8 Goodgymmers choppy-choppy-choppied their way through the night as they lent a hand to the Friends of Green Spaces of Noel Park with a bit of tree maintenance

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Yann, who joined us for his first outing with Goodgym. He brought a calm, steady energy to the choppy choppy choppy proceedings and worked very hard through the hour. Hero! Come again...

Choppy Choppy Choppy

We had started this job a couple of weeks ago and it was time to tackle what had been described to us as the most problematic trees in the estate. When we arrived, the suckers on the beautiful London Planes were indeed out of control and were blocking safe passage through the pavements.

This was enough invitation for our crew of urban lumberjacks who armed themselves with all kinds of cutting tools and began hacking through the over-exuberant tree growth with gusto. So much gusto that halfway through the task, Julie broke out in spontaneous song with a rendition of her debut song astutely titled 'Choppy choppy choppy'. Like the legendary Sex Pistols debut in the common room of St Martin's School of Art, this instant classic only played to a handful of lucky punters but it's no doubt destined to join the annals of modern British high culture. In true punk style, Julie even finished the evening in a bin. Rock and roll.

By 8pm, we had cleared all the pavements in the area we had been asked to clear, we had done a litter pick along the way, and we bagged all the detritus and transported it to the park to be picked up by Veoila first thing in the morning/

A good job well done, if I say so myself.

4 Goodgymmers raced the arrival of the rain as they gave trees around Wood Green a lovely autumnal manicure

A hard rain's gonna fall

Our ninja squad defied the weather warnings and impeding downpours to lend a hand to the Friends of Green Spaces in Noel Park. The suckers on the trees along the Lymmington Avenue in the estate are renowned for their vigorous growing and every Autumn we have been tasked with maintaining them and keeping them in check.

Not even the threat of hard rain could stop us and the four of us managed to get through about half of the road before the first bit of rain and thunder arrived.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks to finish the job.

Five runners ran 1.5 km to help hydrate the orchard at Chapman's Green.

We avoided the main road, and took some side streets, that despite having run round there plenty of times before, got Dave a little turned around. Still we made it in plenty of time!

Last time we shocked the park volunteers by how much we were able to do in. But this week, with our illustrious leader laid low, and a couple of members off chasing the moon round Battersea Park, there were less of us. Spoilers, we still managed to get a shocking amount done! Beth and Ellie made it for the third week in a row, so Dave unilaterally declared them to be regulars now The trees there have had a rough summer, and despite the recent grey weather, there's not been much rain. So the little water they get, gets guzzled up by the grass. Our ongoing mission, is to dig up the turf around the base of these trees, to allow the water to soak down to their roots. This turns out to be quite the arm work out, and by 7:50 we were starting to flag, and moved on to an apple tree at the back of the meadow. But tough times can be good for fruit and volunteers. The apples were super concentrated and sweet, and we powered through the turf in record time!

There was chat about upcoming races, but no-one can beat Chis Hadfield's 28,800 kilometers per hour (aboard the ISS).

Good luck at your Half Neil!

See you next week

10 Goodgymmers crashed into the gates at Russell Park for an evening of painting and bonhomie. Highlights of the evening included Gramps absolutely stacking it on the run to task and injuring himself in a few places, and our Sarah's unwitting invitation for a spot of heavy caressing. You had to be there!

Normal service will resume this week at Chapmans Green - come!