Five wonderful GoodGymmers assembled last night for a thorough litter pick around Finsbury Gardens.

The One Where Sarah Tried (Twice)

The gardens are riddled with mess, we had been assured but at first glance after our arrival, the place looked suspiciously spotless. You know that moment when you arrive, gloves on, litter pickers at the ready, and think: Have we been pre-cleaned? Well, appearances can deceive, and our Goodgymmers are nothing if not determined. Give us a patch of grass and a bit of shrubbery, and we will find rubbish. And sure enough, we did: three whole bags of it, thank you very much.

But the star of the haul was not the crisp packets, the bottles, nor even the mysterious orphaned shoe. No. The true crown jewel of the evening was an old, slightly tragic scooter bravely rescued from an overgrown bramble as if it had been waiting years for exactly this moment.

Naturally, Mark and Paul immediately recreated their BMX-driving, non-helmet-wearing glory days with gusto. Happy to report that despite some questionable driving, no Goodgymmers were harmed in the making of this report.

Meanwhile, James stole the sartorial spotlight with the most important debut of the night: his brand-new red GG T-shirt. Fresh, vibrant, and worn with the pride of someone who has absolutely been waiting for the postman like a kid on Christmas Eve. At one point we’re pretty sure he was modelling it more than he was litter-picking, but honestly? Fair enough. It looked great. All along, Veronika kept us all ticking along and on task with the patience of a saint. Hero.

Special shout-out goes to Sarah, who heroically attempted to join us not once but twice. Unfortunately, the universe , and London buses, had different plans for her. Two failed attempts, two disappearing hopes, one determined Goodgymmer foiled by public transport. We missed you, Sarah. Your perseverance deserves at least half a bag’s worth of credit. Also honourable mention to Ellie, who in true GG Haringey form, absolutely stacked it at her run club and is currently in the sick bin. Heal soon, Ellie.

In the end, Finsbury Gardens was a little cleaner, we were a little happier, and Paul and Mark were a little wobblier in the knees than when we started. A successful evening all round.

Come next week.

*Six splendid Goodgymmers ran to give the Westbury Banks Nature Reserve a much needed tidy up. *

Kudos Corner (The Big 2-0-0 Edition)>

First and foremost: JULIE!

The woman, the myth, the 200-task legend. Whether she’s singing “Choppy Choppy Choppy,” finishing evenings in bins, or simply rocking up with unstoppable enthusiasm, Julie is everything Goodgym is about. She is also everything that Badgym is about. And for that we salute you. Rock star.

For Fox's Sake, Paul>

Our mission for the evening was clear: give the Reserve a hardcore tidy up so that it doesn't look too shabby from the main road. Armed with rakes, litter pickers, and loads of gloves, we got on with the task. Well, most of us did. Julie spent her evening trying to pull Paul's trousers down with her litter picker, while serenading us all with a song that described how she would eventually succeed in pulling down Paul's trousers. Reader, rest assured this was all consensual and done in good spirits. #Badgym4Eva

Paul nearly added dramatic flair to the evening too by almost falling into a fox’s den. One moment he was running away from Julie, one assumes; the next, gravity tried to stage a coup. Thankfully, agility won. Paul escaped unscathed, dignity intact, and the foxes presumably grateful for the unexpected entertainment.

By the end of the evening, the Reserve looked a bit better and Dave had won himself another SuperHero badge by running two bags fulls of dripping can down Westbury Avenue to find the closest recycling bin. Apparently a recycled beer can can produce around 4 hours of telly viewing.

We then went to the pub to celebrate our Julie with pub shenanigans.

8 Goodgymmers tamed the wilds of the Hornsey Health Centre as we continue to support the extension of this space for patients.

Kudos Corner

Holy smokes, Batman... Yann returned for his second heroic outing with GoodGym! Calm, steady, and equipped with the serene determination of a monk who has spent years contemplating the mysteries of garden forks, he proved his accomplishments last week were no fluke. Welcome back, Yann, your encore performance was a triumph.

Grand Designs

This week’s mission took us to the back of Hornsey Health Centre, where the Friends of Hornsey had ambitions: extend the garden for patients, create a peaceful sanctuary, and, first things first, wrestle the overgrown patch of wilderness into something that didn’t resemble the set of Jumanji.

Our GoodGymmers arrived, and within moments the quiet evening air was replaced by the rhythmic snip-snip-snip of secateurs, the scrape of spades, and the occasional joyful “Ooh, that came up easier than expected!” Together we formed a merry band of garden-tamers, shifting brambles, stray branches, mystery rubble, and even an old skool boom box.

All the while an unnamed Goodgymmer regaled us with her online scraps with a few brave keyboard-warriors who took offence to her posting about the 'man or bear in the woods' post - blokes who incidentally went to prove our Goodgymmer's point with their wild rambling. Keep fighting the good fight, unnamed Goodgymmer. We heart you big time.

After an hour, we called it quits and headed in different directions, with most making a beeline for the local watering holes.

Boom

8 Goodgymmers choppy-choppy-choppied their way through the night as they lent a hand to the Friends of Green Spaces of Noel Park with a bit of tree maintenance

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Yann, who joined us for his first outing with Goodgym. He brought a calm, steady energy to the choppy choppy choppy proceedings and worked very hard through the hour. Hero! Come again...

Choppy Choppy Choppy

We had started this job a couple of weeks ago and it was time to tackle what had been described to us as the most problematic trees in the estate. When we arrived, the suckers on the beautiful London Planes were indeed out of control and were blocking safe passage through the pavements.

This was enough invitation for our crew of urban lumberjacks who armed themselves with all kinds of cutting tools and began hacking through the over-exuberant tree growth with gusto. So much gusto that halfway through the task, Julie broke out in spontaneous song with a rendition of her debut song astutely titled 'Choppy choppy choppy'. Like the legendary Sex Pistols debut in the common room of St Martin's School of Art, this instant classic only played to a handful of lucky punters but it's no doubt destined to join the annals of modern British high culture. In true punk style, Julie even finished the evening in a bin. Rock and roll.

By 8pm, we had cleared all the pavements in the area we had been asked to clear, we had done a litter pick along the way, and we bagged all the detritus and transported it to the park to be picked up by Veoila first thing in the morning/

A good job well done, if I say so myself.

7 Goodgymmers got together on the edges of a very dark Lordship Rec to lend a hand to the Friends of Harmony Gardens in creating a safe path into the park

These Girls Definitely Can!

The theme for the evening was reclaiming all public spaces for everyone. And led by the indomitable, if a little directionally challenged, Latoya that's exactly what we did!

Firstly, though, we had a Goodgym task to get on with. Mike from the Friends group met us with spades, wheelbarrows, and mountainous pile of woodchip, and a task to create a safe path into the park from the Broadwater Farm entrance to the the Rec. Reader, we did. 6 of us did about 50% of the work while SuperDave in his usual Energizer bunny mode did about the other 50% by himself. At some point, he wasn't even using a spade to fill up his wheelbarrow!

Once we completed our task, Latoya took over and led us on a fun Cupid Shuffle session in the dark before leading a nice stroll through the dark Rec. Boom.