Goodgym Haringey got together last night with a very special purpose in mind - to celebrate a departed friend, whose love for life, disposition for a good laugh, and thirst for just a few more Ks was intoxicating and contagious. The thing about death is that it doesn't care about fairness and sometimes it takes from us people who just had too much damn living ahead of them, leaving those of us still around with such a deep sense of loss. Nurj knew this and last time I saw her at the hospital, she made me promise her in that matter-of-factly kind of way of hers that I needed to make sure her Goodgym lot as she called us would be ok afterwards because after all she wouldn't be around to do so. Bloody strong to the end, our Nurj.

So, as a way of keeping a promise, the Goodgym Haringey family decided to bring some new life into this wonderful London borough that she so loved. We planted a baby tree, which will be around for many years to come, and where us Goodgymmers can go and share a quick laugh or the latest juicy goss with Nurj. A Royal Beauty by name, this tree will be all colours and fancy things as seasons change so we know Nurjehan would have approved. And also, as her Goodgym lot got together last night for the customary rummage through a community garden on a lovely warm Wednesday evening at the end of another Summer season, sharing a laugh, some memories, and some tears, I know she would have smiled at her favourite Goodgym in the country and felt proud. We'll never stop missing you on Wednesday evenings, good friend.

Ms B’s big old mattress looked like it wanted to defeat me, seemingly resisting my coercion, wobbling all over the place like an errant toddler. But with a bit of brute force, a bit of wrangling into and out of an uncooperative and impatient lift and mission accomplished: old mattress out for the council to collect in the morning. 👍

11 Goodgymmers rooted for glory as they lent a hand at Floyde's Garden to help them prep the site ahead of a very special landscaping project.

Many hands...

With the recent passing of our GGHaringey Stalwart Nurjehan, the good folk at Floyde's Garden have kindly offered to host a tree planted in her memory, which will become the focal point of a brand new landscaped square for the gardens.

First order of business was digging up a number of deep-rooted dead trees and a multitude of brambles to create a blank canvas of sorts for the new planting scheme.

To that end, our Goodgymmers gathered at Blue House Yard where we kept warm with some light exercises, including introducing some of the new folk to the wonderful world of wall sits, before running a cool 2k to site together. Once at the gardens, we were met by Laurie - from Noel Park Big Local who look after the site - who talked us through the tasks at hand.

Before you knew it, we had lept into action and were digging and leveling to our heart's content.

We were also tasked with helping to rescue some bricks from the works on the adjacent playground so they can be recycled as a small plaza around Nurjehan's tree.

Within an hour our Goodgymmers had completely cleared the site and helped the pile of recycled bricks grow even taller so we had a little nosey at the progress on the playground works next door.

We then did the only reasonable things on a cold night like this and ran to the closest watering hole for much-needed refreshments.

We'll be at Traid next Tuesday and all being well, we should be planting Nurjehan's Tree on Wednesday - watch this space.

It was nice to see Ms B once again - doubly so because my last mission for her was to fix a door handle to ensure she wouldn’t ever get trapped in her bedroom…

This time her request was to fully dismantle her wooden bed frame and drawers and then take all the parts down to an area where the council would collect.

Armed with the right tools, the dismantling part proved pretty straightforward, but it was then a case of needing a few trips to get all the parts into the lift and out of the front door.

The final course was to the return Ms B’s mattress back to the newly created space on her now hoovered bedroom floor to give her somewhere to sleep before her new bed arrives on Monday.

6 Goodgymmers jumped into action as the Tottenham Community Sports Centre came calling with a massive bag of gravel and a car park that needed some love. Boom!

One Foot (Not) On The Grave

Big up for Ren who joined us for her first ever run and task. She didn't even flinch when Gramps insisted they run to task through a cemetery and she even zombie danced when he also insisted on a cemetery photograph. A natural. Come again <3

Post-Big Half Hanger Issues

Ren, Raj, and Gramps ran the cool 4k to task where they met with Veronika, Ed, Latoya who was still basking in the wonderful post-Big Half glow.

After a bit of confusion when Gramps thought a random punter was our task owner for the night, the rest of the crew understood the assignment and followed the actual task owner to the Centre's car park where they received some clear instructions: please introduce this massive bag of gravel to our car park.

Our crew, led by a Latoya who was definitely feeling pretty post-Big Halfy indeed, understood these clear instructions to mean: FLIP THIS MOTHERFLIPPING BAG OVER. And so it began. It was a sisyphean task of sorts, if instead of rolling a rock up a hill, you have a bunch of rather otherwise intelligent Goodgymmers thinking they could just pick up an 800k bag of gravel and tip it over. But, by Zeus, they tried.

When reality finally caught up with our team, they armed themselves with shovels and fork instead and the task then began in earnest.

Every couple of shovelfuls, Latoya and Ed would try to pick up the bag again while newbie Ren buzzed like a bee wanting nothing to do with the futile bag picking until she was eventually brought over to the dark side. Veronika and Raj took turns at levelling the gravel and shaking their heads laughing.

Eventually, without as much fanfare as we expected, the bag was indeed tipped and we had blasted our way through the task way before 8 - talk about gravelling at the speed of light!

Afterwards, we had time to take some pics in the boxing rink, and Veronika and Gramps ran back to HQ while the rest of the team went off in search of food.

A brilliant night.

The sky was on fire as seven Goodgymmers joined Mike from the Friends of Harmony Gardens for a wheelie wheelie fun eve of mulching.

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Paul and Fiona who joined us for their first ever Goodgym task. Absolute naturals! We hope you had a good time and come again.

Fire In The Sky

You can't argue with a good North London Summer sunset. The sky last night, as pointed out by ever-punctual Niamh, looked almost as if it had been just painted by some watercolour maestro in a juxtaposition of muted pastels and vibrant crimson shades coming together with ease. There was even a rainbow on what was, by all accounts, a pretty dry eve. On second thoughts, maybe the fumes emanating from the massive pile of eucalyptus mulch we were working with tonight left us with addled brains and groovy eyesight. Hmm.

So, let's dig into the mulch pile a bit more.

Mike from the Friends group welcomed us with open arms and wheelbarrows as he pointed us in the direction of the aforementioned mulch pile. Our mission for the evening was to add a second layer of mulch to the paths at the kids garden, on top of the layer we created on our last visit.

We wasted no time in getting stuck in and soon we had created a two way motorway from the pile to the kids garden that worked mostly ok, apart from one particular Goodgymmer who seemed intent on doing twice as many trips as any other Goodgymmer. Love you, SuperDave, never change.

After about an hour's work, and with 8pm looming, we managed to cover the complete path with mulch - just like last time. I love it when a plan comes together.

Join us again next week as we visit the lovely Tottenham Community Sport Centre.