The GoodGym Ealing birthday is coming up soon (9th of August). Tonight's epic session with Ealing Repair Cafe was perfect to make some history and generate new GoodGym Ealing trivia for the next quiz! Read on!

Who was the first man in Ealing to achieve 1000 good deeds?

Sevan was the first man in the area to wear the legendary 1000 Deeds cape created by Milly for the overachievers of West London. The cape received Mary's approval! Sevan was also presented with a (rather rude due to ordering mishap!) trophy. Sevan can now show his fingers to counting good deeds (very naughty in a church!) and say he does good for fun and out of a good heart. He's beyond the milestones now.

How did Mary get such a premium venue?

Wait! Was the workshop held in church? Mary and Lone from Ealing Repair Cafe contributed their services to St Mary's Church in Acton, revamping the curtains and providing draught excluders to keep the church a bit warmer in the winter (you can see Mary proudly presenting them in one of the pictures). The grateful church community allowed Ealing Repair Cafe to use the church as a location for tonight's workshop! How cool is that!

How long is a piece of string?

Madhan was busy making threads for the drawstring t-shirt bags. He made two balls of string (the size, not quantity matters!). You may ask now: how long is a piece of string? Madhan has the answer to that - 140ft! Madhan's feet, to be precise, as he unfolded one thread around the church and then diligently measured it with his feet!

Who's not afraid of sewing machines?

While Kash, Steph and Sevan decided to play it safe and stick to cutting t-shirts and jeans or assembling bunting, Gaby was the first one to have a go at the electric sewing machine. She got stuck into it for the entire session, producing 12 multi-purpose bags that others finished adding scraps of thread as drawstrings. Those kind of bags were in the past donated to the Northfields Community Library and Food Cupboard.

Who's the Great Old Dane?

Nishy and Chris got acquainted with the super sustainable Great Old Dane - a classic, portable Singer sewing machine: no pedals, no electricity, no emissions, free arm workout, and 3 lines of bunting for community groups as a result (the last one kindly finished quickly by Lone)!

What happened to Chris' donation?

At the previous episode of our craft adventures with Ealing Repair Cafe, Chris donated plenty of his old sports clothes and trainers. The GoodGymers sent a big box of those running shoes to JogOn for recycling later that week. But what happened to the clothes Mary from Ealing Repair Cafe agreed to take? The sportswear in good condition was sent to the refugees staying in hotels in Hounslow. And the worn football T-shirts? Those ended up even better! At a repair event that Mary ran in Brentford, she made one of the participants smile, getting them a patch with a Liverpool logo - a rare treat!

Who's GoodGym Ealing's go-to baker?

Nishy gave tonight's session an extra flavour - the chocolate flavour! As a part-time pro-baker, she had brought her homemade chocolate cake for everyone to celebrate Sevan's milestone. Thank you Nishy!

What do GoodGymers drink after a session in Acton?

After a break from post-group run socials, we returned to the tradition of grabbing a pot of chaii after the task in Acton. Sevan gave us finally a good excuse for a toast and to stay a bit longer together for a chat.

Next week, we will be running in the opposite direction to Acton, visiting the William Hobbayne Centre in Hanwell to help clear their backyard. Sign up now!

When a bell at the Hanwell School of Boxing rang at 7:15 pm, it announced the start of GoodGym Ealing's match against dry leaves, weeds, a pile of decomposing trimmings, and very much alive ivy. There was a plentitude of opponents to fight against, but we came with a strong team: 8 people warmed up by 3 km run or walk to the session!

The task owner, Linda, let us into the club's building to peek at the ongoing boxing class with young people sparing in the ring or practising their boxing drills. But our battle was outdoors - which we appreciated as the late spring weather was fantastic.

Our job was to tidy up the space outside the boxing school, and the task looked like a big one! Would there be another round - or could we win by knockout? No time to overthink when you are already in the ring! We went straight into action.

A.B. and Madhan swept the old leaves from the vast patch of tarmac leading to the school entrance. Chris, Harvey and Sevan freed the trees from the embrace of the ivy. Freya pulled all the weeds from the gravel area, then helped Steph Ducat, who was shovelling the pile of old cuttings. Kash took a lot of photos - and also loaded the waste into a wheelbarrow and dumped it onto a dead hedge, as Linda had lost hope that the green waste would get collected.

The result? We won with the mess by knockout! Surely, the ivy will grow back and new leaves will fall in the autumn - but we left Hanwell School of Boxing transformed and looking welcoming. We, in turn, felt welcome seeing the friendly smiles of young boxers, leaving after finishing their training session. Our match was over too, so we set off for the journey back towards Ealing Broadway.

Next week, we'll stick closer to the starting location at Bodyline, and will walk or run to the Lammas Enclosure to free saplings from the rule of nasty brambles - sign up now!

The first group run after the clocks went forward last weekend was all in bright daylight. What a difference it made! Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway to Acton to meet Mary and Lone from Ealing Repair Cafe in a new workshop location - the Hall of St Mary's Church.

Chris did not join the runners today as he was doing some proper lifting! He made his way to the task by doing the exercise called farmer's walk - or shall we say a donor's walk? Chris showed up with a ton of bags of used clothes that were ready to be reborn as something else! Well done Chris! Ealing Repair Cafe is all about reusing, repairing or recycling old fabrics.

Mary and Lone did a triage on the spot:

• Clothes in good condition to be donated to the refugees
• Old Liverpool and England football t-shirts to be transformed into the famous drawstring bags
• Trainers - to be donated somewhere else (two GoodGymers declared to run back with them and send the shoes to JogOn)
• Jeans to be upcycled into tote bags
• Socks, shorts and particularly ripped clothes to be cut into scraps to make stuffing for draught excluders

"Those are proper jeans, we can make bags out of them! Traid usually give us those skinny jeans, and they are good mostly for draught excluders" - Mary

Ealing Repair Cafe recently donated a couple of draught excluders to St Mary's Church in Acton, which served well to secure the drafty north church door. Who knows, maybe that has also secured us a venue for today's workshop!

Chris spent the rest of the session cutting his old apparel into shreds. He did not expect that turn of events when contributing his old stuff but was extremely grateful that Ealing Repair Cafe accepted his donation. That made Chris immediately stuck into the task.

Steph, Kash and Lone were making t-shirt drawstring bags from already sewn material and by the end of the task completed all 30 that had been prepared. Ealing Repair Cafe donated their last bags batch to The Store Cupboard in West Ealing - a not-for-profit shop providing affordable food to people referred by agencies and charities. We should soon find out which charity receives our latest creations.

Sevan got stuck into detailed work of tracing the letters for Act for Ealing banner, then cut them out. That provided us with some good entertainment: making anagrams! Cleft Granola? Teal Frog Clan? Is that a good band name?

We partner with Act for Ealing as a green travel and exercise group and occasionally share our upcoming activities with them. Check out their news - you can find a lot of fantastic events with an environmental theme if you ever get bored with GoodGym. Hopefully you won't as we have an exciting event planned for this Saturday in collaboration with WWF - check it out here!

Equipped with head torches, working lights and a secret key to the park gates, the GoodGymers ran the streets surrounding Walpole Park and stopped in front of Pitzhanger Manor to regroup. At Rickyard's tool storage, they collected spades, mattocks, loppers, shears, thick gloves and additional assets: park volunteer hi-viz. Although no one should walk in the locked park after dark, the GoodGymers wanted to be perceived as... well, volunteers!

Chris, Sevan, Steph Ducat, and Kash returned to one of the spots where GoodGym fought off brambles last year. Some of the blackberry bushes grew back but seemed small and vulnerable in the winter, which made it a perfect time for a counterattack. Steph and Kash used their favoured weapon, the Mighty Mattock, while Sevan wielded his favourite Spartan Spade with a long shaft and an ample blade. Chris was paving the way to dig out the bramble roots, chopping the stems with Shadowy Shears. He has been very meticulous in giving the blackberries a proper trim.

"It's like I could be a barber in my other life."

The night was calm, windless and dark, with a crescent moon shining against the black, cloudless sky. Although serene, the night was not quiet. As the team worked right next to a pond, quacks and shrieks of water birds counterpointed the sounds of digging and pulling out the roots with effort. Suddenly, the GoodGymers heard the voices of strangers from the street behind the fence.

Chris walked up to a couple on their nighttime stroll. The pair was asking what on earth the GoodGymers were during at this time in the park. Chris used his diplomatic skills and years of GoodGym expertise to describe who we were and what activity we were engaged with. Kash came over and explained that Ealing GoodGymers at today's session were helping with park maintenance after dusk as they had day jobs and couldn't come earlier, then assured that their Tuesday evening sessions get less awkward in the summer. The passers-by turned out to be daily visitors to the park and thanked our team for helping keep their favoured park beautiful and safe.

With a small team we removed nearly 40% of the brambles covering selected patch and did our best to extract the roots, which in some places ran deep and were extremely stubborn. One area looked particularly wrecked, just like after a visit from a wild boar digging for his dinner!

Next week we are visiting a different park in our borough, Blondin Park, where a pile of woodchip waits to be moved. Sign up and join Steph in helping the park. Rewards? Feeling great (and hot chocolate)!

There was a biting cold wind blowing through Pitshanger Park this morning for Junior parkrun. It blew straight through the volunteers too, who nevertheless put on a cheery and enthusiatic event for all today's runners.

Steph Ducat, Chris McC, Kash, Gaby and Sevan all used their motivational skills to help the 61 finishers around the course. Kash and Gaby as marshals and Chris and Sevan as timekeepers were all cheering and put the power of the high 5 into action. Steph on the other hand had to be more creative as the tail walker, hopping, skipping and running to keep the final child entertained and moving towards completing his 2km.

At the finish, Mohamed was getting to grips with funnel management, keeping children in line. Harvey was barcode scanning and Chris Y was providing everyone with moral support. Chris was also silently mocking everyone else's lack of planning as he rocked his woolly mittens 🧤❄️.