Ahead of the Hanwell Hootie main event on the 9th of May, there were 2 warm up sessions today. One was for the volunteers, to brief them ahead of the big day and the second was a Youth Stage, giving a show case to bands from the Terry Marshall Academy. Both were taking place in the Hobbayne Centre and GoodGym were on hand to set up the main hall for the 2 different events.

Cool Runnings

Essential for the Youth Stage was to have a working bar and essential for a successful bar was to have ice. There was no ice, so Iram went on a supermarket run with a Hobbayne member. They stocked up the freezer and the beer buckets, ensuring that perfectly chilled drinks would be served to the gig goers.

Centre Stage

Kash, Steph and Sevan were tasked with setting out seats for the volunteers. they had to guesstimate where the stage, bar and walkways would be. The stage was the biggest problem. One of the organisers imagined where the drummer, guitarists would be positioned and where the singer would stand centre stage. The first row of seats was positioned around that, with the team setting out the chairs in semi-circles, so that it would feel like a mini theatre.

Setting a High Bar

With the bar drinks chilling on ice, someone tall had to put the BAR sign up to attract the punters. As the tallest person on site, Steph took on the job, stretching high to place the sign out of reach of any flying beer glasses.

Voluntees Table

At the other end of the hall, Iram was helping to line up the t-shirts for volunteers. They each had names stuck to them and were grouped by size. It was a great system, except that the tables were way too small for the number of volunteers and t-shirts. That meant that Iram had to organise and shuffle the groups a lot. The GoodGymers made Iram's task a little bit easier by taking their own tees home, freeing up precious space.

Banner Manner

The final task for Kash, Steph and Sevan was to get the freshly delivered banners for the Terry Marshall Academy displayed inside and outside the hall. There were a lot of cable ties available. They still needed to work out how to use them creatively to show off the banners in the best way possible battling to get the hanging without folds or overlaps. Speaker brackets, dumbbells and railings were all called into action to make sure the signs stayed up and stayed visible, with the end result looking pretty professional and not at all put together by a bunch of (talented) amateurs.

Back In Black

After all of the fun today, GoodGym will be back after dark to tidy up again. They'll be removing all signs of the sensible volunteers and wild rock and roll that took place in the hall today.

Was it the whopping nine GoodGymers who brought the sun to Grove Farm on April Saturday morning? Or was it the other way around? The long-distance walkers, Danny and Kat, covered 13km to get to their monthly Ealing session. Their early morning walk was a crisp and chilly one - quite a contrast to the scorching, sunny afternoon the same day! Sevan and Kash ran their usual hilly 7.5km run, which never gets easy if you do it only once a month! Thaiza was back to one of her favourite environmental tasks, all bright and clad in GoodGym red, apart from her yellow wellies - proof that sensible GoodGymers who show up prepared with appropriate footwear exist! Shubham, Ash, and Steph, already regulars at Grove Farm, came over as well. But the most exciting cameo, perhaps, was from the former Grove Farm die hard attendee, Christos. It was great to see him back after a longer break, fitting the Saturday session into his busy work and family life. Mike and Portia, Friends of Grove Farm, completed the count of the strong April conservation day team.

Mike took the gang to the hazel patch to cut back everything that didn't look like a hazel tree before Greener Ealing gets there. While the council team was very efficient at chopping things down, we felt they could pose a threat to the hazels, unknown to them and hidden in the overgrowth. We didn't want the young trees to be in danger. We were The Danger… To brambles, nettles and some wonky hawthorns.

Since Mike didn't anticipate such a turnout, more tools had to be brought from the container to supply them to GoodGymers, hungry to make environmental impact. Steph wasted no time in the meantime and grabbed a bag and a litter picker to clear the rubbish next to a tree trunk some inconsiderate people evidently use as a bar stool and leave their drink cans behind.

Mike cleared paths to individual hazel trees so that we could see them and chop things around them. The trimmings were piled up around each hazel tree to protect its roots. We went deep into the wilderness to find our way to the grove of more mature hazels, which Horsenden Farm volunteers were interested in - they would use the trunks for their projects like hazel weaving, provided we created access to the copse. It took a couple of daring GoodGymers with trimming equipment and one with a rake - all wearing shorts - to cut the stinging nettles around that area (I am still feeling a funny stinging on my shins seven hours later as I write this report!). We haven't cleared the full circle surrounding the hazel grove because one of us spotted a bird's nest, so we left that section intact.

Having cleared a large patch of overgrowth and freed the surviving hazel trees, we’re delighted to report that no tools, birds, humans and, hopefully, hazels were harmed during the session. We are looking for another opportunity to help nature at Grove Farm at the May conservation day.

GoodGym Ealing's first group run to the Polygon, linked to St Mary's church, took each of the runners back to their childhood. Waiting outside, they wondered what they'd find inside and thought about memories from when they were little.

"[The toys] will probably be sticky" - Freya

They were welcomed by task owner Wei Hei, who introduced them to the jobs for this evening. There were tiny chairs to clean, there were small kitchen toys to be washed and there were big puzzles to be solved. Each big kid chose the task that they would enjoy the most.

Harvey and Freya took the tiny chairs outside into the sun to scrub them down and let them dry. They were careful to not use too little, nor too much detergent as they were warned. Too much would lead to an explosion of bubbles that couldn't be rinsed away, but the pair got it just right.

Conor and Jo went into the adult sized kitchen to wash the play kitchen equipment, cleaning plates, toasters and slices of pizza. By the time they were done, the plastic food was ready to be chewed on again by the children.

The final group was bigger. Maria and Chris, who made achieving his 💯th good deed look like child's play, were preparing play bags to give out during church services. They were filled with fun toys that were also quiet toys, which would keep children entertained while the adults were busy. Each bag contained a toy, a puzzle, a book and a jigsaw. Next to them, Kash and Sevan were sorting through a jumble of toys that had already been played with, getting them ready for Maria and Chris to pack, ready for another child to enjoy.

The team blitzed through all of the tasks, having a lot of fun along the way. They left Wei Hei very grateful for what they'd achieved.

"You've done more that I could have imagined."
"Thank you!" - Wei Hei

As they did such a great job, a return visit may be on the cards when the plastic pizza slices feel a bit sticky again. 🍕

There are places in our minds, those blurry, obscure corners, that we don't want to come back to. They may not necessarily be bad memories. Those chapters of our lives might have been beautiful, but they became bitter after the loss of something or someone we know is not coming back. That makes it so painful to revisit the past.

For Miss D, that mental place was represented in the physical world by the corner of her bedroom she'd been avoiding for almost two years after her close family members' passing. She'd go across the ocean and return with three suitcases into which she had to condense all that remained after her two relatives. Two people's lives, reduced into three suitcases, out of necessity. Hastily chosen photo albums, papers, clothes - a legacy constrained by airlines' luggage policy.

To dare to go down memory lane, Miss D needed companions - people who knew nothing about her family's past, but were willing to join her on that difficult journey. Sevan and Kash sat with Miss D and opened the suitcases together, one by one. The first one was half-filled with Miss D's travel clothing, which the lady set aside for washing. The rest of the contents - the late relative's clothes and his laptop - went into the second suitcase, which had only a few items belonging to the same person, and stacks of photos, carefully unpacked beforehand.

The third, smallest suitcase had the belongings of Miss D's closest family member. The three opened it, but Miss D, after hesitation, decided it was not the right time. The small suitcase filled the remaining space in the big one, just like two Russian dolls. Miss D was left with only two suitcases taking up space in her room, one of which was now empty and ready to be donated.

Continuing the momentum, Miss D opened a few boxes that occupied the problematic corner. The items she found inside also carried an emotional load, but were easier to process. With the assistance of the GoodGymers, Miss D sorted through her paperwork, diaries, magazines, photos, greeting cards and other items, deciding to keep her journals and meaningful papers, while discarding plenty of leaflets and newspapers that no longer needed to be read or kept. All those papers went to the recycling bag, as Miss D was proud to be the Queen of Recycling, a title she'd lived up to. The meaningful paperwork was sorted into one parcel, and the rest of the cardboard boxes, potentially useful in the future, were put inside one another, again like Russian dolls.

"Thank you so much for coming here on a Sunday. I wouldn't do this without you, guys" - Miss D said.
"You have done it yourself" - Sevan replied.

A and B arrived at Miss G's house a few minutes early, so had a peek at the front garden. They were trying to work out what they'd be asked to do.

"Looks like everything is a weed." - A
"Those purple flowers aren't weeds, they're flowers." - B
"I think they're weeds" - A

Miss G set them straight...

"Is there anything in the garden to not remove?" - A
"Yes, keep the bluebells. Everything else can go." - Miss G

Miss G gave them rakes and shears, but the GoodGymers really wanted to do some digging to get rid of the roots. She reappeared with 2 forks and a spade. They were perfect for the task.

The garden was small and the soil was dry, meaning that digging went slowly. There were plenty of thistles, dandelions and bindweed to dig up while tip toeing around on eggshells to not trample the bluebells.

The dandelion and thistle roots went straight down, while the thick bindweed roots zig-zagged all over the place just under the surface. Turning over all of the soil made a mess. It also let A and B tackle both types of root, hoping that it would take longer for the weeds to grow back next time. They'll find out in a few months...