A humid Wednesday evening bought us to woolwich for a gentle run to our old haunt, Glyndon. Tonight we were tasked with cleaning up the driveway and weeding the gravel in the garden which was done with our usual efficiency if I do say so myself. Heartened by the difference we made in a short space of time, we headed back to enjoy the rest of our evenings. Good work team!

Next week is gardening at Christchurch!

Until next time.

Tonight's GoodGym Greenwich session was in celebration of one of our all time heroes, Julian who has achieved the much coveted goal of completing 500 good deeds! That's 500 tasks, most of which have involve a decent run there and back...let's do the calculations on how many km that is, bear with me - maths isn't my strong suit. (say 3km is the average run and then there and back that's 6km each session so that's 6x500 and yes I'm doing that on my calculator in case I put too many zeroes on, we don't want an over inflated ego do we - so that's 3000km thereabouts!) 3000km all in the name of doing good. Now that ain't bad.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of doing a task with Julian will know he puts everything in to whatever he does. He'll be the first up the ladder, the one pulling up the most brambles and he'll lead the run the odd times we don't have a run leader. He's way up that ladder in the GoodGym greats with his commitment to what we do and he's an inspiration to all of us. Julian once said if he were a plant he'd be holly - prickly - but in fact he's one of the kindest and generous people and we're privileged to have him on our ranks.

I should stop there, that's probably faaar too much for a humble guy. Talking about GoodGym greats though, I didn't think it possible to think more highly of Sarah but she outdid herself last night when she produced a safety pin from her bag when I was saying I needed another pin for the fetching sash we furnished Julian with for his special night. She explained she carries one around just in case (you never know when you might need a safety pin!) Absolute legend. Reminds me of my nanna who used to carry her lippy around with her (you never know who you might meet) she'd say in her thick Brummie accent as she applied it liberally at opportune (and sometimes inopportune) moments on our days out.

After a warm up involving gloves and water bottles to fill in for Arthur's ball pit balls - and a rather competitive rivalry between the married couple in the group (caught on camera with those lovely squats to get that much closer to the gloves) - we ran up the what always feels to me like a very long Burrage road to the Glyndon Community Centre. Andy got us set up with clearing the back garden and weeding round the front. On our way round, Kerry and I spotted what I thought was a hedge covered in cobwebs you get for halloween...but then I remembered it's May. Brin later told me it's tent caterpillars. Just the thought of that was gross but I just made the mistake of googling them and now I'm going to itch all night.

You know you want to google them too. Go on, just do it.

I feel like they're on me, are they ON ME??!

Okay, it's going to be okay, just keep reading and I'll take your mind off those hairy little...oh my God, did you see this one? Deep breaths everyone, go to your happy place. There are no caterpillars in the happy place.

We ended our evening in a happy place, with a couple of drinks at Salt and friends Darryl, John, Sarah and Laura joining us to celebrate.

I'll leave you with Julian's words about one of the many joys of GoodGym.

"Join GoodGym because you discover all sorts of lovely places you wouldn't even know exist"

We're at Christchurch Community garden next week - hope to see you there.

Until next time!

And so another year begins with a bang with the January Challenge! This week the Charlton contingent ran together to Woolwich to start our group run, where we warmed up with someone passing by joining in before catching her train - always nice to bring the community feel on our Woolwich starts!

We set off for Glydon to freshen the paint in the back room. A little tlc goes a long way here and many a painting job has been completed by our merry bunch. Lovely way to start the year and always worth coming out on a drizzly evening for GoodGym - friends, a little exercise and doing some good always make January much better.

Nice one folks, see you next week!

Wednesday was a chilly one! Sarah and I warmed up and had a leisurely run to Glyndon where we met Pieter, Andy and an unwitting rocking horse I've named Nigel. Andy showed us the cupboard Nigel was to be packed away in. How many cupboards have we tidied, sorted, repacked and cleared out at Glyndon? Surprisingly large cupboards and it's deceptive how much you can fit in them.

We had to take everything out to put Nigel in - face down was the best storage position, poor thing - and then remember where everything went back, not least slotting the TV in for easy access. A trip to the shed later (full of all manner of things needed for a community centre) and we were finished in plenty of time for a nice run along the river.

All the best Nigel, we hope you get your Toy Story moments to canter around Glyndon of a night.

Nice work team, until next time!

NB: This report features a description of two short films which doesn't do them justice. If you'd like to watch the films you can refer to the GGG whatsapp group but I will warn you: they are harrowing.

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It started like any ordinary Wednesday evening, meeting this week in Woolwich and swapping stories about how genuinely boring our Halloween's were. Sarah definitely won, having put the effort into carving a pumpkin and handing out sweets to the trick or treaters. Is that worthy of a good deed, GoodGym? I think after the night Sarah had, it should be (see short film 1 "Psycho" for full context).

After a short run up to Glyndon we were joined by Pieter and Kit and set to work on our first task of the evening, clearing a cupboard, taking out a nailed in shelving unit and sliding a new fridge in there.

While waiting for Andy to get the necessary tools, the gang gathered round to hear our second task, inspired by the excellent show, Taskmaster. The task was in two groups to create a scary short film using contents from the cupboard. Each group had 10minutes to plan their film and they got bonus points for featuring Andy in said film.

> "Your time starts now"

Just as this is announced, Andy walks in with a saw held out in a murderous rage as he turns towards the cupboard to meet his foe, the shelving unit. Pieter valiantly blocked his path to the cupboard screaming to take him instead; both teams thought they had their short films in the bag at this point. Disappointingly, he merely hacks at Pieter's finger; a warning saw. Then he proceeds to tear the unit limb from limb, dragging it unceremoniously from its dusty home to be used as a prop in a later film. It was brutal and I was getting increasingly concerned we hadn't foreseen the health and safety risk in this task.

After the fridge was in situ, and after a therapy session both teams felt ready to take on task two; the short film.

Film one featured a rendition of Psycho with a shower curtain and shower head from the cupboard, complete with the Psycho sound effect. Poor Sarah didn't see Julian or his knife coming until it was too late. Andy starred as a voice of Sarah's partner at the beginning "I'll be in in a minute darlin'". Hmmm...you could say he orchestrated the whole thing in fact. One to mull on.

Film two featured a stable marriage of two equal psychopaths. Pieter took up Andy's saw and (in a chilling display of chauvinism) came home expecting a change from his usual dinner from his wife, Marta. Marta described the meal as being "very fresh and jumping around in the market not that long ago". Butler Andy was called to reveal the meal which was Kit, definitely supposed to be dead with a knife protruding from her, but who instead dissolved into laughter trying to get her sound effect to work. At least Tom was genuinely surprised to see her - we've paid for an additional therapy session for him.

Some behind the scenes quotes from the making of the films:

Maybe can we get some more blood

If you wanna be dead body number one?

*It's a shame this paper cutter has a safety on it *

Hopefully no one needs the loo

I'm a bit scared of Andy

Well done to both teams, sporting efforts all round. Team two narrowly won the contest but all were awarded sweets, including Andy.

If you're concerned about Pieter's wellbeing, I can report that after spending the night in A&E and what he called a 'blood transfusion' he's looking much more like himself. Although he did have an awful lot of tomato ketchup around his mouth. I think it was ketchup....I'm sure it was.

Remember the Fireworks at Glyndon tomorrow!

Lots going on this weekend and next week we're at Clothes for Causes for our run starting at the Naval College. Until next time!

NB. This report was written by Tom Bigglestone, who wasn't there...but then how did he write such an accurate representation of what happened?

Wednesday 20:33- Franki created group "Run Report challenge"

20:35 Franki : Tom, we've nominated you for the run report. Should you accept this challenge, we will supply you with ten photographic clues and five key phrases.

20:40 Tom: Challenge accepted.

And that was how it happened. GoodGym accepts no responsibility for what is described in this run report. The phrases Tom was given are in bold.

"Well that’s a Mission that will go down in the annals of history! I certainly won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

It didn’t have the best of starts. Ten minutes into the warm up activity, all a casual bystander would hear was Franki shouting “it’s a points game!” as justification for injuring them all in a desperate quest for victory. If that was bad, her over-zealous approach when Rachel shouted “high knees people” only added to the walking wounded.

Julian was nursing a bruised eye socket which everyone agreed was the shade of bike chain black. On his birthday as well (happy birthday, Julian!). He certainly made some new friends and got some qualifications in small-talk as members of the public crowded around to assist. Pieter, also dizzy, dazed and confused from Franki’s “win-at-all-costs' in-game violence, could only repeat the same two words to any subsequent question: “baked beans.”

When the police arrived to ask Franki what had brought on this torrent of energetic elimination and destruction, all she could say, as she was led off in handcuffs, was *“I had broad beans for tea, from a packet, not a can.” *

And so the mission itself began. The run of 1.07km was completed at a brisk pace. The 70p chocolate bars in the vending machine looked all the more enticing after the recent pause in Bank of England Interest-Rate Hikes. But there was no need - with food aplenty: Miniature Heroes (the only confectionery selection box that doesn’t contain nuts, I found out last week, hence why they’re so popular in schools. And GoodGym tasks, it seems). Plus some rainbow sugary sweets which looked like they had enough e-numbers to kill a small horse.

As always, lots of painting ensued (we could probably all qualify with Checkatrade through practice hours alone). This time it was the skirting boards - our famous wall remains intact!

Luckily the rest of the evening passed without incident. Franki has just been released on bail. With a restraining order. Must stay 100m away from broad beans."

Until next time, if you dare.