We were a lovely big group last night, which was brilliant as we had a lot to celebrate!

We got to welcome G to GoodGym for the first time - great to have you join us! It was also lovely to have some visitors from Merton - hello Rachael and Jade, and welcome!

Perhaps the good turnout had something to do with our very own Catherine leading the session to become a fully fledged run leader? Catherine absolutely smashed it all, taking us seamlessly from warm up to stretches with a killer fitness session in between. Give her a big cheer!

It might have also had something to do with the double social night - we had not one, but two fantastic social options to choose from. It was our regular monthly pub quiz as usual, but as it was Shrove Tuesday there was also the choice of going for pancakes. What a decision!

We kicked off the night with some great warm ups, and the question of the week was suitably themed. What is your favourite pancake filling? Answers ranged from savoury to sweet, from the classic sugar and lemon to the more avant garde biscoff and nutella!

We set off for Doddington, where we met up with the rest of the team and set about doing various jobs. There is always loads to do at this community garden, which has been transformed from a derelict space on top of a multi story carpark to a thriving area which local residents use for growing food, educating children about nature and composting.

We were tasked with all sorts of jobs, from pruning to digging trenches, to cardboard laying and transporting strawberries, to dispatching a Christmas tree!

If that wasn't enough of a workout, little did we know Catherine had even more in store for us. A fiendishly inventive Shrove themed circuits challenge, complete with star jumps, high knees, repeater lunges, oblique crunches, vertical jumps and explosive squats. See what she did there?! The result was a great all over workout.

Then came the big decision of the night - quiz or pancakes? The majority came down on the seasonal side of things, and had a lovely time eating the sweet treats. Meanwhile a smaller group hit up the pub, and managed a place on the podium in second position! A good time was had by all.

There is lot of fun stuff coming up, including this international women's day run on Saturday - all welcome! Next weekend there is a lovely community mission to help spruce up an day care facility while Monday's group run is a painting job at Wandsworth bereavement services. Hope to see you there! And once again - congratulations to run super leader Catherine.

We've gardened in freezing rain, scraped graffiti in sub zero temps, even pulled weeds with the threat of snow - and finally, the evening came. An indoor task! Perfect timing as well, as it was pretty nippy out there last night.

Our job for the evening was to address and stuff envelopes for a charity called Sparkle which runs an intergenerational centre. It brings together elderly people who might be facing loneliness with young ones who can benefit from their experience. A brilliant idea! They just need some help spreading the word about their amazing offering.

So we met at St Michael's church, where some of the activities including gentle exercise, arts and singing are held. It may have been a toasty inside task, but it was no less of a challenge as we found we had no fewer than 1700 envelopes to fill!

Wasting no time we formed an efficient production line, some of us writing, some stuffing and some sealing. While we worked the conversation was certainly wide ranging, from the merits of singing butlers to the best parkrun breakfasts, the joy of sleeper trains and what exactly is meant by 'vibe merchants'.

No wonder then that some of us may have got a little distracted and 'Dear Neighbour' became 'Dear Envelope'! Mentioning no names but a certain glossy beard might be a good disguise?

After a good solid session working away, we had a final count and managed a grand total of over 1000 envelopes - amazing! Next week we'll take on the job of delivering them - hope to see as many of you as possible there to get the word out far and wide!

We had got so used to the comfy warm room that our planned session on agility and balance morphed into a cosy strength and conditioning session. But that didn't mean that there was less, ahem, vocal feedback. Still, hopefully Pritesh didn't pull every single muscle in his body and Steph's hip flexors survived the journey home!

Great work everybody. Join us next week for the second part of the task or check out this week's community missions.

Tonight at Wandsworth we celebrated the start of February and discussed what we were looking forward to for the month ahead! A common theme was the lighter evenings to come but we did get a shout out for more Goodgymming and some must have been hit by Cupid’s arrow with a special mention for Valentine’s Day! We realised that Pancake day isn’t until March this year sadly but I’m sure it will be worth the wait.

We had a brilliant group to set off to Doddington estate and loved welcoming some new faces to Wandsworth (Caroline and Mike)! We wish them all the best over in Merton on Mondays to come. We had to pivot slightly to a plan B at the task but set out enthusiastically litter picking to brighten up the local area. We filled quite a few bags and even had time for a good fitness session covering a whole range of exercises from squats to skaters before heading off to our monthly social. Well done Wandsworth, those brighter evenings are coming!