HEN is a wonderful residents' association in Tottenham that has taken really good care of the surrounding streets. Our task was to show them even more love!

An actual treasure map!

When we arrived, task owner Matt was ready with a wheelbarrow loaded with everything we needed: rubbish bags, paint and paint brushes. Due to childcare responsibilities he wasn't able to join us but had already sent a map through showing where we were to go: a series of planters made from wood, green metal barrels and blue metal barrels. Dave was excited about the map.

Mutiny!

Very quickly, run leader Sarah was sacked from navigation duty and Dave took over. One by one, we found the planters. Wooden planter first, no need for paint or weeding, but there was a bit of litter to pick up. We found our first blue metal planters under the railway bridge. The planters were still beautiful and had managed to get through summer's heatwaves thanks to careful watering by residents, but the metal planters were starting to develop rust spots. Asan and Yann set to painting them with anti-rust paint. One of the planters had a rubber rim that had been dislodged, so Sarah and Dave slipped it back into place.

Treasure!

Then it was down the alleyway and around the corner to the next set of planters, where there was a surprise in store for Asan: a book he needed for his course! These planters were green so no paint was required due to a shortage of the right shade of green paint, but we gave them a quick tidy and litter pick.

Finally, it was back up and across the main road to paint and tidy a couple more blue planters.

We returned to Matt's with two full bags of rubbish and smiles on our faces.

Our first Mix Tape Train rolled out of Alley Pally Ice Rink with a quartet of runners, which turns out to be exactly the right size for a debut. We warmed up with belly breaths and dynamic drills, then jogged to the Phoenix Pub, ran down the slope and tackled the stairs, pace: moderate up, walk down and fast up, before crossing into the park for speed play.

The hill runs were a lovely challenge, and the collaborative Fartlek lived up to its name: our “Leader of the Pack” and relay had the back runner sprinting to the front, and the "Landmark" callout gave us landmarks to intermittently sprint to until we got to the gentle hill runs. The playlist delivered some bangers, from “Feel Good” to "GO (feat. Q-Tip)" and on to “Ain’t No Stopping Us”, though I would say the music was quite good as the resident DJ, finally getting to 'play out' beyond friends’ parties after 20-odd years of owning decks. It was a joy to see other runners out training too, and one of our sprints was cheered on by some sitting spectators, which made me smile. :)

Pickers, bags and hoop were ready for the final stretch, but we were having so much fun that we ran over time, and the park looked almost pristine there was barely anything to pick anyway. We were thwarted by tidiness, and we’re not complaining. Thanks https://www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/helen-patchett, https://www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/julie-fisher and https://www.goodgym.org/v3/profile/dave-mansfield for a really fun session!

When we heard Haringey Council were holding a litter pick in Finsbury Park to launch the new Love Haringey campaign, we knew we had to be there. Doing good outside in the community? It ticked all our boxes.

Sarah from the Goodgym Haringey taskforce jumped on the coat tails of the event by listing it on the Goodgym website, then when several people she had never met signed up turned up in her Goodgym t-shirt hoping they would introduce themselves! When she arrived at Finsbury Park there was already a good crowd of people there.

Kareem from Goodgym Tower Hamlets was the first to say hi. Turns out he lives really close by. Congratulations in advance on your 100th good deed tomorrow, Kareem!

The group was issued with litter pickers, gloves and bags, before being split into three smaller groups to target different areas of the park. Sarah stayed with the group starting at Manor House Gate and moving parallel to Green Lanes. At first it looked like there was no litter to pick apart from a few cigarette butts and bottle caps. But then Sarah found a used condom just inside the gate.

It turned out Helen was in the same group as Sarah, and together they found a rich seam of litter in the bushes alongside Green Lanes. The further we went from the gate the more litter we found, with lots of bottles, wipes, paper towels, and of course more used condoms.

As Sarah's bag got heavier, she decided it really didn't matter that she'd skipped a gym class to be at the litter pick today

Eventually, the teams met back at the Manor House gate, where Sarah met Rosalind and Michelle - welcome to Goodgym both of you!

Haringey Council is planning more litter picks as well as providing support for residents to organise their own. We'll take part in as many of these as we can, so watch this space!

It’s fair to say that our latest task at Palm Tree House got off to an inauspicious start. There was some confusion over the expected start time, and as the time that we had planned to arrive drew closer, task leader Latoya was still stuck in Wood Green, proving that sometimes when you wait half an hour for a bus, none will arrive rather than the promised three.

But GoodGym Haringey never saw a challenge they couldn’t rise above. Mark placated task owner Barbara, and seven willing GoodGymers got to work clearing weeds from Palm Tree House’s outdoor space.

We were pleased to welcome back Zuza and Karen for their second task, not having been scared off by the mammoth amounts of clothes sorting at Traid last week. Zuza was even inaugurated into the time-honoured Haringey tradition of finding the weirdest piece of litter: a DVD player. James was less impressed with his find of a stash of Buzzballs and even less thrilled by Julie’s suggestion that they were our reward for our hard work.

Many hands made light work of the weeds and soon all that was left was to throw away the bags of rubbish and speed off into the night.

This was supposed to be my return to Goodgym after a break. I originally signed up and became mission verified in 2023, and my last activity was in 2024. I had found it hard to fit in regular "goodgyming" activity with my schedule, and this was exacerbated by bouts of sciatica, injuries and general ill-health.

Recently my circumstances have changed, and my health and fitness has improved, so I decided now's the time to rekindle my efforts. I also felt a little guilty that Goodgym had recently renewed my DBS and were due a return on their investment!

After a false start (I signed up for a group activity, and then decided to cancel), I found a mission that was close to home and would get me back into the swing of things. I signed up to help MR.A remove some bags of rubbish from his upstairs flat, he was finding it difficult to negotiate the stairs. Mr. A lives quite close to me, so I worked out a slightly circuitous route, including a hill, that would give me a gentle workout before heaving the rubbish bags. I enjoyed a gentle 3k jog and arrived at Mr. A's promptly. Upon ringing the bell there was no answer. The mission confirmation email stated that "it sometimes takes him a couple minutes to come downstairs to let people into the building after they've buzzed the flat so be patient with him" so I waited a while. I then called Mr. A on the number provided in the email, he answered and informed me that he wasn't at home, he was in East London and he would like to cancel until tomorrow. I said that I would let the office know.

This was very disappointing. I turned around and jogged another 1km on my (more direct) route home.

Lesson learned, next time I will call ahead on the number provided to check that I should be on my way.

Anyway, my intentions were good, and I did get some exercise, so I will count this as a completed mission!

I will not allow this to deter me, I will find another mission to sign up for 😊

It's been a while since our last task at Traid, but when the store's new manager Abigail heard the Kilburn store manager raving about Goodgym she knew she had to get in touch. And we're so glad she did!

Mark and Sarah had both been to Traid before - in fact Mark recalled it was his first ever Goodgym task. So he was well placed to welcome Goodgym newbies Zuza and Karen. Both of whom have been meaning to come for some time and finally made it along - it was great to have you both!

We were met today by store supervisor Eva. Our task was to help the store volunteers with their seasonal reset: that is, to take all of the clothes off the hangers and toss them into boxes or (when the over-filled boxes threatened to break) cages. Hangers were sorted by type and tossed into bags.

The team continued happily with this system as the clothes gradually disappeared from the racks. Indeed they were so absorbed in their task they barely noticed time passing. As we got past our usual time limit for a task Sarah checked in with the others "you know you can leave if you need to". But no - completists the lot of them! Until there was only one task left.

Shoemageddon

Over the other side of the store, the shoe rack beckoned. Right shoes on the rack, left shoes behind the counter.

Having already established that this was a team who liked sorting and organising, this should be an easy task, right?

The team started by pairing the shoes that were obvious to match, due to bright colours or patterns. Zuza set about making sure the pairs, once paired, stayed together for life by attaching them together with laces, buckles, or rubber bands. Karen turned out to be an expert matchmaker.

And then there were the black shoes.

Black strappy sandals. Black block heels. Black platform shoes. Black pointy heels. Black shoes with a light inner. Black shoes with a black inner. Black sparkly shoes. Black matte shoes. Black suede shoes. Basically a hundred pairs of virtually identical black shoes.

The team tested their pattern recognition skills to the max. But there were still some shoes that remained resolutely single. Store volunteer Peter disappeared for a bit, before reappearing with a box of -

Yes! That one goes with this one. And finally a match for that bright green shoe! The team paired the remaining shoes up quickly.

Finally, there was nothing more for our team to do (let's ignore the fact the store volunteers remained to keep cleaning ahead of tomorrow's restock - heroes all!).

We said our goodbyes, and melted away into the night.