This evening's activities (of which there where too many to come up with an all-encompassing title pun) were for the benefit of the Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts, based on the Thames a little further along from Richmond's lovely field of cows and a little nearer than the scene of our recent balsam bashing.

There was so much to do in fact that Mark's warm up was a little shorter than usual, but of course he did manage to get an exciting new activity in, this weeks being a Mexican Plank Wave, which was confusing and agonising in equal measure. We then set off back from the green and up Queen's Road, following a well-trodden route down to the riverside, thankfully tackling Nightingale Lane from top to bottom rather than the other way round.

Warming up! #goodgym #mondays #fitness #runningdrills #warmup #running #richmond #volunteering pic.twitter.com/F0gF9IBV8z

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) August 6, 2019

Once we got to the Scouts, we found out that it was a va(r)nishing act all round as we were set to work VARNISHING a submarine (!) and making a heck of lot of dirt VANISH from a wide variety of stoves, outdoor tables and rowing boats and also making some wall boards VANISH from inside the scout hut. This was going to be evening for the true goodness of Goodgym to be in show - we couldn't have any nauti buoys or gulls not following orders and getting in the boat with the rest of us.

Team Varnish were kitted out with masks and brushes and got to work on the sub, which has a very interesting history. It was built in 2002 by British boatbuilder Mark Edwards, modelled on the original designed in in 1620 by the Dutch inventor and engineer Cornelius Drebbel - and featured in the BBC TV programme Building the Impossible in 2002 (here's a link for the fact-geeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Drebbel#Submarine). You really had to "sea" it to believe it, and once the crew had done their job they stood back to admire their handiwork - which was SUBlime.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the grounds, another team had chosen the task of cleaning the rowing boats with a power washer, buckets and sponges. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. These ding(h)y boats were filled with soil and dirt - cleaning them was going to be quite an "oardeal", but once the mighty GGers had done their thing the little vessels were looking seaworthy (riverworthy?) again. What an "oarsome" job they did.

We had a BLAST last night! #goodgym #seascouts #richmond #volunteering #gooddeeds #runninggroup pic.twitter.com/Y2tLNge4Ic

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) August 6, 2019

Next to the boats, a big group of us dug deep into our elbow-grease reserves to scrub the decks. Well, not the decks, but the outdoor tables and cooking stoves we were given to work on, which were coated with dirt and grime. This was hard work, as the dirt was caked on and ground into grooves in the table-tops, but that didn't take the wind out of our sails and with fearless spirit we scrubbed for all we were worth. Things got a little easier when more brushes were supplied, and even easier when we borrowed the power washer from the boat crew. As for the dirt, it was very much a case of "now you sea it, now you don't."

The final group was clearing the scout hut to make it look shipshape and bristol-fashion (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shipshape_and_Bristol_fashion), removing the noticeboards from the walls to ready the hut for its demolition to be replaced by a flood-proof version. They were going to get the job done come hell or high water and when they finished up it was a ferrytale ending.

I'm all punned out. A big welcome to Ian on his first run, Cathy and Adam on their second, Jane who was visiting from Kingston and of course a huge Richmond good luck to Becky on setting up and leading the new Goodgym area of Warwick and Leamington Spa.

We'll see you at the 2020 GG Olympics!