I’ve been thinking all week – just trying to make sense of it all.

We got the news Wednesday afternoon. A last-minute change meant we were bound for the Slade Community Hall, and I immediately signed up and listened to their entire back catalogue on Spotify. And I continued listening on my travels to Woolwich, holding back my lungs from singing out on Blackheath Common.

But I arrived, slightly perplexed that the others weren’t in their 70s glad rags.

What is happening? I thought. And then I noticed they were all carrying backpacks - no doubt containing sequinned tops and trousers and flares. So I quickly changed and stowed my own jumbo top hat with stick-on reflective circles, and I joined the group, excited for our upcoming glitter adventure.

Sara began by asking what the take home message would be for each of our respective national appreciation days. For Sara, it was all about pronunciation – it’s SAR-UH, not SAIR-UH! And this snowballed – we had discussions about the number of ns in Jen(n)ifer and Jen(n)y; how it’s definitely not MartHa; the use of a PH in a name with a V sound; and peculiar typos of ‘Franki’.

With that settled and all of us looking ahead to our own National Appreciation Day, we started our run through Woolwich, and up to Plumstead. By this point, I thought the anticipation was palpably bubbling. None of us were mentioning it, not stating the glam-rock-elephant in the groove, and we just plodded, my sequinned top hat gently jingling in my rucksack. And then we arrived...

...and taking a brief sidestep from this silly prose, I must say the Slade Community Hall is gorgeous! It’s a hub for local people, with an adjoining community library and lovely rooms and spaces for people to meet up and connect. And it’s all run by the Glyndon Community Group, who we’ve been working with for the past 2 or so years at GoodGym Greenwich – they do great things for the Greenwich community, and I thoroughly recommend you checking them out :) …

… and we were waiting for Andy from the Glyndon Community Group to arrive. And well, I didn’t say anything, but I just knew that Andy would be bringing a very merry guest along with him. So, we chatted, and looked through the windows into the library, and thought about what tasks we might be doing – all the time knowing we’d be singing our lungs out with Slade’s superstar lead, Noddy Holder!

But who could have known your glam rock dreams can come tumbling down so quickly.

Andy arrived on his own, and he got the tools out for us, and he gave us our tasks, and everyone got to it, and.... I just stood there in my gardening gloves. Everyone else cracked on with the weeding and pruning and tidying up of the green spaces around the edges of the hall, and they filled bin bags, and they laughed and talked about upcoming plans, and they did a really fantastic job, but...

No Noddy.

We left, bidding Andy farewell (thank you, Andy, for being so helpful and supportive!), and we ran back down the hill to Woolwich and finished with a lovely stretch and a natter. And no-one mentioned Slade, the glam rock band from the 70s, ever, at all, not once. I think I must have got confused. My glitter-jumbo-top hat is back in the wardrobe. I wonder if Noddy will ever come to GoodGym Greenwich?

When Jen and I both received texts from Rachel telling us it we just just the two of us, were we going to bail? Never a chance.

Tom’s unfortunate foot injury (achieved by supporting his partner running The New Forest marathon so zealously that he ended up running most of it himself too) meant there was no run before work commenced. But a mixture of bike and bus got us there. Jen had already hit the gym this morning so absence of the run was probably for the best.

The session flew by, largely thanks to excellent conversation that ranged from the recent form and profligacy in front of goal of Hueng Min Son, to the best swimming strokes, to being in the air as news of the Queen broke.

We met our jolly host who offered us each a litter picker and a bag, and we got to work.

Both having blatantly ignored the mission description’s advice to bring a head torch, we made several knife-edge decisions on whether something was a piece of litter, or indeed a leaf. Unusual items discovered in the grounds of the Slade Centre were a clothing rail, a fur coat and a buggy.

Hugely grateful for our attendance, he even rewarded us with a bag of cooking apples. Tom obviously checked the Official GoodGym® Gift Policy tooth and nail before accepting such an extravagance.

Timing worked out just great, as our host was heading off shortly after 8. The first of the year (for me, at least) to take place largely after dark. A sign of things to come…

Thanks to Jen for being excellent company and look forward to the next one!

We skipped, ran and then hopped
Did side lunges 'cross the floor
We were feeling kinda warmed up
But the run leader called out for more!
The air was feeling warmer
As the storm clouds flew away
And we ran up hills and over
To the Slade Children’s Centre – yay!

And so it was that later
We arrived faster than a snail
To find what our tasks were
And we knew we would prevail

We thought "there is no reason"
Why we can’t paint all these walls
So we gathered our painting tools
Carefully painting with no overalls
Some of the group went outside
And swept leaves from the floor
And although the time went fast
The Centre looked better than before

And so it was that later
As we finished without a fail
We looked proudly to what we’d done
And went back to the Crossrail

This evening was a huge one for GG Greenwich as we were led on Jennifer's inaugural first time leading a group run. Spoiler - she did a great job!

The gang converged at our new shiny spot, outside the shiny new Elizabeth line station in Woolwich. We had Laura visiting us from Southwark and we welcomed Haley back after having her back. We had a brilliant briefing from Jen and a fun ice breaker, then headed into a warm up to get us primed and ready to run up a lengthy set of hills to the task.

It was a balmy evening and I really enjoyed seeing the group smashing up the hills from my back marker position. Everyone pushed through the challenges of the hills, and were rewarded with the knowledge it'll be a down hill journey home.

We met Alan at Slade community center, a lovely hub in the area with a library, hall and small garden. We split into two groups; painters and sweepers. The painters were cutting in with brushes and rolling, Alan was so pleased to see how quickly the group worked to get the area painted, it looked fresh and fab! Well done gang. The sweepers went out to the garden and car park to pick up litter and then sweep up the leaves that had fallen over the car park spaces. Two whole bags of rubbish were filled and the leaves were swept away in the bushes.

After lots of thanks from Alan and a group photo which was reminiscent of our school photos, we took in our rewarding downward run back to Woolwich. Jen gave us some great stretches and we headed off home.

There are lots of great activities coming up in the next couple of weeks including our summer social this Saturday at the Garrison Church. See you all soon!

A quick report for a lovely and happy evening.

This merry bunch met in sunny Woolwich - newly buoyed and connected by the wonderful Crossrail - and we headed off to see our old friend, Andy, at the Slade Children's Centre.

1 of 3 community centres Andy manages, they fill their gardens and walls with local groups, activities, and thinking - a hub for their community - and it was a hub in need of a little green sprucing.

We got to weeding, sweeping, pruning, and clearing their entrance way and car-park, and in 30 minutes this group of 9 packed up a good heap of bags - it's always lovely seeing how quickly a group of GoodGymers can make a space lovely again.

Nice one, folks.

Well, last night didn't quite go to plan. After a day staring out my window wondering what the weather would deliver this evening, 9 brave souls optimistically arrived in Woolwich. We stared up at the clouds and hoped that they would calm down and give us a dry run. After a brief shower we welcomed the group and warmed up. We had a great chat discussing some common runner questions including best place to land on the foot and how to work on our arm movements while running.

We headed off to a new task tonight which saw us take in a new area in Woolwich, Plumstead and it's common. We encountered some hills on the way and I saw some really strong running! The weather blessed us with a break in rain as we approached the Slade Centre, however we had missed our task owner due to a miscommunication and were left pondering how we could get some good done this evening. We agreed that we could go and do some litter picking, but then the weather decided differently. The heavens opened as we headed back towards central Woolwich and the group bravely ran in probably the worst weather I have experienced at Goodgym!

As we were soaking, the sun had gone down and the run had been a good effort we headed off, most of us to the Equitable to warm up and discuss philosophy over some drinks.

Thank you all for your company last night and the run leader team will ensure this kind of thing won't happen again! So so soooo lovely to see all of your smiling faces laughing at our bad luck and getting absolutely soaked in the aid of doing good in our community.

Next week's group run will be updated soon with more information, keep an eye on your inboxes and if you aren't already involved you can join the whatsapp for some great chat and discussions on GGG business.

Hopefully see some of you on Saturday at Charlton parkrun! If you've not been before and fancy a free 5k run or a chance to volunteer have a look https://www.parkrun.org.uk/charlton/