It was only 2 weeks ago that we were at the Water Tower, but it felt much warmer this time 🔥

At the Bridge House we welcomed Catherine back to GoodGym after meeting last year, and set off for our uphill run to the Crystal Palace Museum 🏃

After tricking John 😈 by getting to the site via the back route instead of the front to find it empty (he heard many voices, so soon realised!), we readied our head torches and went inside to start work. Not full of water anymore (or it would make our job of mucking it out a lot harder 🤿), these towers once ensured the fountains ⛲ in the park had a plentiful supply of water through gravity, and the Museum want to open them up so people can step inside and marvel.

Like last time, sieving of soil was a top priority, with Stephen, Hannah and Catherine rotating to rattle the supermarket basket 🧺 to separate all the stuff in the ground. Two wheelbarrows were filled - another step to clearing the tower!

Sami dug out new soil for the sieving team to work through, while Ian and Cat set about cutting up all the ivy we brought down last time. It wasn't long before the ivy bug hit again, though, and the three had another sheet attached to the central column in their sights. We got a good chunk of it down and stopped the rest from growing further, which was a great result.

We said our goodbyes to John and headed up to the top of the park for a gentle jog the long way down back to Bridge House.

Great stuff, all! Next week we're not far away as we head into St Christopher's Hospice shop at Crystal Palace to sort through donations - see you there 👋

A nice indoor task at Valley Primary School today! Mark, Stephen and Hannah joined Tanya and the headteacher (also a Stephen) to re-paint some of the walls in the school’s main hall, where kids had been having a bit too much fun scuffing their shoes / causing chaos / generally leaving the paintwork in need of some care. We got to work with the brushes and rollers, and meanwhile were entertained by the head’s stories of competing with pupils on his trombone exams. We’re back in February for another task - possibly for some more Painted Love...?

What a lovely bunch for a chilly evening popping some flyers through doors.

Our flyering was in support of the attractively named GROAD (Get Rid Of And Donate) and a new local service they're offering where people affected by the cost of living crisis can go and pick up items of clothing, homeware, shoes, toys, books, games etc. All the goods are donated to them by people with a surplus. It's really very clever.

We met at the Bridge House as per, shared our favourite things about moving house, and after a quick warm up we made our way to Anerley station. From there we split into two teams to distribute our flyers. Stephen, Kate, Clare and Alex blitzed one side of the road, while Hannah, Rosie, Ian, Cat and I went the other way.

We didn't have too many flyers so polished them off in 30 minutes. A man on our route said we should just put them in the bin and go home, probably presuming we were getting paid. 🥲

On the way back we stopped off for a few wee exercises - firstly a wallsit and then we jumped between tricep dips, press ups and lunges in the Homebase car park. A solid effort by all, including some stellar timing from Ian.

Ace stuff everyone!

See you next week for a trip to the water tower! 💦💦💦💦💦

🔥 Pun courtesy of Hannah as per usual.

Sieve-r Me Timbers!

It was a chilly one this evening but eight GoodGymmers turned out for an evening in the Water Tower!

We met at the Bridge House, shared with the group our favourite cheeses, and welcomed Tamara who is brand new to GoodGym! 🥳

After a quick warm up outside the park, we split into two groups - half took the anticlockwise route round the park and half took the shorter clockwise route.

We met John outside Crystal Palace Museum and walked into the (pretty creepy, ngl) tower. It was designed by Brunel don'tcha know and housed a huge water tank which powered one of two huge fountains in the Palace lakes back in the day. Now they're working to turn the space into somewhere that's accessible for the public. But first it needs emptying...

We've been working on the tower for about 6 months (10 visits Nick reckons) and we're really getting somewhere now, clearing out soil and vegetation. Tonight was no different as we armed ourselves with spades, a pick-axe and of course our sieve, the trusty supermarket basket.

We split into a couple of teams, tackling both the walls of ivy (see pic of Ian with his new skirt) and sorting out the quality soil from the roots which were spread throughout. We got a pretty serious chunk of clearing out done before hitting the road.

Except it wasn't as speedy a return to base as we might've liked. We came across some seriously slippy patches of ice forming and had to walk most of the way! This also put a stop to the game I had planned. No problem though - we pumped our thighs and got our heart rates going with some quick circuits of squats (with calf lift), jump lunges (Tamara showed us all up) and some star jumps.

✨ Ace stuff gang! ✨ - see ya next week to spread the word about the fabulous GROAD.