It was much much colder this Wednesday, but five GoodGymers braved the wintry weather and had the comforts of the warmth of Old Spike Roastery first. Sam welcomed in Gemma and Steve who was a visitor from GG Lewisham. Emma also arrived with Sam as we had a visit from another Steve who was dropping off Nunhead Knocks leaflets for next week's task. We waited until 18:45, but no sign of Ben, thus we proceeded with a warm-up outside and it was only during the warm-up did he show face.

Sam's ice-breaker question tonight, was to do with the fact it's close to Christmas and the festive period is all around us: What Christmas carol and/or song is your favourite?

Emma started us off with "Feliz Navidad", Gemma and Steve both went for "I wish it could be Christmas everyday" by Slade and Sam chose "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as a carol and "All I Want For Christmas" by Mariah Carey as his Christmas song.

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A wheelbarrow, trolley and a bucket

Our 2.8k run from Old Spike kept us warm for the duration of the run and even as we met Simon and waited for him, we were still warm. As we collected the tools, we learnt that Ben's favourite Christmas carol was "Away in a manger" and his favourite Christmas song was "Fairytale of New York", which so happened to be Simon's favourite. He somehow had a relation to the song....forgot what it was....

Our task was simple enough, move the woodchip mulch pile that has been there for months from point A to point B. Having just a wheelbarrow and a trolley, Steve soon identified that there would be a lot of waiting around, so he saw the opportunity to convert a bucket full of water into a bucket full of woodchip. This ensured that we could transport the mulch in a more fluid way. Trip after trip, we took it in turns as we had an efficient rota system.

After multiple trips and 40 minutes later, we took the last barrows of mulch back towards Thorlands before taking a group photo and leaving the tools back in the "Walled" garden. After a brief admin check with Simon, we took off into the night and just arrived back in time for a 20:30 finish!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! It was a freezing one...coldest one this year (so far). Although, we were a smaller group than usual, we were mighty. I was impressed with the amount of trips we managed to do in 40 minutes. Lastly, a "thank you" to Steve for coming from Lewisham!

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Thank You Simon

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 Simon for this past year as we helped Thorlands on a monthly basis to maintain and improve this community garden! It's all about the slow and steady...see you in 2023!