Well what a night! A last minute cancellation saw Sarah run an extra good deed in my eye to grab the leaflets needed for this back up deed. Thank you Sarah and Rachel for the last minute organisation.

The gang gathered shivering in the covered area above our normal meeting point, and thankfully no one left at the news that we were no longer off to an indoor task. Most impressively was that our newest member Kristin stayed the course and got stuck in this evening. So glad to have you with us Kristin!

We did our introductions and heard which of the group had any secret dancing skills. I had hoped to initiate a dance off but that will have to wait for a future social, i personally cant wait to see Alex dad dancing versus Brin 90s west coast hip hop.

We did a quick warm up in the brief dry patch and headed up maze hill to distribute our leaflets. The group split into two and we divided our territory - essential when leafleting the good people of Greenwich!

My group quickly lost each other but mostly stayed in buddies so no one was lonely, in what was now driving rain. I think we can all agree that the best tactic for leaflets is to find houses divided into flats - one door and lots of postboxes.

Well done all for staying when the conditions couldn't have been much worse. I personally hope this change in weather calms down, especially in time for parkrun on the weekend.

We have some excellent community missions coming up plus our Christmas social! Get signed up and see you all soon.

This Sunday in Charlton comes the fair once described as the yearly collected rabble of mad people. As well as, in the Daily News in 1872, a reign of the Lord of Misrule.

Of course, this is surprising GoodGym fodder, and I for one felt shivers at the prospect of flyering for such an event.

Thankfully however, the Horn Fair these days is a celebration of life that’s staged in the decadent grounds of Charlton House and Gardens, in collaboration with the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust. On offer will be numerous dance performances, a new kids’ zone run by Charlton’s new Montessori Moments nursery, and gastronomic delights including Jamaican rum cakes and local mead.

Last night, seven GoodGymmers met outside Charlton House to bang the drum for the upcoming event. We had reams of leaflets and were dispersed into a group of three and four, and we headed in opposite directions.

Julian, Debs, and I quickly got onto residential streets with the help of Julian’s local knowledge, and we fed leaflets into letterboxes until our hands were empty. Then, we jogged back to Charlton House, buoyed by our timeliness, and shortly afterwards, we were joined by the other group. We nattered for a short while and then asked a passer-by to take a photo, and that was a wrap to a lovely GoodGym evening.

And remember, if you’re at a loose end this coming Sunday 17th October, then pop down to the Horn Fair at Charlton House and Gardens between 11am and 4pm. I expect it will be a rabble of community and zing that will keep the Autumn cold away!

Double, double, toil and travel;

Three members came to clear the gravel.

With three broomsticks like the witches fly;

Under London’s darkening sky.

Discussing Saturday’s Parkrun;

And Jenny’s marathon.

The buckets were filled;

And no frogs were killed.

As we finished shovelling in the dark

We said goodbye to Charlton Park!

credit to ‘Song of the Witches’, Macbeth

On a lovely summer's evening, six GoodGymmers closed ranks to take on a path of gravel which needed to be cleared to make the Peace Garden at Charlton House accessible for the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival. They have a play called Family Tree on over the next week and the path looks nice but isn't very easy for wheelchair users, prams and high heels.

Special welcome to Miguel who was on his second GoodGym community mission and ran all the way from the Isle of Dogs!

We got to work sweeping, shovelling and scraping gravel into piles to scoop into all of the buckets and bins we could find. Now Charlton House just need to work out what to do with 3 wheely bis worth of bins of gravel...any ideas??

As the clouds of dust from our heavy and incessant toiling melted away...we saw, as if in a dream, a thing of wonder: smooth hard earth, barely touched by foot or shovel, ready to welcome without incident the next pushchair wheel or primark high heel.

*As they say, many hands make light work. *

It was Arthur's first community mission - our new honourary GoodGym member, and he was pretty unphased by the whole thing, sleeping through the dust clouds and unabating clanging of metal on rock. He provided the vital cute factor that's missing on most community missions and gave us the motivation to keep shovelling to make the world that little bit better for the next generation.

The litmus test for our success was pushing the buggy back out of the garden which was certainly easier than coming in so it was a worthwhile hour spent ungravelling I'd say - good job team!