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

__

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! :)

It was a big turnout with 9 GoodGymers celebrating Nurjehan and her birthday this week. Judging by the quality of litter, clearly all of Ally Pally’s visitors had been joining in the celebrations too!

Queen Khan only deserves the best, so AA Gramps arranged a literal palace for our location and task leader, Jo got out brand new litter pickers for our good deed.

The group spread out along the grand south slope and we enjoyed the back drop of Ally Pally and the city in sunset. We found a bougie class of litter - balloons, pistachio shells, and even champagne corks.

We scoured the site and tried to pick up every tiny bit of rubbish we could find. Of course we had to finish bang on time for Nurjehan’s birthday task, so we took some great photos in front of the palace and headed home.

7 screw-loose Goodgymmers ran to help the lovely folk at the Community Hub in Wood Green to un-Ikea and feng shui their office furniture

EVERYBODY MAKE SOME NOISE

Busy running weekend coming up with the little matter of Julie's 100th Marathon (!) finally upon us, where she will be joined by Dave, Sam, and Louise (and in spirit by Niamh and Gramps as their spirits are the only thing working running-wise at the mo <3 ). We at GGH HQ are super proud of you, Julie, and think you are ace. Have wonderful race, you four.

And to all those running the lovely Big Half (too many of you so Gramps won't try to list you all in case he goes and misses someone ) but have a cracking day. And get your free drinks!

Heroes - we <3 you. Run well.

The Turn Of The Screw

The lovely folk at the Community Hub in Wood Green pressed the big red button marked Goodgym Haringey as they needed some help clearing up space at their offices, getting rid of some old office furniture that couldn't be found a new home after a lot of trying.

So, it was time for the old desks to go and have a rest at the big old desk heaven in the sky and we were the team asked to help them on their way. And that's what we did.

Screwdrivers in hand, our crew made light work of the furniture. You should've seen them. They dismantled that furniture like Gramps working his way through a pepperoni pizza - methodically and relentlessly. One by one, the desks and filing cabinets came apart and our Goodgymmers transported them to the basement floor where they went to make their peace with their maker.

After about 45 minutes, we had completed our task - the speed of our job not lost on the Hub's caretaker who was very impressed by our hustling.

As we said our goodbyes, there was only one topic of conversation floating around so let's finish this report by saying it again - SMASH IT THIS WEEKEND, TEAM. <3