Straight after our group run, we descended on Voodoo Ray's for the start of our Xmas / End of Year social.

As everyone got their drinks sorted, the pizzas courtesy of Sam started to come fresh out of the oven. From 22" Margherita to 22" veggie (Green Velvet) and vegan (Queen Vegan) pizzas, everyone started munching down on their dinner.

Meanwhile, they all had to get into teams as Sam started to setup the projector and the quiz for the evening. In teams of 4 - 5, they created their team names and got ready for the End of Year / Sensory quiz. We had:

• Daryl Loves Sunderland (Alex, Benjamin, Isaac, Lindy and Nathan)
• Pizza N Mix (Folarin, James, Jo, Louise, Nelly and Paulin)
• Saucy Cranberries (Andy, Andrada, Emma, Katy and Sadaf)
• The Quizzards (Daryl, David, Gemma, Olive and Tim)
• When I Say "Pub", You Say "Quiz", "Pub"... (Anna, Clare, John, Maria and Vic)

After rounds of touching items, tasting chocolates, identifying London Transport signs, smelling candles, barely listening to the tunes of 2023 and Taylor's Songs as well as knowing what's been happening this year. The team they came out on top was...

"When I Say "Pub", You Say "Quiz", "Pub"..."

Winning on 42.5 points out of 65. Pizza N Mix came in 2nd (40 points), Daryl Loves Sunderland (39 points) in 3rd, Saucy Cranberries (37 points) in 4th and last place was The Quizzards (30 points).

The evening at Voodoo Ray's ended with an award ceremony to those GG Southwark members that reached their targets that Sam set for them plus some extra awards including Most Good Deeds (thanks to Tim for illustrating these gorgeous gifts), Most Distance Covered, Newbie of the Year and "Seen Snooping in Southwark.

Finally, a wrap up of the year was highlighted in an End of Year video summarising all the great work and achievements that was done this year.

As Voodoo Ray's closed at 22:00 (read: 22:15 when we left), we ended the evening at Nag's Head with a couple of pints and a festive cheer to the year!

Our final group run of the year.

Everyone descended upon Old Spike Roastery, but there was a new look. Most of us didn't have our running gear on as tonight's group run was going to be a group walk since the task was close enough for both options. For one last time in 2023, Sam welcomed in Andrada, Andy, Benjamin, Daryl, David, Gemma, Isaac, James, Katy, Lindy, Maria, Mikhail, Nelly, Paulin, Sadaf and Tim.

Sam did his customary GG intro speech and since most of us were walking, we skipped the warm-up and went straight to tonight's ice-breaker question.

In the lead up to Christmas, Sam's ice-breaker questions for tonight was: What is the most underated item on the Christmas table on Christmas Day?, What is your most memorable Christmas gift from Santa? and finally, What is your favourite Christmas song?

From bread sauce to brussel sprouts and from chestnuts to the all-essential water, we had the unique and standard answers for the most underated Christmas item on the table for Christmas Day. From toy sets and Pokemon cards to plush toys and the first game console, everyone has something special from Santa. Fairytale of New York had the most mentions for favourite Christmas song.

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Secret store rooms within the Salvation Army Nunhead maze

Off Mikhail went with Andrada, Andy, Nelly, and Sadaf for their run to Salvation Army Nunhead via Peckham Rye as Sam led the walking group via a shortcut to the task.

Outside Salvation Army Nunhead, we met Anna, Clare, Emma, Folarin, Olive and Vic who had walked or cycled over to the task. As Polis, let us in, he was overwhelmed with the amount of volunteers and had to split us into 4 sub-teams:

1. First team had to take care of the shop front by replicating a design from a sheet to make it become a reality. Anna led this team as she brought on Andy and Katy to help her out.

2. Emma, Maria, Nelly and Olive stayed behind in the shop too as they helped sweep, hoover and moped the shop floor.

3. There was some organising and sorting of Christmas presents and the general space in the main hall of Salvation Army Nunhead, so Clare along with Andrada, David, Folarin, Sadaf and Vic.

4. Meanwhile, up the stairs and in the secret storage room, Benjamin, Isaac, James, Paulin and Tim moving and clearing out donations that were broken or old as Polis needed to create space in the secret storage room.

Simultaneously, all tasks took their time, but group 1, 2 and 3 finished their tasks early, so they went up to the bookstore to start clearing that room too as there are plans to change the space in the new year. After our group photo, we said our goodbyes to Polis before everyone walked, ran or cycled back to Old Spike and some went over to Voodoo Ray's immediately.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! For those who ran either one way or both ways with Mikhail who led from the front and kept the group together. Also, for taking the photos on the night. For those who decided to walk and chat on the way there reflecting on their day and week. Finally, thank you to everyone for getting stuck in with the tasks at hand! We smashed it within 35-40 minutes.

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Thank You to Polis

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 Polis for staying in the shop to let us in and for having all the tasks ready for us!

Just when we thought we were out.... they pulled us back in! (Name the movie?) That's right we begin our report with a weather based update - it was cold, very cold, and we were due to be outside at Windmill Gardens but then it was pretty icy so tasks were prepared indoors. But then the weather changed and it was marginally warmer so we were back outside again! Still with me??

Anyway we had another two new runners with us this evening - Clare and Aristou (Sadaf's son) a warm welcome to GG Lambeth!! This meant we doubled the dulcet tones of Northern Irish accents, adding them to a smooth New Zealander, a Gibraltese falcon, a super Thai and new Francophone friends, our very own United Nations (plus the English regional accents of course!)

Marie Noelle and Paul agreed to meet us at Windmill Gardens and so did Liz after her open water swim & 10k earlier in the day (I'm exhausted just typing that) so 11 of us introduced ourselves, chose the nursery rhyme that best described us and set off up Brixton Hill. By the way who knew that Little Miss Muffett was doing keto all those years before it became an Insta thing?!!

Once we arrived to meet Jean and Annick our tasks were laid out 1) help sort the planting garden 2) rake and compost the fallen leaves. 4 Runners headed over with Annick to clear the planting garden and remove all the unfortunate plants that had been killed off by the extra cold recent weather - there were blocks of ice around the roots of some! The winter wheat (heritage wheat) looked to be doing well though so fingers crossed for the Beer and Bread Festival later in the year.

The rest of the group headed across the muddy grass to where enormous quantities of leaves were lying on the ground and stopping the grass from getting any exposure to light and air. To be honest we could have spent several evenings just on this part of the task as there were so many leaves to collect. With scrapers, rakes, wheelbarrows and black bags the team got to work and collected as much as possible in the time we had then deposited them over in the 1 tonne builders' sacks (full in no time) to be turned into mulch.

By time up the planting section was looking spick and span and the grassy area much lighter on fallen leaves and so it was time for a group photo before heading off back to base or off home for those lucky enough to live close by.

Thanks to everyone for a fun, chilly and muddy task, exactly what GGers are around for and Jean and Annick were grateful for our help - see you all next time!