8 Goodgymmers dug deep as they helped the wonderful folk at Wolves Lane to transport a mountainous amount of soil from one side of the Centre to the other under a wonderful dusk sky.

A Barrel Of Laughter

It was party preparation Wolves Lane-style as we were tasked with moving a large mound of soil into tonne bags and some foundational beds in order to free up the track for easy access to the site. A straightforward mission for our team, who immediately armed themselves with spades, wheelbarrows, and pallet trucks and got on with the job at hand.

Gramps' mum, a veteran of Goodgym tasks, was in full Colombian whinge mood and her utterances in Spanish as she looked for opportunities to sit down were a constant source of entertainment. She even managed to rope in our resident Doctor Niamh for a mid-task massage.

In the meantime, you can't take Julie and Gramps anywhere without the two of them trying to put people in bags or bins, and there was some performative bag-posing worth of the Met Gala and an abortive attempt to ride the pallet truck - after a thorough risk assessment, mind.

The team worked tirelessly and by the time we reached Nurjehan o'clock, we were pretty pleased with our progress. We dust ourselves off and headed out into the sunset but not before making the time for some selfies and high fives.

Particular thanks to Dave for the fantastic timelapse vid!

A classic Goodgym Haringey night <3

Join us next week as we visit Tottenham Green for a multitude of tasks.

Five Goodgymmers visited the wonderful Wolves Lane Centre for a jetsetting night of cleaning and digging.

Waxing Gibbous, If Not Lyrically

Under an almost full moon, our lycanthropic Goodgymmers howled their way into the belly of Wolves Lane Centre for an evening of hardcore tidying and compost turning.

We met at Blue House Yard for a quick, gentle run and arrived just in time to find Denise from Wolves Lane opening the gate for us. Before you could say 'silver bullets,' Denise had produced a brand new jet washer for us to use. Some sensible Goodgymmers read the instructions while trying to put the machine together, whereas Gramps and Sam opted for the more straightforward 'smash it together with brute force' approach. Who's to say which method proved successful in the end but by the time we had cleared the canteen's floor of chairs and tables, a fully functioning jet washer was ready to go. Dave and Sam did the honours while Ed and Charlie were entrusted with tidying up one of the Centre's compost heaps and turning the mint-fragrant pile.

Our Goodgymmers were on fire! Floors were jet washed, compost heaps were turned, 'do not enter' signs were accidentally broken in the Palm House - it was a symphony of movement under the almost full moon. Our regular timekeeper had been kept away from task by pesky traffic and she was badly missed as before we knew, it was well past 8pm and we decided to call it a day.

We helped Denise put the tools away, but not before we checks notes half arsed one last quick job - replacing the ceiling tiles on a disabled toilet - and we posed for full moon selfies before running home.

A good night was had under the wonderful clear skies and bright waxing gibbous moon.

Come next week!

Eight Goodgymmers danced and pranced as they quite literally brought the house down at Wolves Lane tonight.

Musical Interlude by the Dexy Midnight Goodgym Runners

(Disclaimer: this only vaguely works if you listen to Come on, Eileen while reading it )

Poor old Charlie Ray

Sounded fed up on the ladder

Pulling out nails with his fingers

Mama Rosa cried

"watch out for the rust"

__

You've smashed (so smashed)

The Wall (the wall)

Now I must say more than ever

__

Too-ra-loo-ra

Too-ra-loo-rye-ay

__

So that we can pull out this panel...

Come on, I lean

this way and you

*you lean that way *

And then everything

comes down.

__

But what is that smell?

My thoughts, I confess

Verge on that smell

Ah, come on, let me lean

A Symphony Of Destruction

Our Goodgymmers flocked to Wolves Lane Centre once again after our task there last week on a promise of being unleashed on a room with sledgehammers to demolish the space at the back of the main office to create a better control command for this ever-expanding community space.

Denise from Wolves Lane did not disappoint. Upon arrival, she pointed at the pile of tools, she pointed at the wall, then smiled as she put on some sick tunes on the box, and then closed the door and left us to our own devices. And, oh my goodness, we smashed the place up!

It's not every day that you are tasked with the job of breaking stuff but you must grab the opportunity with both hands when given the chance. It's not to say it was all fun and games. I mean, Latoya did dance a lot in between bouts of kicking the wall. And Sam seemed to channel some primal need for catharsis as she smashed the wood panels. And Veronika did smile a lot, as she seemed to be assessing her life choices and deciding whether being a stuff breaker could be a respectable career path. I could go on... But I'm sure you know what I mean.

As the panels came down, and the wooden frame proved to be nothing but a momentary hindrance, we had become a successful wrecking crew, all within a timeframe that would please our resident time-keeper.

Ever a hero, our Dave did a last bit tidying up, bringing up the last of the few rusty nails from the floor so no one has an unfortunate accident in the future.

A couple of selfies here and there, and we all headed home after a proper work out on a chilly, chilly night.

Boom!

6 Goodgymmers howled at the moon as they joined Denise at Wolves Lane for some destructive fun.

Six Hours

Here's a list of things you can do in six hours: you could watch a balloon filled with helium naturally deflate to 50% of its volume (promise never to ask Gramps how he knows this fact); you could serenely witness a high tide recede into a low tide on a secluded beach somewhere nice; you could enjoy Scorsese's Wolf(es Lane) Of Wall Street exactly twice in a row; you could get lost in your kitchen cooking fried chicken and donuts; or like the ardent hero of our piece, the fierce Louise C, you could spend a whole Wednesday afternoon somewhere in Tottenham, completing a supposedly easy Goodgym Mission that threatened to hijack the course of her life for what seemed like an interminably epoch (or, in this case, six hours).

Kudos to Louise for sticking with the kind of mission that would make Ethan Hunt baulk. Just don't ever piss her off when she's holding a crowbar (you had to be there :)

The Wolves Of Wolves (Lane) Street

"The only thing standing between you and your goal," bellows Di Caprio's Jordan Belfort in the Wolf of Wall Street, "is the bullshit story you tell yourself as to why you can't achieve it." Well, he clearly never stood against a wooden wall panel during a Goodgym evening, after being tasked with prising the whole thing apart by a very encouraging and bent-on-destruction task owner

Armed with a pointing hammer, a crowbar, and a couple of hoes (!) that's exactly what our Goodgymmers did. Charlie, Veronika, and Louise demolished skirting boards, wall panels, and whatnot with the wanton hunger of jungle trail blazers. And just to prove Picasso's wonderful axiom ("every act of creation begins with an act of destruction"), this has now led to an invitation next week for a sledgehammer session as we help the centre make way for a brand new room.

At the same time, our Nurjehan and Rosa refilled the beds at the Centre's Palm House with the contents of two industrial-sized bags of compost.

After an hour that flew by, we gathered all tools and put them away, took some selfies, said goodbye to the terrapins and ran away into the mild night with a smile on our lips.

Boom!

More shenanigans next week at the same time - you know where to find us! :)

7 HAWWWT Goodgymmers dreamed pipe dreams as they struggled to complete a heavy metal task at Wolves Lane.

Homecoming

We finished on time tonight, with a couple of minutes to spare, even - that can only mean one thing and one thing only: She's Back! It was glorious to have our Queen Khan back as she's on her road to recovery and she was a star photographer for us. We all know she prefers to be on the other side of the camera but she didn't do a half bad job behind the lens. Very happy to have you back!

Also, thanks to Alex for providing today's pun all the way from Scotland.

Put It In Your Pipe And Smoke It

It's always lovely to spend the evening at Wolves Lane and tonight wasn't any different. We had been hoping to help them transport some clay (a byproduct of a construction project currently underway at the back of the site) to the woodland area and start work on a pond. However, we got a call from the manager earlier in the day with the news that some overzealous and planet-friendly builders had recycled the clay in the building project itself so no pond for us tonight. 

Instead, we would be working in one of the greenhouses - used to grow organic products in the community - helping them remove some heavy metal pipes, used in winter to keep the greenhouse warm, but that are just in the way in summer.

Reader, it was heavy metal. We're talking 'Tallica in Red Square 1991 kind of heavy. Ozzy biting the head of the bat kind of heavy. Gramps getting broken by Machinehead in '07 kind of heavy.

But you know, we're a sun's out guns out kind of crew and we lifted. From the knees. It was proper hot work out for us but we managed to transport all of the pipes to the back of the site and tucked them away nicely, out of the way.

Boom!

We were then very thirsty so the doctor recommended a visit to a local watering hole and we obliged.

Join us next week for more fun and games!

8 Rugged Goodgymmers did some heavy lifting tonight as they helped the lovely folk at Wolves Lane to relocate a rather large pile of logs to clear some space for future works.

Pun Corner

While comparing the girth of their logs and howling at the moon, our team found the time to come up with a plethora of puns too. The pick of the bunch included today's report title, Wood You Rather Beaver Wolf, I Got You Under My Skin (Like A Splinter), and my personal favourite Lift From The Niamhs. You bunch are howlarious! <3

Gramps dear, what big teeth you have!

Like little Red Riding Hoods, our Goodgymmers bounded down a dark path at the back of Wolves Lane in search of adventure and lumberjacks. Instead, the Big Bad Gramps led them to a massive pile of timber that needed shifting. The poor souls.

Undeterred, our Goodgymmers pulled their sleeves up, gloved up, and got on with the job at hand. It was heavy work but you wouldn't have known it as our Goodgymmers made it look easy. #MadSkillz

Once we were happy that Pile 1 had been reborn at a new location as a brand new Pile 2, we dust ourselves off and went in search of a good spot for a group photo and to consume some lovely Ghanaian chocolate. Fun!

Be sure to join our Sarah on Sunday for a fun Slow Ways session - details here.

And join us next week for more shenanigans.

TIMBER!