A cracking evening at one of our favourite spots — Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, which always delivers on the rewarding session front.

We had a nice little group run: Nick, Rue, John, Adam and Brad joined me in setting off from the Aquatics Centre, jogging up the canal in glorious evening light — about as lovely a warm-up as we'll get. We were joined by Chloe, Joke and Paul at the playground, and got a warm welcome from task owner Ange.

For the record: a Newham task, held in Hackney, with Chloe, John and Rue over from Tower Hamlets. Three boroughs, one sandpile...

The task itself? A mound of sand to shift. Not just any sand — this had been donated from the London Stadium long jump pit, freshly dug out after Saturday's Diamond League meet. Our job was to move what we could over to the sandpit part of the playground.

Cue a shifting and spreading production line: shovels flying, wheelbarrows trundling back and forth, and plenty of teamwork as barrow after barrow were ferried across, with only a small number of mechanical and loading issues.

A couple of surprising things - first, that the stadium needs brand new sand every single time — and second, just how much of it there is. But actually when you think about it, world-class long jumpers probably do cover a fair bit of ground, so the pit must need to be pretty deep to land in safely. A quick google afterwards confirmed it: a competition long jump pit needs somewhere in the region of 6–9 cubic metres of sand. Worth retaining that for when it comes up in a pub quiz.

By the end of our session, we'd made a visible dent and felt like we'd had a workout. Huge thanks to Ange for having us. And a brilliant turnout — it genuinely made the difference, because these tasks simply don't happen without people showing up. So thank you to everyone who came along and we'd love to see you all again soon 💪

Five top Newham GoodGymmers headed out on a lovely run up the canal to Hackney Marsh Adventure Playground, arriving to a warm welcome from Ange.

As ever, Ange was full of enthusiasm — a true champion for the playground and the young people who use it. It’s always inspiring to hear her talk about the space, the community it supports, and the importance of adventurous play. We caught up on her recent trip to the National Playwork Conference, where she got to hear her favourite anthropologist speak — including something about 2-year olds playing with machetes. I can't quite remember the details, and it isn't something Ange is planning to introduce at the Playground, but it did sound interesting... Alongside that, we heard about ongoing works since our last visit, which are helping make it an even better place for local kids.

Our task for the evening was a classic: tackling a mound of woodchip and spreading it beneath the zipwire. At first, it was hard to tell whether we were facing a quick win or a never-ending pile, but within 30 mins, the mound was no more and the ground below the zipwire safer, softer, and ready for action.

With the job done, we headed back along the canal, enjoying a relaxed run and a chat along the way.

We should be back in May for more playground fun, but before that we have a number of new tasks - first up next week is Forest Gate Community Gardens, where we’ll be helping get planters looking their best for a summer community garden trail. 🌱 Your help, as always, will be hugely appreciated - hope to see you there.

Last night, GoodGym Newham took on another epic task—this time at Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground, where we helped dig out soil to create an access area for some new planters (at least, we think so… it was a bit dark to be sure!).

Most of us enjoyed a scenic run up the River Lea, while Martin met us there, ready to get stuck in. As we shoveled away, we were treated to some Whitney Houston belters, which naturally led to a chat about our favourite karaoke songs.

Among the classics mentioned*:

• I Wanna Dance With Somebody
• I Believe in a Thing Called Love
• Daydream Believer
• Smooth Operator
• Wannabe
• And the intriguing choice of "Anything Instrumental"...

A huge well done to everyone who took part! Next week, we’re back at Care4Calais—see you there for another feel-good mission! 💪🔥

*With apologies if I (very likely) mis-remembered any of these - more than happy to edit in the interests of accuracy!

An excellent "cross border" turnout this evening at the Hackney Adventure playground as we were joined by Lucinda, Kareem and Chris from Tower Hamlets, and welcomed Joke (from Newham) to her first mission.

There was rain in the air when we arrived at the gates with the usual air of nervous expectancy as to what Ange actually had planned for us this evening - "shifting stuff" proved to be the best description, as she showed us an area round the back of the centre where wooden panels, old crash mats, sinks(!), plastic boxes, bits of shed, guttering and a lot else beside was slowly being enveloped by the undergrowth. In preparation for an upcoming inspection she needed it moved to another area - and with that we got to work.

After a good 45 minutes of non stop back and forth, we had the whole place cleared, and all that remained to be moved were some water catching roof panels, and a couple of strangely shaped "mystery items"...Ange explained that these had been parts from a film set recreating the cave paintings in Lascaux France, and which had been donated to the playground to amuse the children (who apparently were pretty non plussed...). We also perhaps didn't treat them with the reverence they deserved as we soon had them tossed on top of the pile of everything else, and with that we bid our farewells to Ange for another week and ran off into the damp evening.

You know that autumn's here (even if the thermometer is trying hard to convince you otherwise), when evening group tasks involve (a lot of) leaf sweeping, and so it was for Graham, Eugene, Hilary and I once we'd convened at Ange's place, aka the Hackney Adventure playground. Armed with brooms, rakes, spades and a bag big enough for a small family to shelter under, we quickly got to work clearing the basketball court/football pitch of leaves, branches and other deposits...

We'd like to say there was some method applied to how we went about the task, but that would be overstating things somewhat, although our biggest challenge was staying ahead of the gusts which blew inconsiderately and kept depositing more debris onto the playing surface just when we thought we were winning, but after 45 minutes of pretty vigorous sweeping, piling up and bagging, the court/pitch was once more ready for play, and it would've been rude if we hadn't given it a try out...suffice to say we're clearly better suited to sweeping than we are at hooping...

It was the Gang of Four who pitched up at the Hackney adventure playground this evening to see what Ange had in store for us. Early arrivers Paul and I were delighted to see that the remaining tree trunks that we had shifted during our last visit had now all been moved, so we thought it was unlikely we were going to be in for another session of heavy lifting…and so it proved, as Ange pointed to yet another large mountain of bark and wood chipping by the entrance and said she’d like it moved to the far corner under one of the A frames to provide a soft landing for any young aspiring circus acrobats.

With each of us armed with wheelbarrow and shovel, we got to work loading, walking, emptying into mounds, and retracing our steps for more of the same, but helpfully accompanied by an eclectic playlist of tunes blasting out from the speaker near the shed, which definitely kept us moving. Whoever was in control of this evening's playlist is definitely missing a trick as a part time DJ at the weekend...or as the next Joe Wicks.

With darkness now fully set in, Team Leader Graham gave us a call of “5 minutes more” (or two more wheelbarrow trips), and once done we parked the ‘barrows, tidied up the spades, leaving just a small pile of woodchip still to be distributed, and bade Ange farewell. A short group run back to the Olympic Park, and another highly satisfying and productive evening at the playground was complete for another week.