Twenty Goodgymmers congregated in the grounds of the wonderful Meadow Orchard in Crouch End for an emotional evening of doing good and getting fit.

Nurj O'Clock

This report is a bit late because frankly I found it a bit hard to write. Or more concretely, I tried a couple of times but failed miserably each time. You see, even in her absence, Nurj had managed to grab centre stage on Wednesday's task like she had done some many times over the last six years and I knew I would have to write a report with her as the protagonist for one last time. The words just didn't come, to be honest.

So, instead, I have decided to share with you the big Nurjehan-shaped hole she leaves on a normal Goodgym evening. She played many roles within our motley crew: self-appointed timekeeper, naughty gossipy aunt, strict school teacher when we needed a telling off, whingepot whenever we attended her least favourite task that shall now forever remain unnamed, indefatigable do gooder, tireless 5k/10k runner, unconditional friend, and perhaps, the one thing we'll miss the most, her enthusiastic cheerleading of everything Goodgym Haringey. She loved Goodgym. And she preached its praises at any given opportunity.

If I'm allowed a personal note, I'll personally miss a role she played too well without any fanfare or noise but that she relished and excelled at. Whenever we had a new runner in our group, it would always be either Nurj or myself reaching out to say hello to them. She would then proceed to tell the newbie all sort of crazy stories about how I am a mad area activator, I would then reply by telling the newbie to watch out for her because 'this one bites' and thus, within the space of thirty seconds, a newbie was eased into the dynamics of our group and was then shadowed by Nurjehan for the next 45 minutes, regaling them with whatever particular drama was happening at her school that week and making sure their evening was as fun as possible. I'll miss my newbie whisperer.

Our dearest Nurjehan Khan passed away on Thursday 18th July 2024, having completed 273 Goodgym tasks and along the way having become the unofficial face of Goodgym (her face is the landing page of the website). Goodgym Haringey will never be the same without her and we'll miss her.

I'll finish this here before she tells me off for going on too much.

<3

It's Our Birthday And We'll Cry If We Want To

In a moment of incredible timing, this evening also happened to be Goodgym Haringey's 9th Birthday. There will be other nights to celebrate and we will have a social to end all socials in due course, but we did mark the occasion with cakes, chocolate, and hell of a lot of tears.

We're very grateful to the folk at the Meadow Orchard for accommodating us at short notice (this was Nurjehan's favourite Haringey task) and they had loads of fun jobs for us. They even let us use axes on the night. Talk about cathartic.

Normal service will resume next week.

For now, just look after each other and I'm here if anyone needs a hug, a natter, or a cry.

Love to my wonderful Goodgym Haringey Fam

Seven Goodgymmers enjoyed a peaceful night of shovelling manure and wood chippings at the wonderfully tranquil Meadow Orchard in Crouch End.

When Push Comes To Shovel

After a whole day dominated by a sky that augured imminent downpours, it was in the end a lovely, sunny evening at the Meadow Orchard as our Goodgymmers assembled for an evening of tasks.

It was amazing to see Queen Khan make her glorious return after conveniently finding an excuse to spend a few weeks in bed during the cold months of winter - but we'll forgive her because she wasted no time in getting into the flow of things (much to Gramps and Niamh's chagrin who were terrified to stymie her recovery). Welcome back and all that!

Nurj, Niamh, Dave, Sam, Julie, and Charlie wasted no time in attacking a massive pile of wood chippings that had been left for the Orchard in the car park outside. Armed with shovels, plastic containers, and wheelbarrows, our Goodgymmers began transporting the chippings into site and spreading it in a variety of beds and storage piles. Our busy bees buzzed and like a well oiled machine, the pile grew smaller and smaller by the minute. So much so, in fact, that Katie from the Friends group took a splinter squad to help move a massive bag of manure into the beds as well. Sam and Julie shovelled it into place in no time.

We even had time to explore the site a bit, take pictures of tadpoles, imbibe some freshly brewed cuppas, almost break a hammock, and take some selfies in the glorious crepuscular light. All in an hour's work. Boom.

Chapmans Green has requested our help looking after some new plants and the by-now named Goodgym bed so we're going there next week - you should come!  

7 Goodgymmers immersed themselves in the calm of an oasis in the middle of the city as they helped fight the brambles at the Meadow Orchard Project in Crouch End.

Congratulations! And Celebrations!

Make some noise for our Super Charlie who's cruised his way to a cool 200 tasks in a quiet but assured manner. GGH hearts Charlie!

Hot off the press: Everyone may have spotted in this week's GG newsletter that our Nurhejan sneaked into the GG National Top 10 for Distance Covered in June, coming in 9th place with a very impressive 319.35km. Bravo! <3

And last, but not least, best of luck to our Sarah who's racing in the Maverick Ultra this weekend, and our Julie who's embarking on another 10 in 10 (yes, ten marathons in ten days for you and me!) this Friday. Run well!

A Spike-tacular Task

It's always lovely to have a new task but it was a particular pleasure tonight as we visited the Meadow Orchard Project for the first time - what a truly magical place. Set behind a tarmac-heavy car park, this nature reserve is a beautiful community space with food- and herb-growing gardens, mud houses, and a beautifully maintained and protected meadow.

Our job for the night was to help trim back some of the overexcited brambles that in the warm weather wave their way through the orchard trees and the trails at the Reserve.

Armed with heavy duty gloves and ever more heavy duty banter, our Goodgymmers got on with the prickly task at hand.

Kate, our host from the Friends group, had to leave us for a bit because she had to go and welcome a choir who were using the meadow for one of their choir practice sessions!

It was one of those magical evenings that Goodgym offers up sometimes. The beautiful fading sunshine, the dulcet tones that drifted our way, the wavy grassland dancing in the evening wind, the sight of Franscesco  slowly coming to the realisation that he should have indeed worn long sleeves - a magical evening indeed.

We tidied after ourselves, took some selfies, and left very quietly to avoid disturbing the lovely choir as they sang the night away.

Join us on Sunday for mini-Olympics fun. Or next week for more fun and games!