8, (yes 8), runners showed up on this eventually-dry October evening for tonight's last minute change of plan.

Change of plan?

Yep, due to a late task cancellation, our Monday plan changed at the eleventh hour, and 8 GoodGymers found themselves standing in one of the most tranquil spots in East London, at the edge of Meath Gardens, warming up for an impromptu fitness session.

The team made one another feel very welcome, showing teammates the best makeshift bike racks, welcoming one another to the fitness circle (an incidental shape formed as late additions joined the session).

A tough little routine...

We warmed up with some, well, warm-up moves before moving on to a bit of Pilates/core know-how, before whizzing through some tough body weight moves, with an added resistance challenge, and just as our hardworking abs were about to give out, we moved on to some of the gentler, lighter mobility and stretching exercises to end our session.

Impromptu it may have been, but it was a well-spent, sociable alternative to tonight's original plan, and a good chance to tick some often-neglected fitness boxes.

And so to next Monday...

Next Monday, our big Monday night get-together sees us heading to the heart of Spitalfields for some community gardening in the gorgeous Middlesex Street community roof garden. If shifting compost under the Gherkin sounds like an excellent alternative Monday workout, do sign up here.

Until then.

A small group of four jogged companionably through the streets of Bethnal Green this evening, to meet the rest of the team at our task at Oxford House.

It was a gorgeously warm evening; the streets were bustling as usual, and although busy, was nonetheless a delightful little warm-up for this evening's activity.

Slowly the team grew, until we formed two decent-sized squads: one team headed outside to clear weeds and litter from paving stones, while another headed indoors to clean glasses and glass ready for a big event.

Why were we doing this?

Oxford House's mission is to 'provide a community-led, inspiring, diverse, and sustainable multipurpose arts space.' With more and more events returning to the centre combined with fewer volunteers over the last couple of years, GoodGymers have been delighted to return to this task over the last couple of weeks, to help with painting, taping, furniture-moving and gardening.

The time flew by this evening, with many areas of moss, weeds and litter being swept up, while the inside glass-cleaning crew finished in no time, and were soon dispatched to a new glass-cleaning task.

Fun, fast and very productive, it seemed like no time at all that we were lining up on the ramp for a final group shot, promising to return soon.

The big shout-outs tonight go to the outdoor team, particularly Sian, Joel and Emma, who helped come up with tonight's pun and to our Ivy, who tonight reached her 100th good deed! (Ivy's a member of Task Force, and often leading tasks and attending socials, Parkruns, and generally out-and-about on the GoodGym circuit, contributing bundles).

A brilliant night all-round, everyone, and we look forward to returning soon.

Next week our big weekday task is taking place on Wednesday instead of Monday, and you can sign-up here.

Until then.

We were delighted to be meeting back at Bethnal Green's gorgeous Town Hall Hotel this week, a splendid, welcoming base to meet for this evening's Group Run.

After a quick warm-up, we headed out into Bethnal Green's busy, bustling streets, taking in Middleton Green, scene of many a fitness session over the last couple of years.

On arrival at Oxford House, we were joined by other members, who'd made their way on foot and cycle, ready to start this evening's task at 7-prompt.

It was an absolute joy to see Deborah again, who we haven't seen for a while, as we were briefed on this evening's tasks.

Why were we here?

We haven't visited Oxford House for nearly three years! And as there are a number of jobs that the venue are happy to have a hand with, we were delighted to return to this lively community venue.

Forming two teams, we gathered in the basement toilets and the gallery. Team Toilet wasted no time preparing the space for the big task of the night: painting the whole toilet area! They quickly got to work tackling one wall at a time, in a small, rather warm space.

Meanwhile the team who'd headed over to the theatre area were busy taping up areas not to be painted as the theatre is soon to get a new look. Skirting boards, door handles...all were carefully sealed with tape.

When the taping team had finished, they proceeded to empty the theatre of furniture, stacking piles of chairs and moving the heavy piano. As usual, they finished the task early.

As they stacked the last chair and tidied away the last bits of tape, the painting team were busy finishing up in the tidiest way possible. (With a little more painting remaining, it's a good job we're back next week).

Paint brushes were washed, rollers soaked, the floor scrubbed... Finally we were able to gather for one last pic.

Shout-outs tonight to Rahul for this evening's pun, and to George, for his first GoodGym event!

Next week, we return to see Deborah for Painting Part II, theatre clearance, and a few other active jobs.

Until then.

Led by Tunde of Friends of Meath Gardens, 5 GoodGymers and a bucket load of the FoMG volunteers spent the evening watering some very thirsty young trees in a local community park.

One gang headed to the canal side to lug water up the hill, another group used the tap near the ball court and a few others gained access from a local to the nearby allotment tap, meaning there was no shortage of water points and made efficient work of distributing water all around the park.

And when the tap wasn’t being used to fill buckets it was used by some local kids as ammo for a water fight!

We all left the park soggier than we started, a fun and worthwhile task.

A strong team of six gathered by the Meath Gardens changing rooms this evening to help Friends of Meath Gardens member, Jane, undertake a speed-drenching of some very thirsty plants.

Yes, right at the last minute, our little team of four rose to six, so we were delighted that we ended up with a decent-sized, dedicated and determined little crew.

We were at Meath Gardens to help water some life back into the absolutely parched trees, shrubs and flowers of this beautiful spot. (The council's Green Team do as much as they can, but keeping this amount of green space alive and well in these conditions is a big job).

And residents in-and-around Meath Gardens have done an amazing job watering the plants as and when they can (including our Joel and Sian who topped up their already-impressive GoodGym activity last weekend with a speed-session around the garden).

Taking it in turns to fill buckets from the tap, we wheeled barrows all over this large area, trying to minimise spillage.

We chatted to locals enjoying the park; explained when we'd next be returning, and were assisted by young residents who were keen to do their bit, filling buckets and heading off to nearby borders.

8pm came around too soon, and we were stacking buckets back by the shipping container.

Huge shout-outs to the whole team, especially Fiona for great pics, and Sian for tonight's pun :)

We're back to this task on Monday, for our Group Run, when we'll shuttle some more water around the park, hopefully helping to keep these gorgeous plants alive.

More photos to be uploaded from Chi.

24 GoodGymers and a few non-GG friends gathered in Victoria Park by The People's Park Tavern to enjoy a socially competitive round robin rounders tournament.

Unlike the first tournament in Clapham Common last month, the weather showed up and brought us blistering heat and sun! One could be mistaken that we were in a park in Spain, Italy or France 😳

With the gazebo set up and rounders set laid out, all we needed to do was put on some summer tunes and wait for everyone to show up.

One by one and in groups, GoodGymers from across London (from Hammersmith & Fulham to Bromley and from Haringey to Lambeth) gathered in the predetermined spot. It was a "first come, first placed in your team area". Sam knew there weren't going to be more than 30 people, so the original idea of four teams playing semis, 3rd/4th place and a final was scratched and replaced with a round robin tournament of three teams with the third team being a mix match of GoodGymers from all areas - GoodGym United.

The defending Champions were on first. "Ninety Nine Problems but a Northerner ain't one" decided to pitch first as the "Southern Softies" fielded. In the first game, we decided to do two innings as the first innings went by in a flash. Northerners scored 3 rounders as the Southerners replied with 6 & 1/2 rounders. Yet, after a water break, the Northerners used the blaring sun to turn on the heat by going 6 rounders ahead. It was a tense and long second innings for Southern Softies as they were four players down and still needed to score 1 & 1/2 rounders to win! Marta got the first 1/2 rounder and then Sam stepped up to the plate to score and showboat the winning rounder (to umpire Jonathan dislike).

We reduced the second and third game to one innings as that second innings from the first game took forever to complete!

Southern Softies wasted no time and were on against GoodGym United who batted first and scored an unbeatable 13 rounders with half of it coming from big hitting Ed. Southern Softies reply was just a 3 rounders and 5 players were out before the ninth player Sam could even bat! 😳

GoodGym United showed us that they were the team to beat as they had a good setup in fielding and in batting.

The final game was GoodGym United against the defending champions "99 problems but a Northerner ain't one". If the defending champs won, it would have been all square for wins and losses for each team, but it wasn't to be! Fast spinner Denise, backstop Ed and first base Emma had an effective system like they did against "Southern Softies". They reduced "99 problems but a Northerner ain't one" to 3 & 1/2 rounders. So it was only time that the team made up of members from the North & South of the river plus non-GGers would hit 4 & 1/2 rounders to claim the trophy - a Prosecco shower 🍾💦

• 1st: GoodGym United - 2 wins out of 2
• 2nd: Southern Softies - 1 win out of 2
• 3rd: 99 problems but a Northerner ain't one - 0 wins out of 2

Congratulations to GoodGym United: Laura (team captain), Emma, Bella, Denise, Vicki, Darren, Ivy, Ceiling and player of the tournament, Ed

Thanks to everyone for showing up and getting into a very social and respectful tournament of rounders! It was a pleasure to organise and until next time, take care!