside the grounds. Lots of passers-by stopped to thank us while we worked, always a lovely reminder of how much these small acts matter. A section of the pathway is now looking much clearer and we'll be back to continue the job!

After the task, things got even better. Barry very kindly opened the bar specially for us, and we enjoyed a couple of rounds chatting away in the garden as the sun went down. Absolute bliss.

We’d love to come back soon to this haven in blackheath to continue along the pathway and maybe even help out in the beautiful gardens themselves, building planters for the veggies!

Next week we're gardening at St Alfege's School in Greenwich.

This bank holiday weekend, we've got:

• Volunteering at Parkrun and Junior Parkrun

• Gardening at Mycenae

• Weeding at Hervey Road

Until next time, wonderful people!