On a wet evening only the toughest (or foolish) GoodGymer's were out doing good in the borough! It was time for a trip to Senior's, little did we know what was in store...

On arrival, there was no one to be seen, we checked all the rooms, even the cafe (with much concern that Steve should not be left to go alone) but we didn't check the basement, we didn't think everyone would be down there!!

The task for the evening was to help clear the basement. We had been down there many a times to collect the Christmas decorations and marveled at the things that were down there. This was now our chance to dig deeper. The only problem is no one from Senior's wanted to throw anything away! Not even the boiler collection notes from 2011...

One team of Oli and Louise were tasked with going through the DVD's and removing any inappropriate ones. A task that was very subjective to everyone's tastes in films (Oli's = classic 90's films).

Another team of Alison and Paul tackled the paperwork dating back from 20 years ago!!

And Lindsay and Steve went up and down those stairs taking things to the bins and also labeling boxes!

The photos don't even do justice the variety of items that we found! Great work tonight team, I think we made a dent in the many many items in the basement!

We gathered outside Glass Mill this evening not wanting to get to used to the warmth inside, well that was my reasoning when I arrived first. Before we set off to RUSS, we had a moment to celebrate our achievements in the January Challenge!!

Alicia and I, set off first and nearly beat the rest of the group to the task. Steve very kindly putting the group through their paces with a warm up and run to the task.

We arrived at the task and soon found Ollie who was in charge of giving us our instructions for the evening. It a good old fashioned GG task of digging and moving the soil. The area we started before Christmas is nearly complete so it was time for us to move onto a new area of the garden. Post-task we were treated to tea and biscuits before we set off back to Glass Mill.

It was great to have Alicia along for her first group run and following on from a very muddy community mission in Blythe Hill Fields. We hope to see you again soon!

Next week, we are heading over to Senior's! Don't forget to sign up, it's an indoor task.

After much discussion at Glass Mill about layers and waterproof jackets, and agreement that there was only a small chance of rain. We were wrong!!

Before we became aware of that, we happily made our way up to Deptford, and divided into groups. One group headed to the end of Creekside and the other started at the beginning of Creekside with the goal to meet back at the meeting point at 8pm.

Soon enough the rain started pouring but the flats gave us some shelter and I thoroughly enjoying being able to see red t-shirts running around the maze of flats and everyone trying to find eachother on different levels.

We'd started running out of flyers so headed back to the start point to wait for the others and then the downpour started!! And maybe a bit of hail throw in.

Rejoined by the other group and seeing the error of our ways in dividing the flyers way out of proportion, meant we still had a handful to deliver. We made sure these were done on our way back to Glass Mill whilst avoiding giant puddles that had formed in the last 45min.

Great work tonight team, especially in the rain and cold. Next week we're heading to RUSS to help in the garden so wrap up warm!!

We were due to be visiting Lewisham Unity this evening but unfortunately there is a fly tipping issue so that visit has been postponed till that is under control. Instead we had plan B - split into 3 groups and complete 3 different tasks.

Task 1

7 of us headed to TRAID to pack up the stock ready for the next season of stock, having the maximum number possible we were very efficient and had the task done in around 45min. This task usually takes us over an hour when there's only 3 or 4 of us so it goes to show what a difference extra pairs of hands make.

We had time for a quick group photo and then it was time for me to head to Glass Mill to meet the rest of the team.

Task 2

Making our start point look clean and tidy again! There was lots of litter around our start point and the team collected bags of litter and achieved the aim! No super obscure items except maybe a Lime Bike....

Task 3

Last but not least, Alison and Lindsay headed out armed with GG posters and a list of local supermarkets, with the aim of putting up the posters on the community notice boards. They managed to find 4 and I put one up on my walk to Glass Mill so thats 5 supermarkets with a GG poster up. Hopefully we see a couple of new faces!

Thank you for all your effort last night, we certainly made a difference!

With the promise of a relaxing evening bulb planting, the number of red tshirts (some hidden under many layers) was promising as we headed off to RUSS Community Housing, only to find out we weren't planting bulbs but instead shifting topsoil!

In true GoodGym spirit no one minded the change of task and it was definitely a task that kept us warm!

Part of the group stayed by the time capsule (and hopefully didn't open it!!) ready to receive the bags of top soil and empty them onto some pre-laid out cardboard.

Another part of the group tackled digging up the top soil and putting it into bags. There was a good rhythm going by the end including some lovely delicate shoveling with the small spade!

The remainder of the group wheeled the bags to and from both locations! There was a variety of modes of transport, some could handle the job and some looked like they might tip over at anytime - the modes of transport, not the GoodGymers!!

We were then treated to tea and biscuits to warm us up before we headed back to Glass Mill for a quick cool down. Not before we admired Vic's running technique as she disappeared into the distance and decided to try our best to replicate but we might have all ended up with pulled muscles so we'll leave that to the experts!