Eight Goodgymmers danced and pranced as they quite literally brought the house down at Wolves Lane tonight.

Musical Interlude by the Dexy Midnight Goodgym Runners

(Disclaimer: this only vaguely works if you listen to Come on, Eileen while reading it )

Poor old Charlie Ray

Sounded fed up on the ladder

Pulling out nails with his fingers

Mama Rosa cried

"watch out for the rust"

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You've smashed (so smashed)

The Wall (the wall)

Now I must say more than ever

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Too-ra-loo-ra

Too-ra-loo-rye-ay

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So that we can pull out this panel...

Come on, I lean

this way and you

*you lean that way *

And then everything

comes down.

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But what is that smell?

My thoughts, I confess

Verge on that smell

Ah, come on, let me lean

A Symphony Of Destruction

Our Goodgymmers flocked to Wolves Lane Centre once again after our task there last week on a promise of being unleashed on a room with sledgehammers to demolish the space at the back of the main office to create a better control command for this ever-expanding community space.

Denise from Wolves Lane did not disappoint. Upon arrival, she pointed at the pile of tools, she pointed at the wall, then smiled as she put on some sick tunes on the box, and then closed the door and left us to our own devices. And, oh my goodness, we smashed the place up!

It's not every day that you are tasked with the job of breaking stuff but you must grab the opportunity with both hands when given the chance. It's not to say it was all fun and games. I mean, Latoya did dance a lot in between bouts of kicking the wall. And Sam seemed to channel some primal need for catharsis as she smashed the wood panels. And Veronika did smile a lot, as she seemed to be assessing her life choices and deciding whether being a stuff breaker could be a respectable career path. I could go on... But I'm sure you know what I mean.

As the panels came down, and the wooden frame proved to be nothing but a momentary hindrance, we had become a successful wrecking crew, all within a timeframe that would please our resident time-keeper.

Ever a hero, our Dave did a last bit tidying up, bringing up the last of the few rusty nails from the floor so no one has an unfortunate accident in the future.

A couple of selfies here and there, and we all headed home after a proper work out on a chilly, chilly night.

Boom!

6 Goodgymmers howled at the moon as they joined Denise at Wolves Lane for some destructive fun.

Six Hours

Here's a list of things you can do in six hours: you could watch a balloon filled with helium naturally deflate to 50% of its volume (promise never to ask Gramps how he knows this fact); you could serenely witness a high tide recede into a low tide on a secluded beach somewhere nice; you could enjoy Scorsese's Wolf(es Lane) Of Wall Street exactly twice in a row; you could get lost in your kitchen cooking fried chicken and donuts; or like the ardent hero of our piece, the fierce Louise C, you could spend a whole Wednesday afternoon somewhere in Tottenham, completing a supposedly easy Goodgym Mission that threatened to hijack the course of her life for what seemed like an interminably epoch (or, in this case, six hours).

Kudos to Louise for sticking with the kind of mission that would make Ethan Hunt baulk. Just don't ever piss her off when she's holding a crowbar (you had to be there :)

The Wolves Of Wolves (Lane) Street

"The only thing standing between you and your goal," bellows Di Caprio's Jordan Belfort in the Wolf of Wall Street, "is the bullshit story you tell yourself as to why you can't achieve it." Well, he clearly never stood against a wooden wall panel during a Goodgym evening, after being tasked with prising the whole thing apart by a very encouraging and bent-on-destruction task owner

Armed with a pointing hammer, a crowbar, and a couple of hoes (!) that's exactly what our Goodgymmers did. Charlie, Veronika, and Louise demolished skirting boards, wall panels, and whatnot with the wanton hunger of jungle trail blazers. And just to prove Picasso's wonderful axiom ("every act of creation begins with an act of destruction"), this has now led to an invitation next week for a sledgehammer session as we help the centre make way for a brand new room.

At the same time, our Nurjehan and Rosa refilled the beds at the Centre's Palm House with the contents of two industrial-sized bags of compost.

After an hour that flew by, we gathered all tools and put them away, took some selfies, said goodbye to the terrapins and ran away into the mild night with a smile on our lips.

Boom!

More shenanigans next week at the same time - you know where to find us! :)