Our last Goodgym group session of the year was a breezy loop around the Phoenix Cinema's neighbourhood, promoting their Christmas film specials and programme for the week. Four Goodgymmers gathered in the cinema's foyer to brave the dark, cold, but generally friendly and fitness-amenable streets of East Finchley.

With a small stack of leaflets, barely two hundred between us, we thought we'd make the most of our warm up, taking it in turn to share jumps, squats, skips and spot-jogs until we felt suitable geared up. Subham set our chatter for the night: What are you doing for the holidays? Then George led us into the night and side streets, with Lucinda back marking and Theodore on camera point. Splitting into pairs down each road, we made short work of our stacks, then retired to the pub for a celebratory drink.

The social was a good time to reflect, and also to plan more socials! Suggestions to go climbing in the new year, and also possibly to try out an Escape Room! Let us know if you've other ideas for socials in the comments!

Two goodgymers joined a group of asylum seekers living in the local community in looking after the Mutton Brook Tiny Forest.

We talked about the four tiny forests at the site, with a combined total of 2,400 trees, and got on with the job of measuring and reporting the height and girth of a sample of trees.

These measurements go into a big database that tracks the progress of trees in more than 200 tiny forests around the country.

We also counted wildlife and collected two large bags of litter, so the site looked much tidier when we left it!

Goodgym Barnet is proud to work with groups of asylum seekers, who are often keen to contribute to the communities they live in, but lack the resources or local connections to meaningfully participate.

Through Goodgym they get connected to the local area and find ways of making a contribution while they wait for their cases to be resolved. We look forward to other similar sessions!

A hardy group of Goodgymmers, new and regular, gathered at the Phoenix Cinema for their regular session, only to find... the cinema was closed! Thankfully, the lovely manager was in, and more than happy for us to gather our resolve in the foyer as we prepared to go out into the dark and damp.

Tonight's mission was leafleting for the North London Hospice. Each year they offer a great service collecting Christmas trees and donations to keep themselves going. We had 500 leaflets and many pairs of hands to make light work of delivering them to nearby houses, especially the ones with all their Chrimbo decorations sparkling.

Warming up outside, we welcomed Fanny and Kingsley for the first time, as well as Narina for her second consecutive week (thanks also for bringing Kingsley!). Amazing to see Jacqui also, who can't usually make Tuesday group runs. And, of course, stalwarts Rachel, Subham and Paul making up the numbers.

Then off we went, with Rachel and Paul leading a walking group of 5, and myself, Subham and Jacqui jogging to the far end of the nearby roads, then working our way back to meet them in the middle. Then, after a quick redistribution of the remaining flyers, we set a challenge to see whether the runners could finish and get back to the Phoenix before the walkers. The walkers won, mainly because the runners stopped to take a photo.

Lucky for us, the Phoenix manager was still working and more than happy to open the bar for us! After a round of bevvies (or maybe two for some), we patted ourselves on the back for another job well done.

Looking forward to the new year, on Wednesday 7 January we'll be helping North London Hospice reap the rewards of our leafleting, collecting Christmas trees - a great follow up to start 2026 with!