Birthday Celebrations

I don't think anyone needs telling now that this week marks ten glorious years of GoodGym. It's an amazing movement that has spread out from humble beginnings in Tower Hamlets to a vast and successful network spanning much of the UK. GoodGym would not exist without the fantastic volunteers who join in Group, Coach and Mission Runs to have fun, improve our fitness, bring smiles to people faces and make the world a better place to be. Happy birthday GoodGym, hear's to the next ten years.

The task in hand

So on to last night's task. We were Chingford bound, so we faced a pretty long run. There was a tantalising reward waiting for us at the end of the run as long term GGWF member Nerys arrived with a home-baked birthday cake to mark the occasion. With this tasty offering waiting for us back at Mirth, we didn't hang around for long before striking out for South Chingford Memorial Ground.

With our birthday flag in tow, we made an obligatory stop at one of the borough's most famous landmarks, The Greyhound Stadium, for a quick photo opportunity.

On arrival, we were greeted warmly by the dedicated team from Love South Chingford who as every had all the necessary kit laid out and ready for us to get stuck into the task. Along with bags and litter, pickers were the much-loved hoops that keep our bags open and make the job of litter picking much more straightforward.

With the nights drawing in, I have been using this great website to look at sunset times. Until yesterday, I was unsure how dark civil, nautical and astronomical twilight are. I now know that Civil is pretty much night, Nautical there is no remnant of the day left, and Astronomical is darker than Darth Vadar's cape. I say this because after arriving at the park when it was bathed in the lovely golden hue of an autumn sunset, it wasn't long until the only litter we would have been able to find would have been a disguarded hi-viz vest.

Luckily our crew were fast workers with eagle eyes, so we collected plenty of stuff before heading back to enjoy Nerys's delicious cake.

What's coming up?

Next week we start a 3-week project to build some planters for a community gardening group. This will be an excellent task with a real sense of achievement at the end. If you have DIY skills and you know how to use a drill, that would be particularly helpful but definitely not essential. Sign-up here

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