We witnessed a beautiful late summer sunset yesterday, and I had the joy of enjoying it alongside 15 wonderful folk :)

Ingestre Road Estate was where our group in red descended. Nestled a few minutes from Tufnell Park, this community housing is set amidst mature trees, lively flower beds, and a great-huge-magnificient (and hidden) woodland. We've helped out here a few times this year, and it was special to come back as we look towards Autumn.

Several of us (Alex T, Chalomi, Ivo, Jack, Jackie, Jenny, John, Marta, Sarah H, Steve, and I) started our evening with meandering run up and through the evening hubbub of Kentish Town - whilst several others (Darren, Emily, Jacob, and Sarah A) had made their own ways on foot and pedals.

Met by the wonderful Pete (who used to head up GoodGym Camden), we swiftly split into teams, each tackling a much-needed task.

We had Team Cut-the-Crap-Out-Of-The-Over-Grown-Area (consisting of Ivo, Jenny, Sarah A, and Sarah H), who absolutely transformed a patch of overgrown weeds and brambles across 30 strenuous minutes!

We had Team Tap>Water>Walk>Trees>Water>Repeat (consisting of Alex T, Darren, Emily, and Steve), who gave a newly planted woodland orchard of apple trees the water they deserve :)

We had Team Turn-Bog-Into-Pond (consisting of Jacob, John, and Marta), who shifted bucket after bucket of fresh sand to a natural water-draining pond, gifting it robustness ahead of the wetter months to come!

We had Team Bramble-2-Wheelbarrow-Ramble (consisting of Chalomi and Jack), who cut back oodles of overhanging bramble and who then traversed ramps, gates, and keen photographers as they carefully transported their towering barrow of cut thorns!

And we had our very own litter-picking maestro, Jackie, who bagged a huge pile of litter from both the estate and woodland :)

To top off our evening, a few of us headed to The Vine for a social natter, where we were also met by the wonderful GoodGym Greenwich AA, Rachel :)

Thank you to Pete for organising such a brilliant suit of tasks - and thank you, all, for your energy, work, and time - I appreciate it!

See you soon!

Just who is Dr Beckmann!?

This was the question filling my mind as I travelled home from yesterday evening's wonderful GoodGym evening.

I have not slept. I have exhausted my coffee supplies. But my research (via Google) is complete and I am pleased to present my findings:

1. I am not sure Dr Beckmann is a real doctor.
2. Their website is mainly composed of stock images of people looking amazed whilst pointing at cleaning products.
3. I am not sure whether Dr Beckmann ever actually existed.
4. The amazed-point-and-smile look is exactly the same as the look that glazed the faces of every GoodGymer who used the Dr Beckmann carpet cleaner yesterday.

I do not know what to do with these findings. But I have ordered 17 bottles of carpet cleaner.

Anyway! Onto yesterday evening!

A wonderful group in red (Caitlin, Chalomi, Ivo, Jacob, Lici, and Steve) met on the bridge by Barbican Station in evening sun, and we swiftly started catching up and made our running journey through the city, past Brick Lane, and over to Whitechapel. On arrival at the Brady Arts and Community Centre, we were met by the brilliant Emily and Giulia, and we ascended the two flights to our destination for the evening!

Since March, we've been redecorating a previously under used volunteer room at the Brady for the truly fab charity, Social Action for Health. I've included a few photos of how the room used to be! Over 10+ week-night and weekend sessions, we've removed brackets, learnt how to use polyfilla, sanded, painted undercoat, painted first coat, painted second coat, and last night, we were there to hang pictures, scrape paint spatters, and clean carpets.

Over 50 minutes, this awesome group brought new life to the carpets (they look great), blitzed paint from the tables and bookcases, and hung 5 pictures and 1 noticeboard, all of which make this room feel finished, fresh, and ready to use.

I am overjoyed at how amazing the room looks - and I know how grateful the whole Social Action team are - this simply wouldn't have happened without your time and energy :)

And a special mention to the wonderful Lici, who has been part of GoodGym since August 2016 when she moved to London with her family, and who will now shortly be embarking on another adventure back to Sydney. You are a joy to know, Lici, and your family and friends in Sydney will be so very lucky to have you closer again. We're looking forward to feeling jealous of your sun-soaked Aussie photos!! Please stay in touch!!

We came into this last group run of January knowing that we needed 12 more good deeds to reach our our January Challenge! Sam was keeping his fingers crossed for at least 12 Southwark members. With 21 sign ups, it was looking hopeful. Slowly, but surely, people started to stream into Old Spike. By 18:45, he looked up at everyone and gave a silent count. 14 faces, but 11 Southwark members... but just as he was about to start his speech, David entered the door. We did it, 200 good deeds in January! Hit both targets having already hit our distance target of 2,000km.

There was a lot to get through tonight, but we started by welcoming Chalomi and Jack from Central Team as well as David and Roberta who came for their second GoodGym session. Yet, tonight was special as not only we were celebrating hitting our targets and GG Southwark's 8th birthday, but Maria after four months and a half from her first good deed hit her 100th! Claiming her wings (and a cake) in the process. Kudos and well done Maria!

Sam went through his usual GG intro speech and his ice-breaker snap-poll and question tonight was about National Croissant Day and National Hot Chocolate Day, which fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. He asked which one is more preferable: croissant or hot chocolate? He also asked, if anyone wanted to share about their January highlights.

For the snap poll and winning by one vote....croissant! People's January highlights included going on holiday, birthdays, raves and learning new skills.

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"Is Stormzy from Southwark?"

After a quick warm-up in the alleyway, Sam led the group out of Old Spike with Maria backmarked (both ways). The idea was to do a loop around Peckham Rye Park but speedy Sam realised parts of the group were behind, so he decided to change it up last minute and do an "out and back" course. It was a busy night in the park with other runners and Peckham Pacers. Yet, after our just under 4k run, we made it back to Old Spike to take a breather and a sip of Athletic Brewing IPAs.

With litter pickers and black bin bags at the ready, we had to split the group into four teams to cover 4 different areas:

• Team Laura who had Alex, Isaac, Louise and Steve covered East Dulwich.
• Team Katy who had just Daryl covered Nunhead.
• Team Paulin who had Andrada, Folarin, Maria, Nathan covered Peckham.
• Team Emma who had Chalomi, David, Lucy, Jack and Roberta covered Queen's Road Peckham.

The rules were simple. Tick off as many items on the litter bingo card in 30 minutes and cover as much distance as the winning team would be determined by items x by distance (in kilometres) = points.

After 30 minutes, each team came back with two bags worth of litter and ticked off their items (out of 25). The results were as following:

• 4th place: Team Peckham = 22 items x 1.75km (38.5 points)
• 3rd place: Team Nunhead = 21 items x 2.75km (57.75 points)
• 2nd place: Team East Dulwich = 23 items x 2.95k (67.85 points)
• 1st place: Team Queen's Road Peckham = 23 items x 3km (69 points)

The winning team took home small body gels from Body Shop. There were awards for those in Southwark that did more than 5 good deeds and covered more than 25 kilometres plus we had cake to celebrate GG Southwark's 8th birthday and Maria's 100th good deed milestone before most of us headed to The Old Nun's Head for a few drinks and pizza!

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night! I did go off on a faster pace than usual as I was conscious of time. It was a long run, but we managed to squeeze in the 4k run and a litter pick after my longer than usual speech and ice-breaker. Thank you to Maria for backmarking, Paulin, Emma, Katy and Laura for being sub-team leaders for the litter pick bingo. Finally, thank you to all for coming to these group runs in January, we managed to reach our targets!

It may just be me this week - is what I believed...

...BBC Weather had given up - your evening will be bleak - is all they'd said since Sunday... apparently the Daily Snow in Alaska led with - At Least We're Not London... and my Mum texted - surely not shorts, darling? 

Yet our sign ups kept rolling in...

...first it was the GoodGym Central Team, with Chalomi, Ivo, Jacob, Jack, and Kieran - perhaps they want to check up on me, I thought...

...then it was our good-deeding regulars Alison, Jackie, John, Katy, Lici, Louise, and Steve - they sign up for *every* good deed, this lot, I thought...

...and then it was our newer (and very welcome!!!) faces to our community, Akshay and Bozena - did they even know what they'd done(!!), I thought...

Yet - standing in Winter's dark and cold - our wonderful group convened. Thank you, all, I genuinely went through Wednesday feeling like I had a party awaiting in my evening :) 

We kicked things off with our warm up, replacing London for the Wild West, and I do wonder whether passersby were curious about cries of SNAKE IN MY BOOT. A quick few minutes later, our merry group wove our way through Euston and Bloomsbury and onto Tottenham Court Road, where we jumped swiftly into the wonderful American International Church. 

Here for our usual fortnightly slot to set up their C4WS Winter Shelter, we were met by GoodGym friend, Brooke, who set to briefing our team. 

One group (John, Katy, Lici, and Louise, I believe!) quickly set off to do some heavy lifting - shifting AIC's Christmas decorations and recycling 16 large boxes (and thanks for the photo, Katy!)- whilst the other group got to moving chairs and tables, unfurling beds, and fitting clean and warm linen for the evening ahead. We finished by laying out towels and toiletries for the night's guests, leaving a welcoming space. 

I know just how much Brooke and the AIC team appreciate your time and work, everyone - the shelter is a 100% voluntary endeavour - and it wouldn't be possible without the likes of your help - thank you :) 

Our final act was for regular (and lovely) AIC volunteer, Russell, to kindly take our group's photo. On the way home and enjoying Russell's handiwork, twin brother Steve turned and said to me, Alex, why do people always take better photos on your phone than you do...

Here's to next time, all!