Claire


125

Good Deeds

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125
Cheers given
67
Cheers received
660

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Doing good since November 2017

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Not done a group run this month

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Claire
Claire went on a group run

Tue 27th Feb at 6:45pm

Fairy Log-quit

Ealing Report written by Kash

On a dark Tuesday night, a couple of officers from Ealing Patrol Service sat in their car, watching hypnotising flashes of the lights mounted on top of their vehicle. It was the most exciting sight they could hope for in the tranquillity of nighttime Walpole Park.

Suddenly, three wheelbarrows rolled in front of their car. The officers blinked in disbelief.

Are those wheelbarrows?!

We are a volunteer group called GoodGym. We borrowed some tools from ranger Jon to help in the community garden across the road. We know it's dark and that it looks weird.

The people with wheelbarrows disappeared into the darkness. The officers weren't sure whether they were hallucinating or not.

In the neighbouring Lammas Park Enclosure, fairies were having a party at the wooden circle in the middle of the community orchard. When they heard loud wailing, they hid in the holes of the trees and under the bark of old logs surrounding the party area. No one would tell that the pixies were having a good time there a few seconds ago. Only a blue plastic carrier bag with an empty beer can inside rolled through the orchard like tumbleweed.

The wailing noises were coming from a wheelbarrow borrowed from Trevor of Ealing Transition, the mastermind behind tonight's movements in the Enclosure. And there were quite a lot of movements happening! First, the GoodGymers, the people who brought the haunted wheelbarrow and three well-behaved barrows, moved the old, rotting logs from the fairies' circle into a dedicated log decomposition zone. They replaced the decommissioned logs with new ones that would make nice seats for the fairies. The GoodGymers even built a coffee table in case Tinker Bell and her mates needed some caffeine to pick them up the next day after the night out. Finally, they spread woodchip from a nearby pile onto the ground at entrances to the Enclosure. Fairies didn't need it to avoid walking on muddy paths. They can fly over the mud after all! The woodchip carpet was made of milled thuja that brought an irresistible forest scent into the Transition Garden.

Once the GoodGymers were gone, the fairies resumed the party, wrecking the new wooden furniture in their magic circle and rolling in thuja chips.

Next week, the GoodGym crew will be wheelbarrowing a different cargo - check out the session in Acton here. We hope to see you there!

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Harvey GallagherStephDucatMadhanKashSevan
Claire
Claire signed up to a group run.

Tue 27th Feb at 6:45pm

Fairy-ly Fun Tasks at the Transition Garden 🧚

Keep this special community garden accessible to all, while keeping fit by running or walking to the task

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StephDucatKashMadhan
Claire
Claire went on a group run

Tue 20th Feb at 6:45pm

Oh, sanding, baby

Ealing Report written by Harvey Gallagher (he/him)

Sanding at the theatre Branded a volunteer What will they say Monday at work?

Someday, when the toilets are painted Somehow, someway, our two worlds will be one

I sit, I wonder whyyyyy… Oh why you left the walls so smooth Oh, GoodGym, baby

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Sevan
StephDucatHarvey GallagherKash
Claire
Claire went on a group run

Tue 13th Feb at 6:45pm

Sign City

Ealing Report written by Kash

Did you know that Pancake Day always coincides with GoodGym Ealing's group run? This time, Shrove Tuesday also happened to be a Hot Choc Day as we visited Blondin Pavilion, where Linda, the manager, offered us hot drinks again. But we got to work for them first!

The gang welcomed new joiner, Helene, who ran from Bodyline with the running group through Walpole, Lammas and Blondin Parks.

Eight eager GoodGymers showed up at the pavilion, which was a pretty good turnout for an outdoor task in February. Was it the mild weather, the location, the promise of hot chocolate or the task of putting up signs? Who knows! Because there were only four signs to attach, we split into two teams and drew a second job from Linda's deck of task cards. It was... the woodchip!

Team Runway Riot

The Riot team marched with big signs along the pathways in Blondin Park lit with dotted lines of small lights which made them look like an airport runway. Claire was ready to take off! The rioters protested against Blondin Park Pavilion not being sufficiently recognised. They attached the signs to two lampposts and two fences near entrances, using Liv's expert knowledge of the park and Mike's height. Madhan was in charge of trimming the cable ties, which has proven more difficult than putting up the signs!

Team Barrow Barbarians

The group woodchipping the waterlogged edge of a path to the pavilion kept rotating team members between three tasks: loading the wheelbarrows, transporting the woodchip and levelling the unloaded woodchip with a rake. Helene stuck most of the time to the barrow driving, Sevan was perfecting the surface of the woodchipped area and Christos and Kash discovered the quickest way of filling the wheelbarrow with two shovels. The secret was teamwork: breaking down the dense woodchip pile and filling the massive shovel with the help of the smaller one - much faster than shovelling individually!

Wrap-up

After all four signs were up, proudly announcing the presence of the community pavilion in the park, and the source woodchip pile was reduced to a woodchip plainland, the GoodGymers header to the pavilion for hot chocolate and tea. Due to half term, there was no Zumba class tonight, but the silence was quickly filled with chatter.

Next week we'll have a rare chance of an indoor task at Impact Theatre! Fancy a run plus an upper body workout while rubbing down walls before painting? Sign up now!

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Jenni HStephDucatHarvey GallagherSevanKashMadhan
Claire
Claire signed up to a group run.

Tue 20th Feb at 6:45pm

Indoor Task at Impact Theatre 💥🎥

Improve the theatre building for Impact's members

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KashMadhanStephDucat
Claire
Claire signed up to a group run.

Tue 13th Feb at 6:45pm

KashMadhan
Claire
Claire went on a group run

Tue 16th Jan at 6:45pm

Teamwork makes the steam work

Ealing Report written by Kash

Tuesday group runs are the perfect place to blow off some steam after a long workday. Sevan, Steph and Kash got active by doing a nearly 4km run together, looping around Walpole and Lammas parks. At the end of their route, they went full steam ahead when they spotted a lonely headtorch on the other side of the bridge near Rickyard. It was Madhan!

The team picked up steam when Claire and Milly arrived. Armed with...

  • 3 wheelbarrows
  • 4 shovels
  • 2 rakes

...we found our way in the darkness to a fresh woodchip pile. Maybe we were guided by the smell of Christmas trees reincarnated as mulch?

Ranger Jon had a job for us: to woodchip a path near Rickyard. Our gang didn't want to employ a steam engine to crack a nut, so we split into smaller squads of shovellers, barrow drivers and rakers. We soon discovered the work goes quicker when the wheelbarrows are in operation all the time, so one of us ran to fetch a fourth barrow, which kept the shovelling crew occupied. With this optimisation came less time for breaks, and it became easy to run out of steam! The GoodGymers swapped jobs with each other when needed. No one had to work under their own steam as we tried not to leave anyone alone in the dark.

As we uncovered lower layers of woodchip, the pile released warmth and clouds of steam. According to Milly, it was an unexpected pleasure to fall into such a warm, steaming heap.

When we were nearly done with the path, and the phrase "just four more barrows" started sounding like truth, everyone picked up steam to finish the task in an hour. It was tough to see how flat the path was in the dark, but Madhan and Sevan did their best to smoothen the surface. Our 6-person dream team got the job done!

For those who missed the woodchipping workout tonight, we have an opportunity next week in Blondin Park. There are other tasks and attractions planned so don't miss that one!

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StephDucatSevanHarvey GallagherKash
Claire
Claire signed up to a group run.

Tue 16th Jan at 6:45pm

MadhanStephDucat
Claire
Claire went on a group run

Tue 2nd Jan at 6:45pm

An Uplifting Experifence

Ealing Report written by Kash

After the morning rain washed away all our hopes for good weather during the first group run of 2024, the afternoon wind blew away all the lime bikes on the streets and the confidence of our cyclists to make it to the task tonight. 🌬️ Was that enough to stop us? Of course not!

The wind calmed down just before the start time of our run, but runners Harvey, Sevan, Steph and Kash had another surprise on the way to William Hobbayne Community Gardens: a shower! 🌧️ At the destination awaited the West Ealing Wing Walking Brigade: Claire and Madhan, shortly joined by Milly and Mike.

Harvey organised tonight's task with June and Stuart from William Hobbayne Charity, who met us at the gardens. They had a surprise for us: a major, physical task in collaboration with Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail. We met Clive and Hillary from the group, who explained how they use parcels of derelict council land to transform them into a linked trail of public orchards with fruit trees everyone can harvest.

The Hobbayne Charity offered some of their land in the community gardens for the Orchard Trail operations. There was one problem: the space was full of bags loaded with twigs, wooden planks, pallets, soil bags and large pieces of a fence. A mammoth amount of things to move! Does that sound like a job for 8 GoodGymers on a Tuesday night? Oh, yes!

First, the whole group tackled the bags with branches and unloaded them at the other side of the community garden. Next came the larger calibre: the planks, then even bigger: pallets. The real Godzilla of the wooden objects to move was the unused fence.

While we love breaking things down, June thought the charity could reuse the fencing. We had to remove it from the space allocated to the Orchard Trail in one piece - or should I say - many huge pieces! The team invented a solution to lift those parts over another fence - the one still standing and blocking the way. That was where Mike's, Milly's and Steph's height came in handy! Some of us had to reverse during those manoeuvres, including Sevan, who fell into a vegetable bed 😮. Luckily, good karma saved him: he was at the task when we filled those beds with soil last year, which granted him a soft landing!

A few people from the team were redirected to a task to remove a tonne bag of soil. It was an opportunity for those not tall enough to be the stars of fence lifting but with power in their arms to shovel the soil into wheelbarrows or drive them to a pile outside the fenced area. Hauling the tonne bag with the remainder of the soil at the bottom concluded tonight's exploits of GoodGym Ealing and left the area clear and ready to use by Clive's and Hillary's group. It was a tremendous effort in just an hour and a remarkable result! Let's not forget the great workout and fun! 😁

We finished the night, heading to the Fox pub with June to celebrate our success, the start of the New Year and Kash's 600th good deed (a superb choice of a milestone task!).

Next week, we are running in the other direction: to Acton to help Cultivate London with bagging leaves for compost - sign up here!

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StephDucatHarvey GallagherMadhanSevanKash

Hide comments (7)
Jack Da Silva

Wed 3rd Jan at 12:38pm

Huge well done on 600 good deeds Kash, really enjoyed reading about this task!

Theresa Joseph
Theresa Joseph (she/her)

Wed 3rd Jan at 1:16pm

HNY GoodGym Ealing and Congrats Kash on your 600th Milestone - really nice report

Ivo
Ivo (he/him)

Wed 3rd Jan at 1:16pm

Amazing @Kash! huge congratulations nad Happy New year!

Michael Welsh

Wed 3rd Jan at 3:34pm

Well done Kash on achieving 600 good deeds, amazing. 😎👏

Kash

Wed 3rd Jan at 4:41pm

Thank you all :)

StephDucat

Thu 4th Jan at 5:01pm

As Queen sang : nothing is going to stop me now. Well done and keep going Kash

Kash

Fri 5th Jan at 12:20am

A lovely quote from a song that was recently on my mind! Thank you Steph!

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