7 Goodgymmers dug deep on an evening of mixed weather and pre-London sympathy Marathon jitters as they lent a hand at the Haringey Learning Partnership with a spot of water feature creation.

Haringey Heroes

Not all marathons are created equal and it would be churlish to deny that the London Marathon holds a special place in the heart of most London runners. Which is why this year we are living [or running?] vicariously through our very own Sarah and Latoya who will be attempting to win the race on Sunday ;)

You are both amazing women and we are so proud you're representing us in London's Top Race - smash it and we'll be cheering you every step of the way!

<3 <3

Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

As sure as eggs is eggs, you get a group of Haringey Goodgymmers together to dig holes for an hour and most of the conversation that unfolds is quite frankly unprintable. To be fair, our resident Smutmeister- who shall remain unnamed - managed to hold her first bawdy double entendre until around the 7:41pm mark - so at least that is something. Anyway, let's concentrate on the task at hand instead, shall we?

A group of us met at the Blue House Yard for a very short sprint over to HLP, where we met Luke from Grown22 who's helping the school create their very own wild nature pond. There, we were joined by the walking GG crew and we were tasked with, effectively, digging a pretty big hole. Reader, we dug. Oh, how we dug.

At some point, Luke mentioned some heavy wood sleepers needed shifting to the other side of the school, and Niamh and Sam jumped at it, flexing their biceps as they went. This was perhaps timely because even though she had been digging a pretty massive hole for over half an hour, Sam didn't actually seem to know what she was actually doing, having been surprised to find out halfway through the task that we were creating a pond. Credit where credit is due - you give that woman a shovel and she will dig, and dig deep and relentlessly, no questions asked. Boom.

After about an hour, Luke was satisfied we had reached the depth we needed to reach this evening and bid us farewell, not before we took some selfies and had a little play with Luke's trusty sidekick - the sweet Mylo.

Great eve.

Join us next week as we go back the wonderful Orchard Meadow in Crouch End where tasks will include trimming a bush and some tool maintenance. Oh dear!

It was an emotional rollercoaster for Gramps and GG Haringey this week. Tasks got postponed, there were illnesses, work duties, train strikes, and a football match stacked against the team.

Luckily, ever-faithful Laura from the Friends of Tottenham Green was able to step-in and our task for the night could go ahead. A huge thank you to Laura for accommodating us last minute, and to Gramps for organising that last minute while unwell!

Nurjehan and Veronika got to work with litter picking in a special location around some benches. There was a lot of litter to contend with, but they left it looking spick and span.

Meanwhile, Dan, Šana, and Charlie were armed with spades and an edging tool and were given the task of edging up the grass around one of the footpaths. Over the years, the grass had covered up a thin silver line that marked the edge of the path, but the team uncovered it again and even used the grass and soil we dug up to fill in some tyre tracks.

All that was left to do was take a group photo, tidy away our tools and head on home.

7 Goodgymmers battled with literal sub-zero temperatures to bring a bit of cleanliness to the wonderful bit of goodness that is Tottenham Green.

On Thin Ice... Literally

The cold out there is such at the moment that it brings brass monkeys and their frozen appendages to mind but the good folk at GGHaringey soldier on nevertheless.

Tonight, seven of us heeded the Friends of Tottenham Green's holler for assistance and found ourselves kind of skating on ice rather than running as we made our way there.

Laura, from the Friends Group, asked us for a vigorous litter pick of the site as well as clearing the main path from leaves. There was also an abandoned makeshift bed used by a homeless friend over the Christmas period who had since moved on (hopefully to warmer settings) that needed to be put away.

Our team wasted no time in trying to keep warm by working. We all litterpicked together while Gramps took charge of removing the bedding safely. Ed found some hardcore polystyrene columns, while the rest of the team dealt with the usual mix of half drunk bottles and crisp packets.

Once we were satisfied the leaves were cleared of rubbish, we swept and collected them in bags to save at the back of the site for future use as compost. Currently, they could only be used as ice cubes. On account of the cold weather. I don't know if this is coming across from this report but it was freaking freezing out there.

Aaaaaaanyway, once we were done, we helped Laura put the tools away in her impeccably tidy tool shed, high fived each other, posed for Gramps for a nice pic, and then ran back to HQ in a futile attempt to warm up.

It was cold y'all.

Join us on Monday for fashionable shenanigans at Traid, and on Wednesday for fun with the terrapins at Wolves Lane!

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"

__

You've smashed (so smashed)

The Wall (the wall)

Now I must say more than ever

__

Too-ra-loo-ra

Too-ra-loo-rye-ay

__

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.

__

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!