November 3rd, 2011 Ivo
This is someone’s garden, sadly they can’t get out there to tidy it up. Would you like to come and deal with it with us?
Judging from last month’s run, this will be quite fun. This time we’re going to have lights.
Details of the run are:
Start Location:
York Hall
5-15 Old Ford Road
Bethnal Green
London E2 9PJ
(York Hall is close to Bethnal Green Tube)
Time: 7pm, Monday 14th of November, 2011
Other stuff: York hall has changing rooms and shower facilities. We’re not planning to do anything dangerous, but the Good Gym takes no responsibility for your safety during group runs, you participate at your own risk.
More information: is available on our frequently asked questions page.
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October 18th, 2011 Ivo
A week ago (sorry for the delay) we went round to an older person’s house at the bequest of Tower Hamlets Homes. The garden had been left untended for a few years and so looked a bit too leafy:
As usual, we ran there fromYork Hall, the general consensus being that we just get on with it. When we arrived we were slightly daunted by the enormity of the task. The garden was huge and serioulsy over grown. We settled on just clearing the paved area which had a substatial buddleia that had been earmarked for destruction as it was growing right out of the middle of the patio. The place was generally covered in ivy and everyone was knee deep in foliage.
We grabbed our massive choppers, donned gardening gloves and plunged in, it only took half an hour longer to fill two more of these great big bags up with foliage, smash up the rest of the buddleia and dig up its roots.
The neighbours who had been complaining about he over-grownness of the garden, were really supportive and gave us all loads of fizzy drinks. We drank these, then head off into the night. Running another 6k on the way back to York Hall along the North side the Regent’s Canal.
The next day, the garden looked like this:
Not bad for half an hour’s work and probably pretty good for you all that chopping and stomping. If anyone you know someone in need of some destructive gardening work please let us know, we enjoyed it.
Photo credit: Mushtaq Osmani
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October 15th, 2011 Ivo
We had a little stand at the Tower Hamlets Older Peoples services day at York Hall on Thursday, we hoped we’d meet a few new people and make a few friends. What we didn’t expect was an enormous amount of seriously impressive dancing. Linkage Plus run a programme of dancing that got 50 or so older people not only on their feet but performing synchronised dance routines to Michael Jackson songs, and a pretty amazing Bangra routine (pictured). The place was packed and it was great to see so many excellent and lively services available for older people in the area. The difficult thing is finding the people who aren’t at events like this. We’re still working to get more referrals for home visits, so if you think anyone you know or work with could do with more visitors then please do let us know.
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October 13th, 2011 Ivo
At the beginning of the summer we ran to the library, it had a strip of land at the back that was overgrown and unused. When we arrived it looked like this:
We ran there and spent a few moments stripping it back and getting it ready for planting.
A month or so ago I went back to check the progress, now its full of things growing, I spotted chard, green beans and tomatoes amongst their crop.
Jane, a resident from the estate next door to the library, who tends to the plot said:
“The Good Gym were fantastic. The group of volunteers turned up when they said they would, and cleared a patch of derelict ground at the back of Bethnal Green Library. It only took the team about half an hour to do this. It was incredible to see people in action like this and very inspiring too! The ground was covered in weeds and rubble and would have taken us ages to clear. It was an amazing example of the good that can be achieved by a big group of people working together to get a tough job done quickly and efficiently. The ground has been cleared for us to start gardening and we are really grateful. I am really impressed by the Good Gym and think it’s a fantastic thing.”
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October 13th, 2011 Ivo
Not long now to the Olympics. If you’d like to have a run around the Olympic park before the proper athletes even get a chance then you can enter the ballot for the National Lottery Olympic Park Run.
You could be the first to cross the actual Olympic finish line. Its on the 31st of March and you can enter here – the Ballot closes on the 27th of October and the £15 entry will get you a couple of tickets for friends to watch you win the race. The route will take you past lots of shiny new sports buildings. If you are planning to compete in the Olympics, it will be good training, if your not, it will give you the feeling that you are. Exciting.
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October 7th, 2011 Ivo
We met Rachel Botsman a year or so back around the time her book Collaborative Consumption came out; since then she’s told a lot of people about Good Gym and Mark also gave a talk at her event at NESTA. The book has got a lot of people very excited about the sharing of goods and services based on new technologies and has many fascinating examples; some of which you can see in the rather nice animation above- which also features Good Gym runner Ben and his coach Sarah, and a cat.
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