It was a night of games and puzzles for Ealing and Hounslow GoodGymers. Steph, Sevan, and Kash welcomed Maxime to his first Ealing group run after he walked all the way from Chiswick to Ealing.

The team, lucky to miss the rain, set off for a short run to Walpole Park and entered the green space through the emergency exit (or an emergency entrance?). The four GoodGymers cracked the access codes to the tool store and collected the necessary tools for a task in the Walled Garden.

In the garden, they entered a dark arena of slabs arranged on a woodchip floor like stepping stones. They played hopscotch, hopping across the slabs and collecting woodchip around them. Once that was done, Steph jumped on a compost bin with a shovel and filled several wheelbarrows with the nutritious soil. Sevan dropped the compost loads for Maxime and Kash to level, then embarked on an artistic journey of painting with light.

Meanwhile, Maxime and Kash entered the Thunderdome (a.k.a. fruit cage) that only one man could leave. After fighting with the unsightly cardboard layer by spreading compost on top of it, and being careful not to trample young rhubarb, only one man emerged from the cage: Mad Max(ime).

Before leaving the walled arena, Maxime swept all the slabs clean of compost with a mighty broom. Well done to that relentless Hounslow warrior - we are hoping to see him again soon in Ealing!

A lot of running for Kash and Steph Ducat this Sunday in between missions as they got confused with the different Ms L listed during the week, but ended up doing both Ms L missions in Hounslow. Second run together and a quick lovely lunch, then it was time to step up to the task at Ms L which both have previously visited to fight brambles and ivy. Today we were asked to clear a corner in the garden to allow the bin to be placed for the council to collect it as stuck in the side of the house so not collected. Ladders were climbed, bins were conquered.

We didn’t just take the stairs… we took the ladders. A mission of ups, downs, and throw‑aways — ladders up, bins out. Ivy was cut down and the path was cleared to the corner Ms L wanted for her bin to the sad removal of the small holly that was there(Ms L has loads of holly on the side by the front home door) Today we had a quick show up of her cat, which was no longer limping. Dog in the house was to his usual barking from behind the front door. A bin‑credible teamwork and ladder‑climbing heroics.

After a long day on Saturday, full of running and an unreasonable number of community missions, two Ealing GoodGymers who love challenges finally found time to rest. Or did they? Not quite!

Steph and Kash were up early to run to Acton, carrying their shoes for recycling collection, and eager to meet their friends and volunteer at junior parkrun. A coffee break afterwards was not the finale of an intense weekend, but merely an operational pause before Steph & Kash Hounslow's special episode: a double feature!

The team of two set off for a 13 km run to Feltham, hoping the rain would hold off. It didn't. Between Brentford and Isleworth, a strong shower struck and convinced the hardy GoodGymers to put on their rain jackets. Waterproofs were great, but the two would have to put up with wet shoes for the next 7 hours or so. The joys of GoodGymming in the winter!

Arriving at Feltham, the team realised they were very much too early and walked the final kilometre, spotting and stroking a handsome white and ginger cat on the way. At Ms L's house, they met the lady's granddaughter, and later the daughter, who was about to leave for her shift at work. Since the long grass in the front garden was wet from the rain and not suitable for the strimmer, the GoodGymers received artistic licence when it came to general weeding.

They found plenty of weeds to pull from the flower beds or dig from the grass, sprouting brambles to cut, hidden ivy to remove from the hedge and moss to scrape from the driveway. It didn't look like a lot of work (half a wheelie bin of green waste), but the little jobs added up to fill the whole mission time.

Towards the end of the session, Steph's vintage scraping brush broke, and its operator proclaimed it to be a sign. It was indeed time to go. The two caught 5 minutes of sunshine and ran another 6.5km to Cranford for a well-deserved and well-overdue pub lunch break, then on a mission for another Ms L.