For he's a jolly GoodGym fellow!

8 Goodgymers helped their local community in Greenwich
Cat Sowden
Sarah M
Rachel Henry
Julian Osman
Kerry
Brin
1 / 14
Greenwich

Wednesday 15th May

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Rachel Henry
Rachel Henry

SESSION ORGANISER

Julian Osman
Julian Osman

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Report written by Rachel Henry

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Tonight's GoodGym Greenwich session was in celebration of one of our all time heroes, Julian who has achieved the much coveted goal of completing 500 good deeds! That's 500 tasks, most of which have involve a decent run there and back...let's do the calculations on how many km that is, bear with me - maths isn't my strong suit. (say 3km is the average run and then there and back that's 6km each session so that's 6x500 and yes I'm doing that on my calculator in case I put too many zeroes on, we don't want an over inflated ego do we - so that's 3000km thereabouts!) 3000km all in the name of doing good. Now that ain't bad.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of doing a task with Julian will know he puts everything in to whatever he does. He'll be the first up the ladder, the one pulling up the most brambles and he'll lead the run the odd times we don't have a run leader. He's way up that ladder in the GoodGym greats with his commitment to what we do and he's an inspiration to all of us. Julian once said if he were a plant he'd be holly - prickly - but in fact he's one of the kindest and generous people and we're privileged to have him on our ranks.

I should stop there, that's probably faaar too much for a humble guy. Talking about GoodGym greats though, I didn't think it possible to think more highly of Sarah but she outdid herself last night when she produced a safety pin from her bag when I was saying I needed another pin for the fetching sash we furnished Julian with for his special night. She explained she carries one around just in case (you never know when you might need a safety pin!) Absolute legend. Reminds me of my nanna who used to carry her lippy around with her (you never know who you might meet) she'd say in her thick Brummie accent as she applied it liberally at opportune (and sometimes inopportune) moments on our days out.

After a warm up involving gloves and water bottles to fill in for Arthur's ball pit balls - and a rather competitive rivalry between the married couple in the group (caught on camera with those lovely squats to get that much closer to the gloves) - we ran up the what always feels to me like a very long Burrage road to the Glyndon Community Centre. Andy got us set up with clearing the back garden and weeding round the front. On our way round, Kerry and I spotted what I thought was a hedge covered in cobwebs you get for halloween...but then I remembered it's May. Brin later told me it's tent caterpillars. Just the thought of that was gross but I just made the mistake of googling them and now I'm going to itch all night.

You know you want to google them too. Go on, just do it.

I feel like they're on me, are they ON ME??!

Okay, it's going to be okay, just keep reading and I'll take your mind off those hairy little...oh my God, did you see this one? Deep breaths everyone, go to your happy place. There are no caterpillars in the happy place.

We ended our evening in a happy place, with a couple of drinks at Salt and friends Darryl, John, Sarah and Laura joining us to celebrate.

I'll leave you with Julian's words about one of the many joys of GoodGym.

"Join GoodGym because you discover all sorts of lovely places you wouldn't even know exist"

We're at Christchurch Community garden next week - hope to see you there.

Until next time!



Discuss this report
Julian Osman

Thu 16th May at 9:52pm

lovely report Rachel. Thanks

Olivia Waller

Thu 16th May at 9:56pm

So funny … glad you all had a great night. Well done Julian!

Sarah Hornsey

Wed 22nd May at 4:48pm

Yay!! 🥳 Great report Rachel! 🙌

Join us on our next session

Greenwich

Volunteering at Charlton Parkrun
🗓Tomorrow 8:30am

Start your Saturday in style and join this friendly bunch of local volunteers and runners!

Julian Osman
Linda Boscic
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