Three Goodgymers made their way to Cultivate Colindale, a fantastic community project in the eponymous location, where a group of staffers and volunteers are hard at work turning a corner of Haybourne Park into a thriving community space, with allotments, gardens, green houses and outdoor classrooms.

We were welcomed by Anna and Azalea, who got us working right away weeding a bunch of plant beds. We were amazed with Anna's encyclopaedic knowledge of all things weedy! She was reeling out names from her enormous brain store!

The weather was not exactly epic, but we were kept thoroughly entertained and pulled weeds out by the barrel-full. We weren't exactly singing, but we were definitely weeding in the rain!

Thank you to all the wonderful people of Cultivate Colindale for welcoming us to their space.

For our first indoor session of winter (I know right?!), Barnet Goodgym brought their energy and gusto to St Mary's Church in Finchley Central. Following a bit of a storm, a ceiling cave in and half a year of rain management, the church finally had the gutters fixed and roof patched. All that remains to mend are the pews.

Goodgym to rescue - nine of us in all! Five of us braved the bleak rain, gathering at the Phoenix - Beattie arriving first, as usual - for a run up the East End Road, including Amir who popped over from Brent. Lucinda and Subham took up back marking, though Subham kindly took the lead as we neared our destination, steering us to a lovely car-free route around the back of Stephens House - a run leader in the making!

Arriving at St Mary's Church in good time, we were met by our host, Helen, and Paul, Kirsten and our honorary mascot, Gus. Soon after Amanda and Theodore rocked up and we got to work.

The task involved waxing down damaged pews with steel wool padding, leaving them for a few minutes, then polishing them hard with tea towels. A fairly simple task, but one that turned into a good work out. The polishing was the real energetic work, requiring a lot of pressure to smooth out the hardening wax. But with so many of us we made light work of roughly 8 pews in the morning prayer section. The pews are used on a daily basis, so they were really glad for the work.

After, Helen gave us a quick tour of the church and a brief history of some of the older parts and decorations. Maybe we'll be back to do a bit more work, as the other pews might be in need of a bit of TLC anyway.

Then, with that lovely, satisfying feeling in our chests, we headed to the nearby pub to round the evening off by slaking our thirst and sating our bellies.

I arrived and started litter picking but there was not so much of it. New member Wakana showed up and we both helped Cherry Tree Woods stalwarts Kate and Sarah with clearing a child’s play area and also helping to make dead hedge. Our efforts were appreciated and great to be part of a vibrant East Finchley community!