Last night saw round 2 of GoodGym Newham's fast flyering for Cody Dock's Frost Fair, coming up on 30th November.

Firstly though, a congratulations to the Princes, Kev and Sharon, respectively our figurative patriarch and matriarch, on their 30th wedding anniversay! And they would have chosen our group run to celebrate it too, had work and illness not gotten in the way. We'll have to save the OJ & Lemonades till next time...

Back to the task - great to have a few more of us this week, which certainly helped with the pretty substantial stack of flyers we were to post through letterboxes to promote the Frost Fair in the local community. Apparently flyering does make a difference to the number of people attending Cody Dock's events, and we even had a special request to go a bit further north of Star Lane, getting the word out to even more folks than we would usually cover. I think we distributed about 700 flyers between the two weeks, so well done everyone!

Just a plug for the event though if anyone is tempted to go (and we've been to past iterations - they are highly recommended) - the Frost Fair is a free community event with craft stalls, outdoor games, live music, fire sculpture, choir singing, food & drink, a free cycle maintenance workshop and other activities. More details on the Cody Dock website

For anyone tempted by gardening and excellent post-task snacks, we're at Emanuel Church this Saturday, and then off to the Adventure Playground next Tues - deets to follow on the WhatsApp.

So, St Mary’s Allotments, they’re having an AGM on the 12th October - the Tuesday night mission, for those who chose to accept it - to move some trestles, some tables, some chairs, some display boards and some gazebos from one shipping container to another. Goodgymers chose to accept - course they did - and moved the hell outta that stuff.

Random weekly question, to celebrate the start of October, what’s you fave scary movie? Here’s some of the top choices:

• Alien
• The Substance
• Silence of the Lambs (classic)
• The Birds (even more classic!)
• The Ring
• Blair Witch Project
• A Quiet Place
• Scary Movie (which takes the P out of almost all the above)

Thanks to Elaine and her husband for having us and resolving all the locked gates/doors challenges with their huge key ring of keys!

Next week likely to be flyering, Tuesday 8th Oct, meet at the Printhouse 18:45, with possible pub quizzing after. Sign up here

GoodGym Newham assembled at the Print House on what might be the last warm session for a while if next week’s weather forecast is anything to go by.

This week’s Random Weekly Question: “What instrument do you play, or would you like to play?” Guitar is a popular choice – Paul and Eugene would like to play, Adam does play and the harmonica at the same time. We’d like to see that… Similarly saxophone – Paige plays and Brad would like to. I think Eugene said he plays the drums, so perhaps we have the formations of a band? I play the cello, and should confess that the question was essentially an opportunity to shamelessly plug my next concert with South East London Orchestra – 12th October in Dulwich, which is a bit of a trek from Stratford, but it is lovely.

The run up to Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground might be one of my favourites – almost entirely traffic free, and along the canalside. We were met by Ange, who had forewarned us of the task in hand – to move 4 tonnes of sand to replenish the sandpit ahead of their playground inspection tomorrow. Oh to be a playground inspector - I wonder how you’d get into that line of work?

As we began, the mythological Sisyphus sprang to mind (not that I could remember that it was Sisyphus who was condemned to roll a ball up a hill for all eternity – had to google that one later), but thanks to the efforts of the team – Adam heroically distributing the sand around the slide on receipt of delivery, whilst Brad, Eugene, Paul, Paige and I filled up the wheelbarrows, heroically taking turns on the one with the flat tyre – we managed to shift the lot. So we’re all heroes and it turns out sand is a bit more dense than mulch, well done everyone!

We wished Ange good luck with the inspection and set off back down the canal, stopping off for a drink and a chat at Here East, ever so convenient for this task.

Next week we’re at Abbey Gardens, so hope to see you all there 😊

And finally as mentioned on the WhatsApp, we’re planning to start listing sessions on a Tuesday evening from October onwards because this will really help with Taskforce availability – but do let us know if you’d like to see sessions on other days, we’ll certainly try to be flexible.

A spritely bunch of GoodGymmers gathered at the Print House, where we welcomed Paige back for her 2nd run and Nick for his first ever group run with GoodGym Newham. We were honoured to be his task of choice to celebrate his 500th good deed, particularly as Nick is not so often spotted running with GoodGym groups, having mostly worked his way to such a substantial number through various missions to help older isolated people. Shopping for example – he now knows the Waitrose at the Brunswick Centre like the back of his hand. Anyway, very well done Nick!

On to tonight’s Random Weekly Question: “If you won AU$20,000 worth of travel vouchers in a raffle, where would you go?” South East Asia seems pretty popular, with Paul expressing an interest in going to Thailand and just staying there for a year. Paige and Rosa were quite similarly inclined, but with a bit more travelling in the region and maybe over to Australasia. Graham wants to go to Japan and Nick would like to see more of South America. I’d love to do the Trans-Siberian Railway, but maybe not right now… Later on the run Eugene told me he’d like to go to Tanzania, and then work his way down to South Africa. All sound great – we just need to find a half marathon in one of those places and away we go!

Then we were off down the Greenway (sadly now with diversion in place ☹) to Plaistow Primary School where we were met by Deputy Head Rosie. Two main tasks to get on with (some compost turning will have to wait for another time) – to move a pile of mud from one place to another place, and to weed some of the beds that the children have been using to grow veg. Eugene, Rosa, Graham, Nick and Paul got on with the former – the mud pile was used for play by the children, but it had been there for a while and now they need some fresh mud to play in (or something like that). It was a lot, as the pictures show! Paige and I cleared out quite a few of the beds so that they’ll be ready for planting again and it was great to hear that the kids do actually like eating what they’ve grown. Rosie, of course, did a bit of both tasks and supervised.

We pottered back to the Print House for a celebratory OJ and lemonade, well done everyone! Hope to see you at next week’s task, where we'll be heading up to Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground, or if any of you fancy a parkrun on Saturday, I’ll be at Mile End.