On a windy Tuesday night, six GoodGymers came together for an (unintentional) Winston Churchill-themed litterpick. Little did they know about what they'd find in South Ealing, where they ran from Ealing Broadway. Armed with litter pickers and bin bags from their allies, LAGER Can, they were determined that they would fight in the alleyways and on the streets, and they would never surrender.

The GoodGymers' main enemy was rubbish dropped along the alleyway splitting the South Ealing Cemetery into two, but, under a cover of leaves, the group found things that were hardly classified as litter. Next to a small collection of pots and vases, Conor found a bust of Winston Churchill, and Harvey discovered a toy British Bulldog! Or was it just a pug?

Rather than cigar butts, the team kept finding single-use vapes, which Churchill would surely disapprove of. Neither would he endorse the cheap beer cans and four laughing gas canisters which Harvey carried out of the alleyway for collection.

Walking through a lane of birches raised some questions about the white sheet-shaped deposits found in abundance on that stretch. Some GoodGymers would have sworn that it was paper (which, according to a quote often attributed to Churchill, was the enemy of action) or even wallpaper. Others, maybe better versed in dendrology, explained it was bark from the birches and didn't need to be collected.

The battle against litter ended on South Ealing Road, at the first available bin, where it was appropriate to leave two blue bags of collected mess. Those who hadn't tried it ahead of the group run had the last chance to taste Maria's home-baked coconut puffs that she brought today - what a treat! Having accomplished the task in about half an hour, half of the team ran back to Ealing Broadway to either catch a bus or a train or... run back to South Ealing.

Sevan and Kash usually take a break from GoodGym on Mondays, but for Ms K, they've found a space in their calendars and visited her in the evening, after work.

"Happy New Year!", Ms K welcomed the GoodGymers.

In fact, the two saw Ms K for a mission on New Year's Day to build a bed. Since then, the lady's bedroom underwent quite a transformation! The wardrobes have been filled, chairs brought in, one of the walls repainted, and rugs covered the floor. Most importantly, the bed, which Sevan and Kash had started building, had been finished with some help from Ms K's friend. It was great to see the room usable, and a proper place to sleep for Ms K already functional. The only thing missing was the wardrobes' doors.

Sevan was hoping that attaching the hinges and hanging the doors on the two wardrobes would be pretty easy. And it was. The surprising part had nothing to do with the hinges, but the door handles. There were no holes to screw them in! As it turned out, to attach the handles, one had to drill holes in the doors - in IKEA furniture, can you believe it? Electric tools were a no-go at a GoodGym mission, so the duo focused only on attaching the doors to the wardrobes. They left the drilling for Ms K's friend, who was coming to visit the following day.

"We actually finished this mission well ahead of allocated time", Sevan triumphed.

Finally, with the wardrobes' doors closed, Ms K's bedroom looked like a proper bedroom. Well, maybe except for the handles!

A mild January sunday afternoon saw a large group of volunteers meet by the Pear Tree Park cafe for some tree planting. The trees were, you guessed it, different varieties of pear trees.

A lot of work had already been done in an earlier session, but that still left digging, pile driving fence posts into the ground, spreading compost and mulch and finally applying a protective cover. There were a couple of unfortunate mishaps, including someone who planted 6 trees in one hole and a bucket that didnt survive the attentions of an excited dog. But overall it was a very successful and satisfying bit of community action - one that will hopefully bear plenty of fruit for years to come.

The recently established Pear Tree Park was named by children from a local school, drawing inspiration from Perivale, where the green space is located. Perivale, in turn, can be loosely interpreted as “a valley of pear trees”. Wouldn’t it be appropriate then to have some eponymous fruit trees in Pear Tree Park - let’s say, fifty of them?

On a Sunday morning, five GoodGymers met in a café in Pitshanger for a 2km run or walk to the place that had once been a golf course, now transforming into a vibrant, green space for everyone. Steph Ducat, Zuzanna, and Kash ran through Pitshanger Park, past St Mary’s Church, while Devi and Sevan walked a different route, with the Brent Viaduct and Sixty Trees Lane as the main landmarks. Harvey ran directly to the task and met the rest of the team at the Pear Tree Bistro.

In the afternoon, Pear Tree Park was going to host a family-friendly pear tree planting volunteering session, and the organisers grew in confidence, seeing six pairs of GoodGym hands, keen to help with digging ahead of the event. Richard from Ealing Greenwayers and Diana, the bistro owner, brought spades and wheelbarrows, and marked on the grass where the holes were expected to appear.

Digging techniques and hole shapes varied from person to person. From Harvey’s perfect squares, through Steph's pizza slices, to Sevan’s and Kash’s whole round-style pizzas. Topsoil with the grass was systematically wheelbarrowed away, in case it contained traces of weed killer, thanks to its golf course past. The deeper the spades went, the more rocks they encountered, and digging became tougher.

Devi, who chose Pear Tree Park as her first GoodGym session, faced the demanding task head-on, excavating and wheelbarrowing soil like a pro, and even choosing more digging over a coffee break. What a determination! That said, we can safely report that Devi had been socialising and caffeinating with us earlier on, and is great to have around for a chat. Welcome Devi!

In 90 minutes, we got just a bit less than half of the required holes dug, which proved to be a great advantage as a starting point for the afternoon event!

It was another busy day at Pitshanger Junior parkrun, with plenty of runners, volunteers and 7 GoodGymers in total. It was great to see Chris back at one of our tasks after a bit of a break and she was marshalling along with Maria. Chris is not be confused with Chris who was one of many funnel managers.

The first of the 119 finishers was timed at a hair over 7 minutes by Sevan, which is rather speedy. There was more drama to come at the other end of the field as the last runner (let's call her Joan for the sake of the pun) collected an army of hi-vis clad troops in her wake. They included many Duke of Edinburgh marshals and tailwalkers Kash, Steph and Angela, who got up early to attend her first GoodGym session. Welcome Angela! 🥳👏🙌

Joan's poorly camouflaged army marched towards the funnel and stopped just short. There was a stand off, with everyone in the funnel wanting Joan to peacefully cross the line and Joan being a bit grumpy and threatening at the gates. Eventually, Joan's army was dispersed and her mum convinced her to complete the 2km and collect the last finish token. Disaster averted for another week.

A band of two-armed band-its met on Sunday morning at Pitshander Park to bend their joints and bond with a bunch of elastic bands. They didn’t need any weights to give their muscles a kick!

"You didn't run here, did you?" - Ms C.
"Yes, we did. From Southall." - Sevan.
"No way!"

A repeat mission for Ms C of South Ealing, whom Sevan and Kash helped most recently less than a week ago, focused on creating access to a plug socket in a cold and humid bedroom ahead of an electrician's visit. Despite Ms C being reluctant to ask for such a big and heavy (in her opinion) job, GoodGymers quickly cleared the wall of large suitcases and stacked them temporarily on the bed. Freeing the socket on the wall suddenly freed up time to explore what was hiding in a wardrobe Ms C wanted to review as a part of her decluttering journey.

Sevan and Kash uncovered a collection of colourful, stylish umbrellas.

"You know, I have a sort of an umbrella fetish." - Ms C.

In the cupboard, the GoodGymers found plenty of makeup products, body lotions, bath salts (which Ms C couldn't use as she didn't have a bathtub anymore) and perfumes - the latter tested on Kash.

"How does it smell?" - Ms C.
"Like someone who ran from Southall today!" - Sevan.

Kash eventually turned down Ms C's kind offer to take one of the perfume bottles. Kash loved most the smell of GoodGymming in the morning. And in the afternoon.

If the perfumes weren't enough sensory stimulation, there were also scented soaps to review.

"Shea butter soap? This is very good. Keep it."
"Cocoa butter soap? This is very good. Keep it."
"Irish Spring soap? Ah, this scent is out of this world!" - Ms C.

With so many olfactory masterpieces coming out of the cupboard, there was not that much that could have been thrown away. Ms C definitely wasn't up for parting with her scented candles.

"You know, I have a sort of a candle fetish." - Ms C.

The lady was grateful for the opportunity to go through the contents of the bedroom cupboard with Sevan and Kash, and, in the last 10 minutes of the mission, asked them to put away some of the things in the kitchen she had identified as not needed immediately. The GoodGymers knew the drill from the previous task and promptly moved the fridges out of the way, then packed a few items into the space in the storage they had freed last week. Job done! The kitchen today looked much more organised than last Sunday, which might be proof that the missions are slowly helping Ms C get on top of her decluttering endeavour.