THREE TASKS NO LESS!

What a busy night: three tasks, three beautifully organised task owners.

We met in our lovely hotel room where Torie headed up the lighting operation: attaching straps to our new head torches, and together with Emma, Isabelle & Kat, helped figure out the hows and whys of transporting our new spangly lights.

We headed out for some quick warm up exercises, welcoming late arrivals before forming three highly competent crews…

Task Force save the day again

• Kat and Isabelle led one team to Meath Gardens, where task owners, Friends of Meath Gardens, including Joanna, Julia and Jane, were ready and waiting with carts, spades & litter-picking kit for mulch moving, digging aaaand litter-picking.

• Lieke led the St Margaret’s House posse – a team of 5 taking to the streets of Bethnal Green to distribute newsletters and flyers about some exciting events this fab arts centre has coming up.

• And I led a third team to the Parkview Estate, where Catherine and little Liam greeted us with bundles of the estate’s newsletters, and the best instructions and organisation in town. The team was dispatched to all four corners of the estate, leaving no stone unturned as we distributed the newsletter to all residents, letting them know of a forthcoming litter-pick, and the new basketball hoops.

Busy bees or what.

The team at Meath were shovelling mulch, and collecting every last bit of litter, while Lieke’s leafleting posse distributed every flier given, and my team at Parkview covered the development like pros.

And then we met at our favourite fitness tree (although, according to Emma, as it’s fallen, it’s the Fitness Log. Hmmm.) The runners were led through some lovely moves, such as our boxer crunch, scorpion push up and our favourite Bulgarian Split Squat, all to Apple Music’s Summer Vibes playlist. And Chi’s encouraging words…

Shout-outs and thanks

• Welcome to our first time runners, Liz, Charlie, Adam and George (by no means new to GG, just to TH) - thanks for a wonderful session; for being so calm and productive on a very busy evening. We hope to see you really soon!

• And thanks to our wonderful task force, Kat and Isabelle for leading to the Meath task; to Lieke for helping to plan in advance, and for enabling the St Margaret’s task to happen.

• Thanks to Torie for brilliant help with logistics: with planning and light assembly, and for being a much appreciated early arrival this evening.

• And thanks to Chi & Leo for some great pics this evening!

• Lastly, thank you to the legend that is Ed Field who fast-tracked our new head torches (when yours truly had been a bit slow on the requesting front), meaning we were able to commit to the Meath Gardens task.

What's coming up...

Now, there is just one thing you need to know about coming up this week…

On Thursday evening from 7-9 we’re heading to Powerleague in Shoreditch (location here) to support our first 5-aside match as GG regulars Kat, David, Chris, Bryon & Steve take on The Young Foundation!

Come and spend some time with us: they’ll be playing, I’ll be cheering and you’ll be eating the beautiful food that’s being laid on for us all.

A lovely night out, and you can come for as little or as much as you fancy. The event details can be found here.

Until then, have a wonderful week everyone, and we hope to see you very soon!

On the eve the hallows, there were some scary sights to behold in Brent! But thankfully amongst the horrors, were 14 local heroes, who, although wearing masks, carried out tasks, in the name of what's Good(gym) in Willesden. YAY!

SCREAM QUEEN The usual meet up was a freaky affair, in our old haunt, The Queensbury! But making a play for old Queenies crown, was I, the Goodgym prom queen of death, in all my crowning glory!! But to my absolute delight, I wasn't alone in my Halloween costume efforts, with the majority of the crew bringing a whole lotta fierce, with faces painted, masks, head dresses and props! Hurahhhh haaaa haaaaa haaaaaaaaaa (that was an evil laugh by the way!)

Amongst the familiar faces was another I'd seen before, although a member of my Peckham flock who appeared to have flown West for winter! Michael, a regular Southwark speedster, but due to a change in address was ready to bust out with Brent!! Hurrah!

So after housekeeping and the big reveal of what would be the prize for best costume - A pumpkin disguised as a chocolate orange and my crown, we hit the road for a fast mile down to the police station.

ELLO ELLO ELLO The Old Police Station is a site we've been visiting for months and months and are proud to say have contributed to its complete regeneration. Once a den for squatters, thanks to Colin and his community crew, it has been shaped into a glorious hub for artists. What was once an unsightly eyesore, is now a tremendous center for arts and crafts, which values community spirit and supports local business.

Devil may care, artistic flare So after our pavement pace down the high road, we arrived excited and raring to go. Waiting at the door for us was Colin, our host, ready to explain our missions for the eve. First up on the agenda was was the most important task; The creation and painting of our very own Goodgym mural, representing all the hard work that we've achieved since beginning our volunteering, way back in spring. So with paper at the ready, the crew began sketching the designs, that would later be translated onto real life, painted wall art!

Rubble in paradise As the sketching began a few of the scary soldiers peeled off to tackle some lifting and shifting of rubble and rubbish outside, into Colin's trusty old van. This task was EPIC to say the least!! Led by Uzman, the gang of Goodgym ghosts and ghouls, hoiked and slung mountains of debris and made way for some much needed outdoor space! As the crew formed a chain of shifters and lifters, Joe was put to work inside the van, where he felt far more comfortable than standing on the roof, like last time!!

Paint by numbers With all the action outside going on, I nearly missed the excitement inside, when the actual wall painting finally started! Crammed into the mini room where our mural would take shape, the team worked tirelessly, chalking up outlines, then painting on the infamous GG logo and all manner of related images, from running shoes, to wheelbarrows and spades. Michael worked particularly hard on the creation of MEEEE, now to be remembered forever doing pull-ups on the tube!!

Drop it like a squat Even though the night was brimming with all manner of tasks to be completed, I still found time to put my Halloween hotties through their paces. Splitting off in teams of 4, a HIIT session was on the menu, consisting of squats, stair runs and sprints!!

We've only just begun Even though we would have loved to have stayed all night long, we feared the inevitable of turning into pumpkins ourselves, so I had to wrap the timer on the cop shop task drop. However, we still have loads and loads of our mural to complete and will therefore be back to do more in 2 weeks!!

But before we could say a final farewell, sister sledge - Tabs and Debs were crowned the winners of the Halloween Prize for their fantastic face painted efforts!!! However the twosome turned out to be not so gruesome, when they shared their choccy orange prize out with the troops.

Homeward bound So that's a wrap the winner revealed as Debs the cat. Oh and Tabitha too, as a scary ghoul. We ran home feeling pleased, with all we'd achieved, on this Goodgym for Brent, on all Hallows Eve.

See you next time fit fam xxxx