We gathered in Weavers Fields for our mini fitness session this evening. The sky was grey, the wind was present, the temperature was October-worthy. But it didn't rain. #winning

After whizzing through 15 quick minutes of body weight, park bench and running exercises we made our way to VCSA (Vallance Community Sports Association) to meet our group of participants for this evening's task.

We kicked off with a couple of talks, about getting into the fitness industry, and about GoodGym. We loved hearing Ivo talk GoodGym: How it Started (many of tonight's GG members are new, and they loved hearing about the early beginnings).

We moved to our Q&A where participants Charlie and Nimrha took the floor to ask us what we get out of fitness; GoodGym, and a little bit more about the kind of stuff we get up to. It was good to hear members chatting about their own GoodGym experiences, from entering half marathons for the first time, to digging holes in community gardens and making friends.

Ground Force

We then headed out to the garden, to rake up a lot of grass; pack up a discarded gazebo and, much to our delight, get stuck into a last minute Buddleia cull.

Not a fan of the Buddleia, then?

Yes, Jamie from Spitalfields City Farm swung by to collect the tools he'd loaned the Centre for the evening, took one look at the poor, overbearing Buddleia and asked, "Why don't you have a crack at this? It's obscuring your light. Not to mention that beautiful Silver Birch."

And down it went. The Buddleia Bunch (Jamie, Ivo and Nimrha) wasted no time in hacking through branches and branches, and before we knew it, the Buddleia was no more. It was quite a site.

"So not much of the Buddleia left, even with its huge draw for the butterfly?", a wide-eyed Ivo asked Jamie as we stacked branches by the fence.

Jamie stood firm: "It'll grow back in no time, and just look at that light."

Then it was gone half eight, and the team were packing away. A really cracking start to the week.

The shout-outs

Well done to everyone, particularly Bablu for fantastic planning and organisation.

...To Ivo, for a great talk; for helping to lift everyone's spirits.

And to the stars of the evening, Charlie and Nimrha, who had no idea their evening was going to resemble an episode of Ground Force, so kudos to them both for befriending the lopper like they did.

And to everyone else: the team who came, contributed, filled bag after bag of cut grass and did what we do best.

Until next time.

On this wonderful Monday session, 7 of us gathered to a very warm welcome from Vallance Girls Youth Club at the Hason Raja Centre, just by Spitalfields.

We all said our hellos, and introduced ourselves with the following:

• Our name
• What we do
• Our most embarrassing Zoom moment in lockdown

Then we moved onto our fitness session, a delightful combo of exercises using discs, bands and body weight to kickstart our lunchtime session.

We then had the briefest of breaks before getting into groups to chat all things careers.

With a very, very tricky time behind them, the Vallance girls were able to express some of their concerns about their A-level situation; their uni applications and career concerns going forward, before speaking to the GoodGymers, who brought with them experiences of uni careers going on hold; pursuing different vocations to those subjects they'd studied, and not doing so well at school!

And so these careers that range from engineering to finance were brought to the discussion table, where pragmatism, hope and experience were the order of the day.

It was a brilliant time. I think everybody left feeling a bit more hopeful, useful and energised.

Thank you to the incredible members who enabled this session to take place today, for your generosity of time and experience: Jennifer, Jo, Anna, Becky, Sarah, and Aine.

Let's do it again soon.