It was a big turnout with 9 GoodGymers celebrating Nurjehan and her birthday this week. Judging by the quality of litter, clearly all of Ally Pally’s visitors had been joining in the celebrations too!

Queen Khan only deserves the best, so AA Gramps arranged a literal palace for our location and task leader, Jo got out brand new litter pickers for our good deed.

The group spread out along the grand south slope and we enjoyed the back drop of Ally Pally and the city in sunset. We found a bougie class of litter - balloons, pistachio shells, and even champagne corks.

We scoured the site and tried to pick up every tiny bit of rubbish we could find. Of course we had to finish bang on time for Nurjehan’s birthday task, so we took some great photos in front of the palace and headed home.

4 non-arachnophobic Goodgymmers got entangled in a myriad of spiderwebs as they lent a hand to the Friends of Westbury Banks Nature Reserve.

Queen Julie

All hail the all-conquering Julie who completed her 100th marathon over the weekend. Hero.

Congrats also to everyone else who completed Julie's 100th race or the Big Half on what was frankly a ridiculously hot day for it. You all rule! <3

Into The Spiderverse

The beautiful sign to the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve had to come down following a number of letter thefts and weather damage so it felt fitting that we were invited to do the deed, having been the team entrusted with putting them up in the first place a couple of years back.

When Gramps arrived there, however, the site was a spider heaven and the risk assessment check for the site involved clearing a path to the letters through a multitude of 8-legged creatures. Even for a non-arachnophobe, this was an icky job.

All the same, by the time Dave, Rosa, and Nurjehan arrived to the site, Gramps was mostly in one piece (if a bit evolutionary shaken in a deep and private place) and our team got on with the job at hand.

First we did a thorough litter pick of the site, so the Reserve looked ace from the road once the letters came down.

Then, one by one, the letters came down. I'd like to say it was a sombre and respectful affair, but the team of Dave and Rosa were absolutely ruthless. The letters tumbled down faster than a 9 pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese on Cooper's Hill.

Once we had stored the old letters away and removed all non-recyclable tags, we called it quits for the evening and we all headed home.

Join us next week for a new task at Ally Pally!