We had a lovely evening visiting the wonderful folk at All People All Places (APAP) and we loved it so much we broke the 20 GoodGymmers mark for the first time in years. Boom!

First Stop: Kudos Central

Everybody make some noise for Kristina, Eve, and Luc who all shined last night during their GGH debut. Amazing!

Next Stop: We Will, We Will Mop You

One by one, our intrepid goodgymers made their way up the very very steep hills that led to our one-off rendezvous at the Muswell Hill Roundabout.

We made our way to the homeless shelter where Conor and Duncan from APAP welcomed us with open arms and a multitude of tasks. Good thing there were plenty of us to go around!

Some of us gave the kitchen a good scrub and left it looking spotless; some of us cleared a couple of rooms, moving some tools and bit and bobs to a different floor; some of us hoovered and mopped the main hall; there was bed airing, shelf-making, we even managed to get ourselves trapped in a stairwell for a while!

We crammed ourselves into the main hall for a quick fitness session, where a misguided attempt at a burpee game was followed by a more appropriate suggestion from Latoya and Louise to play Sally Said Sit Down. Everyone loved it - LOVED IT - and it's sure to become a GGH regular*.

By the time we left, the APAP folk were a bit dizzy at the energy and general get-on-with-it-ness of our Goodgymmers and I was a proud trainer.

We then ran down the hill and through awesome Ally Pally into Wood Green for our social but we got unlucky trying to find anywhere with an open kitchen so some of us got hangry and tried to put me in a bin.

It was an ace night.

Next week we're doing a bit of leafleting and playing for the very first ever GGH Scavenger Hunt Cup. I really think you should join us!

Peace.

*I'm allowing myself some poetic license here, regarding the level of love towards the game or amount of goodwill towards Latoya and Louise in the room afterwards :)

'Twas the night before All Hallows' Eve and a cast of ghoulish things came out play... Fourteen gruesome creatures writhed over the streets, and took over a very BadGym in Haringey.

Going for Ghould

Yucky Euclides performed an ancient summoning on a dark autumn night, and one by one, all the creatures of the netherworld ambled towards a helpless kids centre. There was Scarah and Naughty Nurjehan, Dastardly Dave and Nasty Neil, Wretched Rhiannon and Jagged Julie, Creepy Cathy and Horrible Hetty, Calamity Kandy and Merciless Mai, Catastrophic Kapil, Chilling Charlie and Lurking Lou. They revelled in Creepy Cathy's frightful face paint and then set siege upon an unsuspecting kids centre. The night before All Saints' Eve became truly a nightmare before kindergarten.

Slowly, these grisly entities took over the centre, transforming it from an innocent kids playground into a macabre ball pit of despair. The walls took on the dark tones of Halloween as the pumpkin garlands went up and the skeletons and ghosts came to life.

At the ball pit, it was a bloodbath. Dastardly Dave and Naughty Nurjehan carried out one of the worst massacres of bacteria known to GGH as they set out to clean, scrub, and hoover the pit. The poor microscopic victims never stood a chance.

Even in the garden, Horrible Hetty and Chilling Charlie proceeded to just pull out helpless weeds as they danced, pranced, and cackled into the dark night.

After this gruesome lot had fulfilled their appetite for destruction, they turned their attention to more mundane desires as they feasted upon multitude of percy pigs, vegan sour snakes, and chocolate. They laughed as the banquet gathered pace and in a frenzy of evil, some balloons might have been popped.

Then, as if responding to unearthly calls, one by one these grisly things slithered away to rest upon their lair for another year whereupon they'll rise again.

'Twas truly a BadGym night.

What's the Latin for 'we came, we saw, we painted, we struggled to work out our left from our right, we dreamed of capybaras farms, we conquered'? Actually, you're alright.

Make. Some. Noise!

Mai and Kandy joined us for their first Goodgym Haringey run tonight and they took to it like ducks to water. Make some noise for them! Also, special shout out to Sarah, who soldiered on with a hurt wrist and grafted like a woman possessed much to the health and safety supervisor's chagrin. Woop!!

A Night At The Hall

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't a promising start to the evening. It was dark. It was raining. Frankly, it was cold too. And yet, one by one, the humble heroes of this saga slowly started drifting in, with a spring in their step and a smile on their lips.

Yea, 10 wonderful GoodGymmers came and warmed up under the drizzle of this wintery night by laughing and nominating each other for burpees.

And, lo, down they hurried towards the Chestnuts Park Community Centre where a hall awaited them, prepped to be painted.

And paint it they did, reader. Paint it they did, alright.

Our GoodGymmers scrubbed, cleaned, and painted. After about 40 minutes, we had managed to leave the hall looking gorgeous after a very thorough first coat of paint. And we left with the promise of a prompt return to finish the task.

We managed to sneak in a fitness session in the newly-painted hall too and we played Lunge Opposites. I know, you had to be there. It was fun, though!

Then we ran back to HQ in a huddle, fulfilled with the satisfaction of the job well done. Goodgym at its best, if I say so myself.

See? Heroes!

Next week we'll be making a Kids Centre Super-Duper-Scary by dressing it up for Halloween. We agreed to dress up ourselves so I'll be bringing loads of vegan-friendly sweeties and the best costumes will get extra sweeties. Come!!