It’s fair to say that our latest task at Palm Tree House got off to an inauspicious start. There was some confusion over the expected start time, and as the time that we had planned to arrive drew closer, task leader Latoya was still stuck in Wood Green, proving that sometimes when you wait half an hour for a bus, none will arrive rather than the promised three.

But GoodGym Haringey never saw a challenge they couldn’t rise above. Mark placated task owner Barbara, and seven willing GoodGymers got to work clearing weeds from Palm Tree House’s outdoor space.

We were pleased to welcome back Zuza and Karen for their second task, not having been scared off by the mammoth amounts of clothes sorting at Traid last week. Zuza was even inaugurated into the time-honoured Haringey tradition of finding the weirdest piece of litter: a DVD player. James was less impressed with his find of a stash of Buzzballs and even less thrilled by Julie’s suggestion that they were our reward for our hard work.

Many hands made light work of the weeds and soon all that was left was to throw away the bags of rubbish and speed off into the night.

It's been a while since our last task at Traid, but when the store's new manager Abigail heard the Kilburn store manager raving about Goodgym she knew she had to get in touch. And we're so glad she did!

Mark and Sarah had both been to Traid before - in fact Mark recalled it was his first ever Goodgym task. So he was well placed to welcome Goodgym newbies Zuza and Karen. Both of whom have been meaning to come for some time and finally made it along - it was great to have you both!

We were met today by store supervisor Eva. Our task was to help the store volunteers with their seasonal reset: that is, to take all of the clothes off the hangers and toss them into boxes or (when the over-filled boxes threatened to break) cages. Hangers were sorted by type and tossed into bags.

The team continued happily with this system as the clothes gradually disappeared from the racks. Indeed they were so absorbed in their task they barely noticed time passing. As we got past our usual time limit for a task Sarah checked in with the others "you know you can leave if you need to". But no - completists the lot of them! Until there was only one task left.

Shoemageddon

Over the other side of the store, the shoe rack beckoned. Right shoes on the rack, left shoes behind the counter.

Having already established that this was a team who liked sorting and organising, this should be an easy task, right?

The team started by pairing the shoes that were obvious to match, due to bright colours or patterns. Zuza set about making sure the pairs, once paired, stayed together for life by attaching them together with laces, buckles, or rubber bands. Karen turned out to be an expert matchmaker.

And then there were the black shoes.

Black strappy sandals. Black block heels. Black platform shoes. Black pointy heels. Black shoes with a light inner. Black shoes with a black inner. Black sparkly shoes. Black matte shoes. Black suede shoes. Basically a hundred pairs of virtually identical black shoes.

The team tested their pattern recognition skills to the max. But there were still some shoes that remained resolutely single. Store volunteer Peter disappeared for a bit, before reappearing with a box of -

Yes! That one goes with this one. And finally a match for that bright green shoe! The team paired the remaining shoes up quickly.

Finally, there was nothing more for our team to do (let's ignore the fact the store volunteers remained to keep cleaning ahead of tomorrow's restock - heroes all!).

We said our goodbyes, and melted away into the night.