6 Goodgymmers did their best to literally put on the Ritz in Russell Park last night as they brought down an unsteady bug hotel then rebuilt it to a much safer spec in a kid's playground. Boom!

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like...

As the good folk at Noel Park Big Local get ready for the grand opening of their new playground this Saturday, they requested our help in securing a bug hotel that had been built with some questionable foundations and was presenting a risk in the brand new playground.

Our Goodgymmers, armed with gloves and boundless enthusiasm, got on with the task at once. Niamh, making her glorious return, took it upon herself to rally the troops with her inimitable style - in other words, the evening was dominated by innuendos about drilling and enjoying a good Bosch™. You were greatly missed, Niamh <3 And many thanks for today's musical pun.

Dave even found time to take a factory-sized broom to the outside of the playground and swept a small mountain of leaves to prepare the area for some power-washer action that will happen later this week, much to Julie 'I love power tools and putting people in bins' Fisher's chagrin.

After an hour, a much more steady and secure abode had been constructed for our our friends of the bug persuasion and the new playground looked in amazing shape for this weekend, if we say so ourselves.

Boom!

7 Goodgymmers were in for a proper biceps workout as they helped the always wonderful Alan from the Meadow Orchard to harvest some clay for a forthcoming session.

CSI: Haringey

Our Goodgymmers arrived at the Meadow Orchard tonight, full of smiles and bonhomie, completely unaware of what a bit of clay harvesting actually entailed.

Very soon we found out it was a matter of get busy living, or get busy digging and as the Shawshank Redemption references rolled out from our Goodgymmers, we shovelled our way into the bit of the Orchard's prepped for us for the task at hand. The area, formerly the site of tennis courts apparently, was tough to get through but once we reached a depth of about a third of a Gramps, we reached the beautiful, sticky, messy London clay. What a sight to behold.

We then began packing it up in bags to be used at a later date in an eco-building project.

Boom.

Then, in true Andy Dufresne style, we effectively snuck out of the Orchard while Alan from the Friends group was distracted looking for more bags to fill! You can read their much better version of this story - here

We made our way to the pub afterwards for beverages and to celebrate in true #BadGym style our Paul's birthday.

Fun.

8 lycanthropic Goodgymmers huffed, puffed, and blew the house down at Wolves Lane.

Spinning Straw Into Gold

Elki from Wolves Lane welcomed us with open arms, loads of cutting utensils, and a mountainous 1.5 tonne pile of hay that needed processing so it could go into the compost piles.

Proving that it would be easier to find the proverbial needle in a haystack than it would be to dampen the spirit of our Goodgymmers, they attacked the pile with gusto and purpose.

Latoya, fashionably late due to Gramps/Arsenal/Newly-imposed tariffs on timekeeping/literally anything else she could blame but herself, regaled us with stories of her exploits over her many years of Goodgym missions after on-field debutant Mark enquired about the ins and outs of this facet of Goodgym. Incredibly enough, stories about flying nappies, accidental pond-dipping, and "kidnapping" by the senior community didn't discourage Mark but in fact it seemed to motivate him to try missions - a natural fit to the GG Haringey fam, our Mark. Boom.

After about an hour of shenanigans, we had managed to make our way through about two thirds of the haystack, much to Elki's surprise and delight, and it was time to go off in search of beverages. But not before a quick pitstop to say hello to the terrapins. It wouldn't be a visit to Wolves Lane without a terrapin sighting.

#LongChip

Shout to Dave and Sarah for tonight's pun action.

Join us next week: Monday at Traid for fashionable shenanigans, and Wednesday at Meadow Orchard followed by a social. Come!

5 Goodgymmers catwalked their way to Traid on Wood Green High Road for an evening of interfacing and inboxing

Kudos galore

Big noise for Mark who joined us for his first ever task and was an absolute natural. Star!

And big love for Bianca who didn't let a bit of traffic get in the way of getting to the task this evening. Fashionably late indeed - love that attitude!!

You can both come again <3

Not too crabby

Just when you think that by now we can do a Traid task eve with our eyes closed, we are welcomed by the wonderful Traiders with news that tonight we are not taking clothes off their hangers but instead are packing everything together as it is - ready to be quickly unpacked at a different store the following morning.

We had to get used to a special folding style to make sure the hangers always ended up in the middle of the box to avoid any unwanted tears but once we got the hang of that, our Goodgymmers sailed through this task.

Halfway through, yours truly found a Lobster/Ant/Undetermined crustacean costume so in true Gramps' style, I had to don it for the occasion. It is surprising how little people bat their eyelids when you're running down the High Road dressed as an orange creature!

We're at woodside this eveningfor a spot of tree pit regeneration, and at Russell Park on Sundayfor a spot of birdwatching/ bird housebuilding session. Come!