9 GG Brent Familia, hit up a couple of K, to; Break up old beds, manovoure matresses, lift chairs, move massive mounds of old furniture & whack some weeds. All For the community regeneration of the Old Police HQ in wonderful Willesden!!

Intrigued.... yes it was a weird and wacky one I can tell you!! Read on for the full report

Delighted to be back with my west London fam, the GG Brent brigade didn't disappoint, with a courageous crew of nine, ready to rock the roads and pound pavements for Willesden Town Team's Police Station regeneration project. POW POW!

Back in the mix for a second week in a row was the absolutely awesome Coralie, one of the GG Brent originals back from her travels, all gorgeous and brown. Joining Coralie was our gaggle of gals: Sisters Beattie and Rachel, Debs and Tabs, Clairey-bell and Awesome Amy. And holding down the fort for the Brent, brilliant blokes was always jubilant Joe!! YAY.

So wasting no time..... OKAY We did waste a bit with catch ups and banter We stepped out to run the short distance to our destination for the eve on Walm Lane! On route we heard some very exciting news indeed that our very own beautiful Debs, received a proposal at the weekend...!!!! Amazing and we were so delighted to hear her wonderful wedding news! x x x

The run was fairly short, so arriving on time was no problem at all! Meeting us a the door was our ever brilliant host Colin, who, like the stray cats he fostered lurking all around the yard, has had nine lives himself! Which we heard all about over the course of the evening The being swept out the sea escape being the most dramatic swerve of death story he told! WOWZER and there's you thinking cool-cats didn't like water!!

Wanting to maximise the time we decided to stay for the duration of 60mins as there was plenty to do!! Most notably the smashing up of old bed frames and mattress stacking as this old station used to be haven for a very large community of squatters and copious amounts of sleep aids were not needed for what was in store for this place's future! FYI - You couldn't stop the enthusiasm of Beattie and Tabitha as they launched straight into the bed-bashing and wielded their hammers until the final stopwatch chime! Girl Power Hour for real!!

Rachel, Amy, Coralie, Claire and I focussed on the chair stacking and heavy lifting of the debrit varieties from the shed to the yard, while Joe became Colin's right hand muscle man! And despite his looks of dismay and self doubt, turned out to be quite the handy-man, spending some of the night perched on top of a van!! LOL

Although it's fair to say this was definitely a physical task of the highest decree, in order to get in some legit fitness fun, I integrated some leg circuits into the mix, with break-out squads tackling: Split squats, sumos and jump lunges X10 Reps for 3 rounds and I'm hoping there's gonna be some well toned, aching muscles waking up in West London this morning as a result!!

Although it seemed like only a few moments passed, the time had unfortunately etched away and once more we had to bid farewell to our excellent host and worthy task. However, this one is one where there is much to be done and we will be back for a visit in the next coming weeks!

Fast feet took us back to base with speed demon Debs (as always) pushing pace at the front and giving me a sure-fire run for my money! Stretches to finish and with a genuinely pooped possey we called it a night! but we'll see you next time Brent brigade!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE!

Today in solemn contemplation and hearts filled with empathy and love, 13 Goodgym runners from Brent, ran through postcodes and 2 neighbour boroughs, to give what we could and pay respect to the community, survivors and victims of Grenfell Tower.

It was a humbling sight to behold when my eyes fell upon the group I call my GG family who showed up in droves to run 5k to Grenfell. Running to pay respect and give what we could in donations and volunteering.

Lighting our route was the most beautiful of setting suns, which made us smile although our hearts were heavy and with a mission to Avenues Youth Centre on our minds, the run, despite the heat was swift if not a little sweaty.

Arriving at Avenues we were greeted so warmly by the manager Carol and even though this time their volunteer needs were already met, we did make some amazing contacts and perhaps arrange for one or two of our crew to support their future fundraising in the way of running the London marathon..... I just have to figure out how to convince the team to do it.

So turning on our heels again and catching the last of the glows of sun as it set over the beautiful canal, we head towards Latimer Road and the main memorial sight for Grenfell.

Now I am not littering this run report with catchy puns and tom foolery because this was so not what this run was about. We were in solidarity, in mourning and in partnership with every other human being who was and have been there, making the effort, yesterday, today and tomorrow!

In fact, just speaking with the community we understood that they would continue to need massive support for the next few weeks, if not more, especially when the media attentions will surely begin to ease off and they don't want people to forget the need that will be there. So people must continue to reach out for many weeks and months to come.

So with this in mind, we linked up with Sister Ruth, the incredible community leader who was taking charge of organisations, from the church on Latimer Road. We pledged to be back, both as individuals and as a team, because this may not be our borough, but this is our London and we must erase borough lines and postcodes, to show unity, love and understanding. To give back to this significant and life altering community cause and demonstrate we will not stand for how these people have been treated. It must be talked about, it mustn't be forgotten and it cannot happen again!

Our final goodbye was in a song, shared with some of the other mourners and Sister Ruth. We sang together Amazing Grace and as we sang, we lit our candles and said personal and quiet prayers, for all who had been lost and for all those suffering now from this terrible tragedy.

I urge you if you haven't, please go there, because no news article or TV broadcast can convey the true heartbreak of this community in mourning.

Together we stand.

Well, maybe not the town but an inside shop wall to help Greenwich & Bexley Hospice get there shop refurbishment a step forward. This week I was so pleased to have three new faces on our run and task. Welcome Mavis, Jane and Caz, I really hope you enjoyed yourselves. We certainly enjoyed having you. After signing in we went into our mandatory pre-run chat and warmup. Well done Fidellis for winning the prize of 10 star jumps In our favourite car competition. Serves you right for having expensive tastes 😂. On warming up (remember we warm up to run, not run to warm up) we headed out of base camp Crooklog and straight up towards Welling. There's something quite satisfying about running and dodging commuters as they head home and we head to do our good deed. On arrival we were greeted with smiling faces and refreshing water, thanks Mandy. It's at this point we go from runners to good deeders and got stuck straight in to the task. With a team cutting in and a team rolling , the hardest part for me was stopping the guys painting my beard whiter then what it all ready is. Little did they know pay back would be on our run home. <Little did they know pay back would be on the run home
With the gang doing a brilliant job it was left to our tallest member Fidellis to finish off all the areas at the top. After admiring our professional workman ship and posing for photo's (think we're getting pretty good at that) it was time to say our good byes and head back to base camp Crooklog. With this weeks runners being of all abilities we set a meet up point at Welling Football Club for our first fitness drill. Thanks Eilleen and Janine for looking after the front group, you guys were brilliant as always. As we arrived at Welling FC, pay back for the attempted beard painting was due and it started in the form of wall squats, ouch!! <As we arrived at Welling FC, pay back for the attempted beard painting was due. After a competitive sit off ** we were off again and to **my delight soon came across perfect walls for my wall press ups and tricep dip drills. Payment was due, and the debt was going to be paid in full 😂 After doing our bingo wing destroying exercises it was just a short run back to Crooklog for our cool down and natter on how it all went. Bexley Goodgymers you were brilliant as always. I really enjoyed your company and can't wait to do it all again next week.............. Last but not least Happy Birthday Tanya hope you had an awesome day 🎉

Twelve runners set out on a beautiful Monday night for short trot down to the Old Harlesden Police Station where a huge task awaited them out the back...

Abraham was there to meet and greet, and introduced us to Colin, who explained that a new art complex called CREATE SPACE will soon be opening there and will be available for local community use, and that they are fighting to make it a great space for everyone, rather than letting it be developed into blocks of flats. Anyone looking for more information about volunteering or signing up as members can contact colinlearatceatespace@outlook.com (0749 232 1626).

Colin led us out to the previously unexplored territory round the back of the station, (where the creepy old Willesden gallows are located!!!) and set us all to work, with Sadhana, our intrepid (and prolific) photographer catching all the best action moments!

There was (quite LITTER-ally) heaps to do;

• moving wood

• weeding

• sawing branches

• moving piles of mattresses

• litter picking

• fighting unruly ivy...

...but the team were undaunted - we had no trouble with the rubble! and cleared some space in that place! Bravely ignoring slugs and wee beasties, brushing past clumps of nettles and thistles and enduring their nasty stings, we worked on for 50 minutes, searching for doc leaves to soothe the pain, but to no avail... We packed up and set off back for the Queensbury with just a sliver of daylight left - yay for spring!

Before you go... The next GoodGym monthly drinks will be on Thursday 6th April from 6.30pm til late, upstairs at the Marquis of Cornwallis, WC1N 1AP (near Russell Sq). All the details are here: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/gg-monthly-social-april I hope you can make it!

The next is a 'save the date' for the GoodGym Olympics, which will be held on Saturday 10th June at the Parilament Hill Track from 1-6pm; the idea is that different boroughs compete in events like 400m, and the elimination mile, to more novel events like a welly throwing competition and even hopefully a wheelbarrow race with real wheelbarrows. Each area will be encouraged to make their own flag for the event and even have a GoodGym Bake-off (ala a summer fate style), so hopefully it will be something for everyone.

Bye for now, till next time! XXX