This was the first of two GG Bexley sessions at the Community Hospice warehouse sorting donations this weekend.

When we arrived James from the warehouse team had lots of bags of donations ready for us to tackle.

We did well - got through two cages of clothes, and found many surprises. Highlights were the silver pair of shiny budgie smugglers🤣, a very unusual large soft toy badger with a smart coat 🦡, and a long animal tail-like thing which might have been a key ring (it was left in the office for investigation!)

One man had donated a full set of motorcycle leathers 🏍, and we had Rotary Club regalia as well.

Winter coats abounded - must be spring!

Afterwards it was a nice walk back home in the sun for me.

Caroline and I had a good three-hour session sorting through many bags of second hand clothing mostly in great resaleable condition plus the occasional new items that still had labels. This is great uncomplicated work and the time goes fast while you're doing it. There was one Barbour coat which is considered a prestige item but it looked like the farmer had been run over by his tractor by the condition of it! There was also a moment when our bag fell over the edge of the table and I had to take emergency action - see photo. Thanks to Andrew for supervising. Simon

Today we had our very first gardening session at the lovely Community Hospice! Jason the head gardener, met us for a brief intro before heading down to the long border where the task was to clear out as many of the plants and weeds as possible. Challenge accepted.

Special welcome to Chris who joined his first GoodGym session today!

An hour and a half later and 6 trips to empty the big bag of foliage, the border was much clearer than when we started and those of us able to stay trotted off to warm up and have a nice cup of tea inside.

We'll be back here every month to continue transforming the long border so keep your eyes peeled for the next session!

On wednesday we're painting at Holy Trinity Lamorbey School - join us if you're free.

Until next time!

We had a great time today at the Community Hospice Shop in Welling.

Our visit began with a comprehensive tour of the premises, guided by our host, James, who gave us an insight into how everything operates behind the scenes. We also received a health and safety briefing—an essential part of the process when dealing with such a vast amount of donated items.

We learned that this location serves 16 charity shops across the borough, which means an incredible volume of donations constantly needs sorting. It’s a big task.

With our team—Caroline, Ann, Zita, and me—ready to get stuck in, we rolled up our sleeves and set to work sorting through bags of donated clothes, linens, shoes, handbags, and even the odd toy here and there.

The sorting process itself was a real eye-opener. Donations were separated into various categories: 🔹 Quality – pristine, gently used, or worn-out items 🔹 Gender & Age – men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing 🔹 Specialist Items – vintage or designer labels, set aside for specialist charity shops 🔹 Condition – freshly laundered and neatly folded vs. those with stains, paint marks, or signs of heavy wear.

It was interesting see what had been donated. There were some high-end and vintage items, lots of decent quality stuff all the way down to unusable. The good news? The majority will be resold, raising essential funds for the charity.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience. The three-hour session flew by, and we met some nice new people along the way. I imagine we’ll be back before long—there’s always more to do, and it feels good knowing that every bit of effort goes towards such a worthy cause.

We had so much fun tonight, sorting out the musical instruments at Holy Trinity Lamorbey RC Primary School.

Jane, the Deputy Principal, explained that the music room had become a bit of a dumping ground and the time had come to give it a new lease of life.

We got busy adding the bars back onto xylophones and glockenspiels, restringing triangles and finger cymbals, mending jingle bells, testing the keyboards, checking the strings on guitars and organising the all the different recorders and percussion instruments into separate trays. 🥁 🎹

There was some spontaneous dancing with castanets 💃 , and our guitar-playing GG-ers gave us music while we worked. Our team photo was properly tuneful!

We'll be back in a few weeks to paint the music room so the nicely sorted instruments have a smart new home where the children can enjoy using them.