Four Goodgymmers had to turn their back on a night at St Mark's Church after some overzealous Council officers stole their task from them mere minutes away from their arrival.

Theft in cold blood

Raj and Gramps, our running crew for the evening, were just about to set off to task when a bird chirped in Gramps' ear that our task for the evening might have just been cruelly stolen from under us.

Undeterred, our running crew took a detour to the location of the task just to double check and St Mark's Church had never looked cleaner! Turns out that when our assistance was requested to help as the outside of the church had become an ice rink with the frost and fallen leaves, the Council had also taken notice and cleared the mess of their volition. Credit to them, I suppose.

Our Goodgymmers, now joined by Niamh and Veronika, decided to find themselves another job and before you could say 'it's colder than a leaf-sweepers bum out here,' they were at the Noel Park Children's Centre, clearing the courtyard of leaves.

In a task described variously and unironically, as 'the best task ever,' our Goodgymmers swept, laughed, joked, and frolicked to their heart's content before a number of them decided to check notes jump in their car and get back home. It takes all sorts, sometimes, to rescue a win from the jaws of certain defeat. Boom.

Come next week!

6 Goodgymmers gave it a good go at painting a really large ceiling at the Community Hub in Wood Green.

Hitting The Ceiling

They say they didn't paint the Sistine Chapel in one day and if it took Michelangelo 4 years for a little paint job in Italy, you can't help but be impressed at the amount of ceiling our Goodgymmers covered in the space of an hour in good ol' Wood Green. But I'm jumping the gun here a bit. Let's rewind.

Raj and Paul met Gramps at Blue House Yard for the evening's run while Julie, Ed, and Niamh opted for the walk/cycle to task option.

Once we arrived, we were pleased to find that the team at the Hub - led by Laurie - had already been at work, taping up edges and painting the most awkward bits of ceiling work so that we could just get on with a bit of painting.

Armed with rollers, some of our team tried to outdo each other with war stories of DIYs past but very soon, they were all brought to the same level by the reality of painting a ceiling the size of a small pacific island country.

Ignoring back pain and neck cricks, our Goodgymmers put their heart and soul into this paint job. Heck, one of our Goodgymmers even managed to paint some of her own hair onto the ceiling. Eat your heart out, Michelangelo.

Alas, there's only so much you can do in an hour and we had to miss a corner of the room. Luckily, Laurie and the rest of the team were staying behind and assured us the job would be finished on the night.

We're back at the Hub next week to crack on with the wall painting. Join us. The more, the merrier.

9 Goodgymmers channeled their inner signmakers as they lent a hand at the Meadow Orchard.

Kudos Corner

Everybody make some noise for Hao, who joined us for his first task and jumped right in into the deep end like a freaking natural. Yes! You can come again...

Sign o' The Times

Let's start at the beginning: Gramps made us run a lot ahead of the task. It was hilly. It was dark. It was a lot. Bad Gramps.

Once we arrived at the task, however, things ran nice and smooth. The good folk at Meadow Orchard had a fun task prepared for us, dismantling pallets to turn into future signs around the site.

Our team had a fun time with this one. And the lucky one among us even got some nice mint tea. The unlucky ones ran back to HQ with Gramps. Bad Gramps.

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.