Euclides and Rosa joined forces with the lovely Haringey Walks folk for a lovely loop walk that took in Russell Park, Belmont Rec, and Downhills Park. Conversation ranged from 4am wake up calls from baby twins to economic war malarkey between Colombia and the USA. At the end, we had just walked over 3k and were back at HQ feeling a bit lighter after a nice natter. Highly recommended.

4 Goodgymmers flocked to Noel Park for this year's RSPB's Birdwatch survey and helped enhance the habitat for our feathered friends along the way.

Chirp Chirp

David, Rosa, Euclides and Euclides' mini-Goodgymmers met at Turnpike Lane Station for a lovely walk to Russell Park in Wood Green where we met reps of the new Friends group for a bird-friendly task.

Rosa, the mini-Goodgymmers and halfway through the task E Snr took on the job of doing a couple of laps of the park, surveying and tallying up the number of all the birds they could see within an hour. Pigeons and tits were the most popular, while a real lack of any parakeet sightings was reported as a big regret.

While the birdwatching was happening, David, Euclides, and Laurie and Bex from the Friends group installed seven new bird houses, three new bird feeders, and replenished the already-existing all-you-can-eat avian buffets.

A flocking nice way of spending a Sunday morning

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!

5 Goodgymmers gave the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve a facelift through a bit of hardcore gardening.

Mindful Unwinding

Our Goodgymmers arrived at the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve to find that the site looked a bit untidy from the outside so we rolled our sleeves up and got on with the job of beautifying this much loved community space.

Julie, Latoya, and Sarah weeded and brushed to their hearts content the outside perimeter of the Reserve while Gramps and Rosa engaged on a bit of hardcore pruning in the inside of the fence. Julie in particular enjoyed unwinding the ivy from the fence before applying the chop. To be fair to her, it was a pretty relaxing affair, if I'm honest.

It was right about this time that our Sarah began shouting about pirri pirris.

What's a pirri pirri, you ask? Well, those little prickly seeds that stick to you while you're gardening, Kiwis lovingly call them pirri pirris. Every day is a school day with Goodgym Haringey.

Proving that we were no pirri pirri chickens, we cracked on and worked for a full hour before retiring to the local watering hole for a sport of rehydration.

Boom.

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.

Four Goodgymmers helped the folk at Russell's Park Hub carry out a risk assessment and a thorough litter pick ahead of their Easter Egg Hunts on Saturday.

Kristina and Patrick joined Gramps nice and early for a litter pick of the area in the park, surrounding the cafe to ensure that there weren't any little things that could hurt any of the scores of children that were expected to join the Hunts.

Later on, Rosa joined them to finish completing a risk assessment and support Euclides run the Easter Egg Hunts

Happy Easter

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! :)