Wednesday 1st March 2023
Report written by Sam Lefevre (he/him)
Pinch, punch, first of the month...
Like a flash, we're already in March 😲
Being the first at Old Spike, Sam waited to see who will show up at the starting point and who would meet him at the task. He knew Lindy and Paulin were going straight to the task. As we approached 18:30, a newbie showed up at the door....it was Mimi. Well, technically, not a newbie, but a returner after a two year off period. It was such a delight to get to know Mimi whilst we had Steve, Claire and Daryl rock up. Still no sign of Ben, so we got on with the GG speech.
After the intro and a quick warm-up outside in the alleyway, Sam informed everyone of tonight's ice-breaker question, which was to do with the fact it is "Zero Discrimination Day", so he asked: Have you ever been discriminated? though, there was a second question about Stereotypes that you would fall into
Sam opened up about being the "nice guy and finishing last", but also about how the time he was living in Rome he was mistaken as a gypsy about to steal his own mother's handbag in a crowded Metro....he was holding onto it as he didn't want to lose her. Steve and Mimi told us how they fall into the stereotype of being "Northern" and "Chinese", respectively. Claire had been discriminated for being bisexual.
Loads of love for the Welsh
Wherever there's an uphill, there's a downhill. Our just under 3k run to Salvation Army Camberwell Corps. is almost the same as Thorlands, but the downhill is much further. We arrived at the task dead on time to see Paulin and Ben chatting outside. Mystery solved on whether Ben was going to meeting us at Old Spike or at the task 😜
We went inside to see that everything had been prepared and laid out. Lindy was already getting stuck in, so with Sam bringing out his tunes, we got going with the task.
We took out all the toys from the cupboard and put it through the system of wiping them down on the tables before leaving them to dry in the open space. We also had play mats to wipe down which Paulin and Steve happily did. Mimi made sure the children's house had a spring clean.
The 40 minute session flew by as we caught up on our week and weekends and since it was St. David's Day too, we talked about our favourite Welsh people...the list was endless 🙄 After packing away the dried toys and taking a group photo, we ran to KFC to part ways with Lindy and then later Paulin as we headed towards John the Unicorn for our monthly social and unexpected karaoke night...
Thank You to all the GG-ers
A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! Firstly, it was great to see Mimi come back for a second bite of the GoodGym cherry! It is always lovely to have returners even after a 2 year hiatus. Thank you to the rest who ran uphill on the way there and ran to the social at John the Unicorn. Fully deserved to get in the pints and to hear Ben's singing and bopping to "Toxic" by Britney and Sam murdering "Escape" by Enrique Iglesias. You can run, you can hide....but you can't escape his awful singing :p
Thank You Catherine
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 Catherine for hosting us for the first time in 2023 and we will be back for more in May, when we can help out in the garden/wipe the windows too!
Southwark
Tackles food insecurity and reuses surplus food to prevent food being thrown away!