Ealing

Mission

Tinker Gardener Strimmer Spy

2 GoodGymers made their way to help an isolated older person in Ealing.

  • Sevan
  • Kash
 
Saturday, 22nd of October 2022

We arrived at the Saturday morning mission well prepared: we had our facemasks, gloves and brand-new spy haircuts. We were going to infiltrate the neighbourhood of a famous area activator, marathoner and parkrunner, Mr H. Our first stop was the base of Mrs S. She was very welcoming and invited us to her garden from where we could have a good peek at the local area.

Mrs S had some spy gadgets for us to try. They were not as new and shiny as we would expect from Q. To say the condition of some of the devices was suboptimal would be an overstatement but we couldn't be discouraged by such minor details. Sevan, knowing that Kash would definitely go for the strimmer, quickly secured the most promising tools - the garden trowel and hand fork. What was left was a big fork without a handle and an electric strimmer that hasn't been used for years.

The tall grass in Mrs S's garden provided us with an excellent cover for stealthy observation but the owner was not so happy about the state of her lawn. She couldn't tend to it herself because of a heart operation which prevented her from lifting heavy objects. We decided to deal with the problem, particularly if that involved the use of strimmers. As we learnt throughout our GoodGym field experience, the strimmers can be a hit-and-miss, more often the latter option.

Mr's S strimmer fit in the "miss" category, so by the end of the mission, we were surprised that it actually did the job - as much as possible with the wet grass. The strimmer had to be switched off ten times in total to cut the lawn. Between the attempts, Kash had to do some tinkering and puzzle-solving: why the engine sounded strange at the beginning, how to secure the spool so that it stops falling off and why the line was getting severed so suddenly.

Sevan spent most of the time weeding and clearing the path from clumps of grass. He discovered a few things: that the trowel kept bending which made it useless, that there was a hidden flowerbed to uncover and that the garden was run by competing gangs of dandelions and snails. By the end of the mission, he also found out that the lack of good tools to use (with the exception of the decent spade) made his fingers very wet, despite using the gloves. It was a sign that we were deep into the cold season, so next time you see our reports, we may be wearing the accessories from the autumn-winter collection.

We covered all our activities in Mrs S's garden by packing everything we ruthlessly dealt with into a green plastic bag. To make it even more covert we put it in another green bag. After realising we blew up the whole operation because of the cat counterintelligence saw us, we had to disappear. After saying our goodbyes we went undercover and faded into the backstreets of Hanwell to wait for another call to action.

Report written by Kash


Discuss this report

sign in to add a comment

Share the love

Get your mission on

What are you waiting for?

Find a mission

Join us on the next run

Group run: Task TBC

Tuesday 18:45 - 20:30
Led by Kash
Bodyline Studio

Find out more

Become a member

with an optional monthly donation

  • Run, walk, or cycle to help older people
  • Access sessions across the country
  • Claim your GoodGym t-shirt

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more