Today's service at Ealing Soup Kitchen was all about pasta bakes and winter clothes. Kash and Sevan took a side each and had to put a shift in to shift the meals and hats into the clients' hands and out of the doors.

Kash started by packing hot meals and shuttling them from the kitchen to the service counter, making sure that the hot boxes were stocked up. With that job completed, kitchen clean up was next on her list, scrubbing down the hob and worktops.

Sevan was on the other side, clothing, minding the door and making sure the clients stuck to the rules. There was an extra task for him this week as the Soup Kitchen tried to move on their winter stock of clothes.

"Don't forget to flog the hats. They're free"

Sevan tried his best and some of the beanies found new homes through his and the other volunteers' efforts. Then he found out that there was another stash hidden away to restock the table. Oh well, maybe next week will be equally cold and windy 🍃

Kash and Sevan finished the session by packing the cupboard of doom (TM). It didn't feel as daunting as it used to, so the team must've done a good job of shifting those bulky cold weather clothes.

"Allow Mrs M to see the end of her garden again" sounded like an exciting adventure into a dense jungle to Kash and Sevan. Alas, in reality the promised head height blades of grass only reached half way up their shins. Still, there was a little bit of adventure in store for them.

Mrs M told them that she'd been meaning to buy a new lawnmower. For now, they'd have to make do with her existing one that was over 20 years old. Kash and Sevan waited to see what would arrive and after a few minutes Mrs M produced a little green monster. She said to flip it over and pointed out that one of its 3 teeth was missing and they saw a second was chipped too. Mrs M gave them a temporary blue crown for the missing tooth, but it didn't sit properly and immediately flew off.

Sevan started chopping the longer grass and shears while Kash got to grips with the one toothed mower. The little monster did a pretty good job of taking down the blades of grass and spitting the cuttings out all across the garden. Kash had a hard time of it though as the mower was vibrating like crazy, making it hard to hold and control. Sevan raked up the cuttings and found 2 of the monster's teeth on the grass. Then the 3rd long lost tooth was discovered too, all three broken at the fixing point, completing the set of extractions.

After 30 minutes the grass was cut and bagged, so the duo moved on to weeding the back of the garden. Without any digging tools available, Kash used the vibrations in her arms from the lawnmower to hand pull weeds, while Sevan dug out dandelions using the blades of his shears.

After an hour the weeds were bagged up too and Mrs M's garden was ready for spring. Her lawnmower on the other hand, well, it was only ready for retirement.

Mrs T's referrer, Nurse R, opened the door before we knocked. In the living room, Mrs T was laying on a light brown leather sofa. She didn't look comfortable at all. The lady needed a hospital bed and we came to make room for it. Next to the sofa stood an identical piece of furniture - apart from the fact that no one sane would sit or lay on it. Rows of nails poked through the fabric, and the frame could be described as "wobbly" at best. The couch didn't have one arm. Next to it laid a couple of long bolts with nuts. Someone must have had a stab at it!

"Cool glasses!" exclaimed a tall gentleman, who was standing by the door to the back garden when he saw Sevan. "They look just like mine!"

The man, who we learnt was called Mr P, disappeared in the garden, then returned to tell us there were tools outside. He moved his bike out of the way to make more space for the sofa exit. When he tried to be more helpful, Nurse R assured him we would know how to break the couch into pieces, and led him out of the living room.

From the very start, Sevan was obsessed with tearing the fabric and leather of the couch, which would help us separate the back from the seat. He tried different approaches, including furious stabbing the textile with a screwdriver.

Kash tried a hammer to take the sofa arm. When she realised that loosening the nut with a spanner would be more reasonable, it was too late. After Kash had mangled the frame, the nut was no longer easily accessible. While she had another go with using the hammer as a lever, a little table in the corner tipped, and something decorative dropped on the floor. Mrs T seemed worried seeing Kash's lack of coordination. Kash assured her that nothing had broken but she took out the small table into the garden to make room for using brute force.

Sevan had an idea about separating the loosened sofa's arm - we would fold it until it cracked. And snap! The arm was no longer attached to the couch's body. It hung miserably on a piece of leather. We then tore off the material that connected the back and the seat - Sevan released his inner beast again and stamped on the fabric until it tore. The back was free to go out!

Mr P suddenly made an appearance again and took one side of the sofa's back to take it to the bins with Kash. Sevan carried the pillows that Kash had torn off. The second trip to the refuse area had Sevan and Kash carrying the seat and Mr P the arm of the sofa. The mission was finished in 20 minutes. On the way back, our helper Mr P found a Tesco carrier bag next to a bin with a treasure inside: a toy car for one of his grandchildren! It might have been broken, but certainly not as bad as the battered sofa we left outside! Hopefully, Mrs T will get her hospital bed early next week!

Kash and Sevan arrived at Ms B's house for some "light decluttering". The promised skip was in front of the house and after entering the front door, Ms B's brother, Mr S, met them and things didn't look too bad. A few steps around the corner was Ms B's domain and, well, there was a lot going on there. Her brother explained that the pair had lived in the house for 70 years, so had collected a lot of possessions in that time.

The actual task was upstairs in Ms B's bedroom where Kash and Sevan found clothes and bags everywhere. The floor was hardly visible apart from a narrow path through to the bed. The duo hoped that Ms B had had a minimalist epiphany and was ready to part with most of what lay around her.

Sevan tackled the 3 door wardrobe first, where only one door could be opened as belongings were piled high in front of it. Most items in there Ms B was willing to part with as they were older clothes that would no longer fit her, so they were bagged for disposal. Kash was asked to focus on a pile of laundry on the floor, which was split into 2 groups, to discard or to be washed.

Slow progress was being made as clothes started to be moved out of the room. The carpet was still far underneath the top layer though. Kash moved on to excavate the next nearest mountain, where she found more clothes (including some never worn), shoes and lots of mugs. Looking into the mugs, Kash found that some that could've been part of a school science experiment.

Ms B was finding it hard to let go, often saying either:

"Well I need to keep some clothes or I won't have anything to wear"

Or...

"I'll keep that. It's never been worn"

Sevan tried to counter the flawed logic, with some success

"Are you likely to wear it in the next 30 days? If not, is it something you'd wear on a special occasion?"

On the other side of the room, Sevan was trying to clear the space in front of the wardrobe doors. He found clothes, shoes, lots of cosmetics (10 identical boxes of unopened hand cream!), many black handbags, stacks of vinyl records and... more mugs. In total, Kash and Sevan found 2 carrier bags full of mugs, which were reunited with their friends in the kitchen. Mr S heard the noise of the crockery from downstairs and wondered what was going on.

"Were you moving bricks around upstairs?" - Mr S

By the end of the task, Kash and Sevan managed to move 14 bags out of the bedroom, with 10 of them plus some boxes finding their way in to the skip, never to return indoors. The biggest success was seeing the floor emerge from under the clutter, giving Ms B a safer path through her bedroom.

We love the curry houses and chai shops of Southall, but today Jags wanted to show us there's more variety coming into town! As a thank you for the work his fellow GoodGymers put into his local community projects, he invited us for an Italian-style coffee (not chai 😮) in the new development at Parkside Yards.

We set off for a nice, 40-minute walk along the canal, starting at Western Road Urban Garden, where we had been taking part in the April community day. We strolled along the towpath, marvelling at the narrow boats and a community of small wooden houses hidden on the other side of the canal. We even caught a glimpse of Minet Country Park.

Those of us who wore base layers, regretted their wardrobe choice as the day was warmer than we expected. It should not be a surprise that iced coffee was the main drink choice at today's sunny social!

Even in the absence of Janpal from Southall Community Alliance, the April community day at Western Road Urban Garden still went ahead. When our team arrived, we discovered that Paul from Ealing Allotments Partnership had brought the samosas, which made him immediately recognisable as our leader, so we enquired about jobs for the day.

One of the first GoodGymers to show up was Freya, who cycled for her first task with us and was no stranger to working at community allotments thanks to her link with Artification's project in North Acton!

Welcome to the GoodGym family, Freya!

Christos, who ran to Southall along the canal, and Milly, who walked to the task, joined Paul, Katy, Andre and Adel in moving a pile of wood to make space for a new pond. They later switched to a carpentry job with Mani, who came with his toolbox and a saw, hoping to cut the frames for the long-anticipated doors to the Western Road polytunnel. Sevan and Kash, after a picturesque run from Northfields, along with Jags, who had plenty of energy after the parkrun, joined Freya at hay bales. All the hay had to be removed before the next week's council work to make a driveway to the allotment. No more muddy shoes at the next Western Road community day?

Following everyone's favourite samosa break, the GoodGym crew grabbed mattocks and spades to start digging the future pond. The plan was to make it 1.5 m deep. In the meantime, Mani was checking out how the newly cut wooden planks fit as the polytunnel door frame. He went inside and outside Southall's largest polyethene palace.

"Anyone wants to use the sauna?", he asked.

"Soon, we will have a jacuzzi here too!" replied the pond diggers.

Despite not being a massive group, all the volunteers made fantastic progress in transforming Western Road into a prime spa resort! After the task, the GoodGymers, led by Jags, went for a walk to treat themselves to lovely views along the canal and well-deserved coffee.