Miriam was assigned the ladies' section when I entered the Monday evening soup kitchen. The clothes have been already laid out for display.

Emma assigned me to the kitchen, where Clair was in charge of cooking today. There was a young kid who was already doing a great job being the kitchen assistant. We formed a line and started packing the tuna pasta and veggie pasta and delivering them to the front.

The tuna pasta was going out at a faster pace and we couldn't keep up with the packing.

After the rush hour, things settled down and we packed, cleaned, and finished all by 7:45 pm.

The annual fundraising quiz at the William Hobbayne Centre is a fun get-together for the local community in Hanwell, where all the funds raised support some fantastic outdoor projects like the Forest School and HANGOT. As usual, the Ealing GoodGymers have been invited to help make the night wonderful for all the guests.

When Kash arrived at the centre, she found the only survivor of the setup task, Sevan, alongside Madhan, tearing and folding hundreds of raffle tickets. It's been a real crunch time to get them ready on time but everyone had fun trying to make it.

It was a quiz night, and when the GoodGymers made an appearance in the main hall, the only question they were asking was:

"How many veggie and chicken options at this table?"

Madhan, Sevan and Kash were scrambling to get the plates with the ordered food to the guests while Divya was employed to fluff the rice and Penny was embellishing each dish with naan bread. Tonight's menu had a chicken curry or chickpea and lentil curry. The guests' preferences between meat and vegetarian choices were not exactly balanced.

"Two veggie and five chicken please" - said Sevan at the door of the kitchen.

"I am waiting for two chicken meals" - said Kash.

"I have eleven chicken orders" - announced Madhan.

Two vegetarian plates were waiting for a few minutes for some attention. Eventually, Mandy, the vegetarian chef, decided to put them into the oven for the time being. Then, Madhan took one of those plates. Finally, some interest in chickpeas and lentils!

"Seventeen chicken for me!" - said Madhan, coming back after delivering the veggie order.

After the meal - which was also offered to our volunteers - it was time for the raffle. The GoodGymers have received three stripes of tickets each. Sevan had the honour of drawing a ticket for one of the winners. But that's not all! He also won the last prize in the raffle - a glittery bracelet! We cannot wait to see him wearing it at the next task!

The St.Mellitus church turned into a concert when I was reaching the entrance. Milly sneaked me in via the backdoor. I joined Steph who after running 50k this morning, decided to do 3 GoodGym tasks back to back. That's some hardcore dedication.

Steph was running the Tuck shop with Mary, a William Hobbayne member. Mary was taking the payments, and Steph was serving them the drinks and snacks.

I joined Steph and we were regularly snacking the leftover snacks( Crackers and blue cheese) while serving the drinks/snacks to the younglings/parents who filled the church hall.

Milly on the other hand was serving drinks to the VIP's who were performing tonight. And the band members were ripping the drums and guitar out.

Drinks were the best seller of the day, we ran out of water and soft drinks by the time we closed the tuck shop. Only 8 cans of Diet Coke were left.

And there was a huge queue outside the toilets which happens to be the case throughout the night.

Once we ran out of bottled water, we were serving tap water for some time. Milly and I were running back and forth between the sink and the counter.

It's a good thing that St. Patrick's day is on Sunday night this year, not Saturday. If it was a day earlier, many of the Junior parkrunners might not have rolled out or their beds and into their running shoes this morning after some late night partying.

A Sunday St. Pats also worked well for the GoodGymers in attendance, who can raise a glass tonight and not worry about leaving the Run Director in the lurch. There's only work to worry about on Monday morning after all.

This morning Harvey and Madhan were barcode scanning and Sevan was a timekeeper. Harvey also did some funnel management, putting stakes into the ground to make a cone rather a funnel, that was narrower at the start than the end.

There were a lot of marshals around the course this morning and Steph and Kash were assigned to marshal points 1 and 2 respectively. Kash was paired up with another marshal and given an important extra duty, to politely block corner cutters looking to shave a few seconds off their time. Kash agreed, told herself that none shall pass and none did.

Despite the wet weather, 33 runners made it around the course and through the funnel, managing to slide through a muddy spot that caught a few out.

After the earlier downpour, 5 GoodGymers met at Bodyline Studio for their group run to help HANGOT in Elthorne Park. They welcomed Ijo on her first group run, as well as Christos and Helene rejoining us after shorter breaks. In Hanwell, Bryon made a surprise appearance and, as the group walked towards the container past a group of scouts with head torches, there was a taller scout lurking behind them who turned out to be Milly!

With the super team of 8 complete, Sevan had to open the equipment container for the first time in the dark. No pressure 😅! Luckily or skillfully, he managed to open it to find only 3 wheelbarrows, which was a bit disappointing. The wheelbarrows, shovels and rakes were grabbed and a long, muddy walk to Osterley Lock began.

The team split between wood chip shovellers, barrowers and rakers. The wheelbarrows had to cross a bridge to get to the orchard which had a giant puddle on the far side. Different techniques were tried to keep shoes clean, but they mostly ended up wet and muddy by the end.

Madhan took charge of the shovelling station, Steph Ducat led the department of transport and Bryon directed incoming wheelbarrows towards the trees in need, helping Ijo with smoothing the mulch around the base of the trees. Apple, cherry, plum trees and more that we couldn't identify were given a thick layer of mulch, helping to keep them healthy through the spring.