As is customary in the south eastern pocket of London known as Crystal Palace, the first GoodGym session of the year was a Christmas Tree Scavenger Hunt - clearing the streets, reducing waste going to landfill/incineration and saving others a job.

Our team of 5 were in high spirits to start with until no trees appeared...

Fortunately, a good 45 minutes after starting our mission, one tree presented itself to us!

And then minutes later, nestled inside someone's garden... another! We nicked it anyway and shifted them up the road to the tree-cycling spot in/surrounding Mayow Park where they will be churned up into woodchip. Nice.

Top work gang. See you next year?

Read to the end to reveal the mystery!

Tonight we headed up the hill for a task at the St Christopher's Hospice shop on Crystal Palace Triangle. It's a seriously well stocked shop, so much so that a few of us even ended up having a late night spree! Would recommend if you're ever in the area.

Anyway we came from all over to get to the task venue - some direct from home, some up from the Bridge House. We had a series of jobs which were executed with aplomb:

James took on the hoover for his 8th time?! Megan was pricing up some fancy crockery. Mariah was taping up some well stuffed bags so they don't split on the way to the Streatham store. Charlie and Kelsey were cleaning the shelves. Catherine and Cat were boxing up some older bric-a-brac. Jess was on steamer duty and I think that's everyone 👏👏👏

Oh yeah, the brogue. So basically there were a few single shoes, i.e. not in pairs. Me and Kelsey were like "wtf?!" but then we asked Teresa and it turns out it's all part of the plan. If there's some spenny shoes above a certain price, they keep one hidden away so they don't go walkies. Clever eh?!

Well done GG CP. I always have such a nice time hanging out with you. See you next time.

Tonight we had a short run to the Blenheim-Arpley estate in Penge to meet Jami and the other volunteers from the Residents Association. We were tasked with helping the team shift a huge woodchip pile donated by Bromley council which they needed depositing around the estate. We made great progress (even with a brief interlude while Jami calmed down some anxious residents who spotted our red t-shirts and headlamps and thought we were the Russians coming to invade!) and you can see how much we shifted by the markings on the floor in the "after" photo. Great work tonight team!

Last night we were in a spooky Cator Park helping to tidy up some of the bushes and paths ahead of the friends group's dog show this weekend.

After a quick dog vs cats chat in the pub, we jogged down to meet Millie in the park.

We were equipped with hoes, secateurs, shears and a wheelbarrow and worked on a couple of the big hedge sections to neaten them up and clear weeds and pine needles from the path.

It didn't take long for it to look much more presentable, and mean the paths were wider.

Nice one, gang! ✂️