Goodgym Haringey got together last night with a very special purpose in mind - to celebrate a departed friend, whose love for life, disposition for a good laugh, and thirst for just a few more Ks was intoxicating and contagious. The thing about death is that it doesn't care about fairness and sometimes it takes from us people who just had too much damn living ahead of them, leaving those of us still around with such a deep sense of loss. Nurj knew this and last time I saw her at the hospital, she made me promise her in that matter-of-factly kind of way of hers that I needed to make sure her Goodgym lot as she called us would be ok afterwards because after all she wouldn't be around to do so. Bloody strong to the end, our Nurj.

So, as a way of keeping a promise, the Goodgym Haringey family decided to bring some new life into this wonderful London borough that she so loved. We planted a baby tree, which will be around for many years to come, and where us Goodgymmers can go and share a quick laugh or the latest juicy goss with Nurj. A Royal Beauty by name, this tree will be all colours and fancy things as seasons change so we know Nurjehan would have approved. And also, as her Goodgym lot got together last night for the customary rummage through a community garden on a lovely warm Wednesday evening at the end of another Summer season, sharing a laugh, some memories, and some tears, I know she would have smiled at her favourite Goodgym in the country and felt proud. We'll never stop missing you on Wednesday evenings, good friend.

11 Goodgymmers rooted for glory as they lent a hand at Floyde's Garden to help them prep the site ahead of a very special landscaping project.

Many hands...

With the recent passing of our GGHaringey Stalwart Nurjehan, the good folk at Floyde's Garden have kindly offered to host a tree planted in her memory, which will become the focal point of a brand new landscaped square for the gardens.

First order of business was digging up a number of deep-rooted dead trees and a multitude of brambles to create a blank canvas of sorts for the new planting scheme.

To that end, our Goodgymmers gathered at Blue House Yard where we kept warm with some light exercises, including introducing some of the new folk to the wonderful world of wall sits, before running a cool 2k to site together. Once at the gardens, we were met by Laurie - from Noel Park Big Local who look after the site - who talked us through the tasks at hand.

Before you knew it, we had lept into action and were digging and leveling to our heart's content.

We were also tasked with helping to rescue some bricks from the works on the adjacent playground so they can be recycled as a small plaza around Nurjehan's tree.

Within an hour our Goodgymmers had completely cleared the site and helped the pile of recycled bricks grow even taller so we had a little nosey at the progress on the playground works next door.

We then did the only reasonable things on a cold night like this and ran to the closest watering hole for much-needed refreshments.

We'll be at Traid next Tuesday and all being well, we should be planting Nurjehan's Tree on Wednesday - watch this space.

The sky was on fire as seven Goodgymmers joined Mike from the Friends of Harmony Gardens for a wheelie wheelie fun eve of mulching.

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Paul and Fiona who joined us for their first ever Goodgym task. Absolute naturals! We hope you had a good time and come again.

Fire In The Sky

You can't argue with a good North London Summer sunset. The sky last night, as pointed out by ever-punctual Niamh, looked almost as if it had been just painted by some watercolour maestro in a juxtaposition of muted pastels and vibrant crimson shades coming together with ease. There was even a rainbow on what was, by all accounts, a pretty dry eve. On second thoughts, maybe the fumes emanating from the massive pile of eucalyptus mulch we were working with tonight left us with addled brains and groovy eyesight. Hmm.

So, let's dig into the mulch pile a bit more.

Mike from the Friends group welcomed us with open arms and wheelbarrows as he pointed us in the direction of the aforementioned mulch pile. Our mission for the evening was to add a second layer of mulch to the paths at the kids garden, on top of the layer we created on our last visit.

We wasted no time in getting stuck in and soon we had created a two way motorway from the pile to the kids garden that worked mostly ok, apart from one particular Goodgymmer who seemed intent on doing twice as many trips as any other Goodgymmer. Love you, SuperDave, never change.

After about an hour's work, and with 8pm looming, we managed to cover the complete path with mulch - just like last time. I love it when a plan comes together.

Join us again next week as we visit the lovely Tottenham Community Sport Centre. 

6 Goodgymmers armed themselves with litter pickers and headed for the gardens of the Wood Green Library to give the Library's Friends a hand clearing this very busy community space.

Silence, please

We congregated for an evening of hardcore litter picking at the Wood Green Library, expecting a bit of a mess and it didn't disappoint!

This much-loved but very busy community space acts as the de facto town square at the very busy Wood Green High Road and on busy days like Wednesday, the poor gardens end up looking a bit worse for wear.

Enter our Goodgymmers.

Dave, Clare, Raj, Latoya, Niamh and Gramps were at their best behaviour and methodically made their way through the gardens. So many ciggie butts, Reader. So many.

This task is always, perhaps ironically, quite loud and tonight one of the punters utilising the square's ample benches for a spot of public inebriation took offence at a group of people volunteering their evening away, clearing up other people's litter. What a bunch of wrong'uns.

Undeterred, our Goodgymmers took it all in good spirits and we collected a big total of two full-ish road sweeper bin bags by the end of the evening.

We then made our way to the Mall on the High Road in search of an owl and some soft pretzels.

Boom.

Tonight Goodgym Haringey were back at their long-standing regular task location (and original base) Tottenham Green.

This task had been a long time coming. After years of looking after the garden of the former nursery building on site, it was time for the Friends of Tottenham Green to hand it back to the council so the building can be refurbished and turned into a new cafe. But not before plundering it of anything remotely useful!

First the team got stuck into litter picking the various flower beds around the green. Meanwhile Sarah was given the task of cutting all of the burdock plants back to the ground before their seed heads could disperse thousands of seeds into the surrounding soil. She also helped task owner Laura harvest some hollyhock seed heads so that the seeds could be saved before the garden is bulldozed.

The garden was also full of moss which Laura says makes really good compost. Sam and Raj spent some time shovelling it all up so it could be put on the beds at the side of the garden.

Soon all of the tasks were complete, and although it was time to say a permanent goodbye to the old nursery garden the team can look forward to the new cafe opening.

Twenty Goodgymmers congregated in the grounds of the wonderful Meadow Orchard in Crouch End for an emotional evening of doing good and getting fit.

Nurj O'Clock

This report is a bit late because frankly I found it a bit hard to write. Or more concretely, I tried a couple of times but failed miserably each time. You see, even in her absence, Nurj had managed to grab centre stage on Wednesday's task like she had done some many times over the last six years and I knew I would have to write a report with her as the protagonist for one last time. The words just didn't come, to be honest.

So, instead, I have decided to share with you the big Nurjehan-shaped hole she leaves on a normal Goodgym evening. She played many roles within our motley crew: self-appointed timekeeper, naughty gossipy aunt, strict school teacher when we needed a telling off, whingepot whenever we attended her least favourite task that shall now forever remain unnamed, indefatigable do gooder, tireless 5k/10k runner, unconditional friend, and perhaps, the one thing we'll miss the most, her enthusiastic cheerleading of everything Goodgym Haringey. She loved Goodgym. And she preached its praises at any given opportunity.

If I'm allowed a personal note, I'll personally miss a role she played too well without any fanfare or noise but that she relished and excelled at. Whenever we had a new runner in our group, it would always be either Nurj or myself reaching out to say hello to them. She would then proceed to tell the newbie all sort of crazy stories about how I am a mad area activator, I would then reply by telling the newbie to watch out for her because 'this one bites' and thus, within the space of thirty seconds, a newbie was eased into the dynamics of our group and was then shadowed by Nurjehan for the next 45 minutes, regaling them with whatever particular drama was happening at her school that week and making sure their evening was as fun as possible. I'll miss my newbie whisperer.

Our dearest Nurjehan Khan passed away on Thursday 18th July 2024, having completed 273 Goodgym tasks and along the way having become the unofficial face of Goodgym (her face is the landing page of the website). Goodgym Haringey will never be the same without her and we'll miss her.

I'll finish this here before she tells me off for going on too much.

<3

It's Our Birthday And We'll Cry If We Want To

In a moment of incredible timing, this evening also happened to be Goodgym Haringey's 9th Birthday. There will be other nights to celebrate and we will have a social to end all socials in due course, but we did mark the occasion with cakes, chocolate, and hell of a lot of tears.

We're very grateful to the folk at the Meadow Orchard for accommodating us at short notice (this was Nurjehan's favourite Haringey task) and they had loads of fun jobs for us. They even let us use axes on the night. Talk about cathartic.

Normal service will resume next week.

For now, just look after each other and I'm here if anyone needs a hug, a natter, or a cry.

Love to my wonderful Goodgym Haringey Fam