Sevan and Kash started their Sunday morning in Catford - a location that had set high expectations of encountering legions of cats! So far, the only feline spotted was a cat-shaped teapot at the beneficiary's kitchen during the first mission.

The second stop in South London was Brockley, with a gardening mission for Mrs D. Sevan's and Kash's job was deadheading large numbers of overblown flowers and generally cutting off whatever was dead in the pots and flower beds. And there were a lot of plants looking quite beyond help. The majority of the potted flowers and shrubs had twigs and leaves that were dry as a bone.

Kash followed Mrs D through the house to pick up tools from the shed in the back garden and spotted a black cat dozing on an armchair.

"Beautiful cat!" - Kash.
"I have seven of them! Here's another one. - Mrs D.

A white cat, squeezed between the top cupboard and ceiling in the kitchen, was fast asleep too.

Outside, in the front garden, Sevan and Kash encountered another two tomcats from the seven-feline army: a ginger boy and a large, fluffy orange-and-white cat. Both were looking for some shade under the bushes Kash very enthusiastically trimmed back. The lawn was spiked with smelly landmines the cats had left behind, securing their territory. The traps weren't that effective, as they hadn't stopped Sevan from removing weeds growing in the grass.

The three unseen cats decided not to reveal themselves at any point of the mission. Sevan and Kash were sure, though, that they had been watched by the undercover felines all along. The GoodGymers had nothing to hide: they had left the garden looking considerably less overgrown than they found it.

Miss M of Catford needed to replace a blind in her kitchen as the old one no longer worked properly. For that job, she was getting two GoodGymers all the way from West London, Sevan and Kash. Kash was very excited about the trip southeast as she'd never been in Catford before.

Miss M had all the tools needed (a Philips screwdriver), a ladder and steps. It was certainly easier to have two people for the task, so two sets of steps were perfect.

Sevan and Kash quickly removed the old, red blind (quite on brand for a GoodGym mission!) and replaced it with a more tame grayish-green model. It was a surprisingly sweaty workout for an indoor, technical task. The screws had to go into new holes in the wood - non-existent holes the duo had to make without a drill or an electric screwdriver, but by driving the screws into the wood at an angle where it was a bit tricky to apply power.

"It works so smooth now! Thank you very much!", Miss M said, delighted to try out the new blind.

The lady wished the two a good rest of the Sunday and success in the other missions they had planned to do while in South London.

Due to other events, Mr G wasn't ready to test out his online shopping skills, as planned. Instead, he asked Kash and Sevan to put his kitchen back in some sort of order after a builder had visited to make some improvements. With everything in it's right place or at least out of the way, including a clock that Sevan re-hung high on the wall, it looked like mission complete for the day...

...until Mr G asked for help to understand a document he'd been sent by a solicitor he'd engaged recently. Neither Kash nor Sevan were legal experts, so as Mr G was fretting about the contents and meaning of the letter, they tried to find another way to help Mr G. The best solution the GoodGymers could think of was uploading the 35 page document to an AI platform and asking it to either summarise the whole thing or ask it specific questions for the AI to answer. After jumping over some technical hurdles, they understood that the document didn't seem to line up with some information given to Mr G, so he would call the solicitor to ask for more details.

On Saturday 8th August 2026, the day before the actual big milestone date, GoodGym Ealing celebrated its 10th birthday. A decade of doing good (over 11,900 good deeds and counting) by 990 GoodGymers (local and from afar) deserved a truly Ealing-style party - no pomp under any circumstances! A small crowd gathered on a meadow in Brent Lodge Park for a picnic by GoodGymers for GoodGymers - and some of our wonderful partners, too!

The location allowed us to borrow a few pieces of festival furniture thanks to the generosity of the William Hobbayne Charity and the Hanwell Hootie team, both represented by Andrea, who joined us on the day. We were visited by the Running Mayor Tom Kerry from We Run Ealing and the leads of Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail (HANGOT), Hilary and Clive, with whom we watered the trees and cut back a hedge at one of their public orchards in the morning.

While Linda from Blondin Pavilion couldn't make it to the party due to existing commitments, she was with us in spirit - more precisely, in the lemon drizzle she had kindly baked for us. It was a delicious treat!

TaskForce Iram, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Harvey (the latter sadly unable to make it to the party) received a well-deserved shoutout from Area Activator Kash for their incredible work behind the scenes and their support in making the 10th birthday happen: coming up with ideas, sending invites and bringing fun and tasty things to make the day even brighter.

The historical side of the celebration was boosted by the presence of GoodGym veterans like Bryon and John, who had been GoodGymming before GoodGym Ealing even existed! It was fantastic to see a range of newer GoodGymers joining at different times: Ealing regulars like Maria and Ashley, the more recent active members Jo, Andrew and Zuzanna, and the newest additions to the team: Giles - starting his sessions this week - and Beverley and Helen, who had their first opportunity to meet our team today. A lovely surprise was to see Mohamed, a dedicated member last year, who carved out a bit of his busy schedule to come and reunite with the team.

As time went on, the tree's shade receded, and we were forced to keep retreating to the ever-shrinking shade. The only thing that should be baked for a birthday is a cake - certainly not GoodGymers! We even opted out of setting the birthday candles alight on such a hot, dry day to mitigate the risk of a wildfire - or maybe no one thought about bringing a lighter!

The message of the day was simple: everyone is welcome at GoodGym Ealing and every time GoodGymers show up, it counts - for the community and for themselves. Whether you have just started your journey, come for one session a week or a month, do five tasks a week, or have had to take a break for a few months or even years, you are equally welcome, and GoodGym will be waiting for you. No matter if you walk, cycle or run to GoodGym tasks, it's an incredible way to get to know the unique places in your borough, learn about its diverse communities, and meet new people. So come and explore! GoodGym was there for you 10 years ago, it's here now, and it will be waiting for you over the next 10 years too! On to the next decade of getting active together!

In recent years, GoodGym Ealing's birthday celebration has lined up with a morning session with HANGOT, trimming the hedge at The Piggeries orchard. Today was a little different as the ongoing drought added some extra jobs to the To Do list, watering the trees in 3 orchards!

Steph and Jo volunteered to haul buckets of water out of the canal, over the lip, onto the towpath and into a 100 litre bowser. They then wheeled the bowser to each orchard when full to fill watering cans.

The water carriers first covered Bernd's Orchard as it was close to HANGOT's base of operations, then they moved to Elthorne Triangle. This was the toughest orchard to water as it was up a steep hill from the canal and the pair spent the longest time here watering 7 young trees. Next was The Piggeries where everyone else was trimming hedges, then finally back to HANGOT's base to fill the bowser, ready for use in a few days. Great work Steph and Jo, you're made of tough stuff and walked over 3km during the task too!

While Steph and Jo were doing the tough work with buckets, the rest of the team was having fun giving the hedges a short top and sides at The Piggeries to keep the orchard looking neat and maintained. One group of hedge trimmers were full of giggles and cheer. Had they started the party early? They claimed not. They were having a great time working as a team, pairing up with shears and loppers to cut and grab thick branches growing through the top of the hedge.

The cutting back gave passers by more space to use the canal towpath safely, so many people walking past thanked the team and one even brought some cool drinks to share around. All that was left to do was rake the cuttings to complete the job. That sounds easier than it was as so much had been taken off the hedges that it took many trips to the compost pile to finish the morning's task. The results left task owner Clive impressed:

"I'm really surprised that we've managed to do the hedges and watering. Thank you!"

The last task to tick off was to walk to Brent Lodge Park. There the team met GoodGymers old and new to celebrate a decade of GoodGym Ealing supporting organisations like HANGOT and older individuals in our borough.