Eleven of you joined me in Willesden Green this week matching my 'world record' attendance numbers as we had our first run in the light as we enter British Summer Time. A BIG GG Brent welcome to Emily, Hannah and Helen who attended for the first time - great to have you with us. Welcome back to Karen who hadn't joined us in some time and for you regulars - well we love to see you too!

Old favourite

Tonight we were heading off to visit Colin at the old police station in Willesden Green, it's a volunteer led project converting the old police station into a community hub for all kinds of things to then be able to take place there.

It's a short run down to the station and we were impressed to see that much of our previous work was blooming at the front of the building - all the planters were full of beautiful flowers!

Colin gave a us a bit of a tour so that we could see some of the activity that had been ongoing, the front reception was pretty much complete, some screen printing equipment had been installed and as previously mentioned much of the gardening had been done.

Our task tonight was to do some more planting and move rearrange some of the flowers that were yet to be painted. Along with this there were various odd jobs to be done - plenty to keep us busy!

Kittens!

Colin being Colin he couldn't help but add some extras on to our tour and our work...first up everyone got to meet the little kittens that live on site - cue all the cuteness! I decided to take on the 'evil taskmaster' role and eventually got everyone split up and on to the tasks.

Everyone worked hard for a good 30 minutes including a 'five minute challenge' for the 'planters' outside - it made for a fun finish and just when we were ready to leave Colin found us one last task!

One more task, one more task, one more task

Clare, Danny, Pete and Samina. rather 'un-abley' assisted by myself took care of that last job helping Colin to move a planter from the police station site across the High Road to the Islamic College.

One swift group picture later and we were off for a run back - we headed back on a slightly longer route that took us out to Gladstone Park (check out the parkrun there every Saturday) and then back to base. A quick stretch off later and we were all done with some of the group staying at the pub for a deserved drink.

We're doing some leafletting for Cricklewood Library next Monday (bank holidays don't stop us!) so sign up and join us!

Cheers, Pritesh

GoodGym Brent!

Here we go - the age of Pritesh! Sorry, I'll stop.

It was freezing last night and it only got colder as the night went on but seven brave souls joined me in Brent to help out with the regeneration of the old police station in Willesden Green.

No newbies tonight but welcome back to Samina who had been away for six months or so and welcome back to Danny who was back for the second week in a row.

It was a bit of a topsy turvy night as I got to grips with leading the area and whilst I wouldn't call it a turn for the worse when I proudly proclaimed that we were heading right out of the pub to the police station and everyone told me I meant left I may have been slightly worried!

With Liz leading the way (thank you!), we made short work of the 1k trip to the police station where we met Colin and his friend Adi who had an assortment of jobs for us. The old police station is, well very much the old police station but Colin is working to regenerate the building with areas for arts, refreshing the outside with some new plants, fixing up some space at the back for yoga and even has bee hives and is going to be growing flowers. That is by no means and exhaustive list but working on his own (other than volunteers) and with no budget means it's slow going so any help we give is a great help!

Danny, Liz, Uthman, Kathy and Danny weeded and planted outside the station, whilst Samina, Alex, Amy and myself helped move some wooden boards to be used in what will become the fitness area. We got on with things as quickly as we could as much to keep warm as to get lots done and the time flew by.

With everything done we grouped for a photo and then Kathy (thank you!) led us back to the Queensbury, taking a longer 2.5k route and we stretched before heading home.

Thanks everyone for being so welcoming and helping out too. Look forward to seeing you all next week!

Cheers, Pritesh