Some decluttering missions disguise themselves as tasks labelled simply as "bed move". This wasn't the case with an urgent mission Sevan and Kash had signed up for Sunday afternoon. It was quite the opposite: a furniture move mission camouflaged itself as "decluttering". Or rather - the task involved both decluttering and dismantling and relocating two divan beds. What a legendary scope! Luckily, the extended team for the job was equally legendary.

Mrs V's daughter, Ms G, arrived seconds before Sevan and Kash finished their run-walk from Pitshanger to Southall at the beneficiary's doorstep. Ms G introduced the GoodGymers to her mum and dad, and proceeded upstairs to show Sevan and Kash what needed to be done. The three devised a plan, with no guarantee that they could complete the whole endeavour in the time available.

Pack the clutter on the Alpha bed in the Alpha room and move the bags downstairs. Dismantle the Alpha bed, take it downstairs and take it outside of the house. Hoover the floor in the Alpha room. Pack the clutter on the Beta bed in the Beta room and move the bags and boxes downstairs. Dismantle the Beta bed, take it to the Alpha room and assemble it there. Make more space in the Beta room.

The Beta room, once cleared, was to house Mrs V’s new hospital bed to reduce the risk of pressure sores, while the Alpha room was to serve as a temporary bedroom for Mrs V and her husband for a couple of nights while the family awaited the delivery of the hospital bed.

At step two of executing the plan, the GoodGymers bumped into Ms R - another daughter of Mrs V, who had just arrived and was ready to lend a hand. The sisters, Ms G and Ms R, directed the GoodGymers to the side of the house, helping store the pieces of what was the Alpha bed out of sight. Then they proceeded to hoover the Alpha room - or at least they intended to. It turned out that Mrs V's hoover hadn't been charged, so the daughters had to resort to instantaneous sweeping while Sevan and Kash moved to step 4 in the Beta room.

When Kash carried a batch of packed clothes found on top of the Beta bed downstairs, she heard a doorbell and opened the door to the third daughter, who came to help.

"It's great to have a team of five," Sevan rejoiced.

While the three sisters, having found three dustpans, frantically removed thick layers of dust accumulated for years, or maybe decades, Kash stepped into the Alpha room with a bold announcement.

"The bed is ready to move!"

The statement was slightly premature, as Kash didn't anticipate what she and Sevan would find between the mattress and the surface of the Beta bed. Similar to the Alpha bed, its counterpart from the Beta room hid stratigraphic layers from different decades under the mattress: blankets, dozens of underwear pieces, a whole layer of colourful rags and even a pillow. Kash struggled to find a logical explanation for the accumulation of the fabrics, while Sevan theorised that the deposits were deliberate and served as a filler to ease the unevenness of the ageing mattress. Clearly, this solution couldn't work forever, and that's exactly what brought the GoodGymers to Mrs V.

Excavating the strata of clothes, rags and blankets by Sevan and Kash to free the Beta bed bought the sisters enough time to sweep the Alpha room.

The Beta room's bed construction, though similar on the surface to the other divan bed, was actually much simpler. It only took undoing two screws to remove the headboard and move the bed piece by piece to the Alpha room. The team completed the critical step 5 with 89th minute on the clock - bang on time! The three sisters were happy to move a few more things around in the Beta room, while the GoodGymers offered to carry the heaviest ones downstairs before leaving the house. The most important thing was that there was enough space in the Beta room to install the hospital bed, and that Mrs V and her husband had a place to sleep before the arrival of the new bed. What a mission it was!

Back the Mrs A back garden and met up with her son as she is still in hospital but on the mend. Still find golf balls, but now we have plant pots, old wooden chairs, garage trolley, broken gold clubs and wheelbarrows. A wheelbarrow can hide another one - found 2 of them : one without a wheel and the other fille with soil and weed!!

Cleared the space and we can now see where the greenhouse was before as slabs and bricks at the original area. We can now see the neighbors garden wall and the garden has loads of space. Still some work to be done, but the garden is clearly in better shape now.

Some of the junior parkrun crew who had met in the morning - and already shared a chatty run, a task and a table in a coffee shop in Acton - decided to stick together for the next session with Care4Calais. Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash ran 4.5 km from Acton to Hanger Hill to help task owner Tamzin turn unsorted clothes donations into neat parcels with the goods asylum seekers needed most.

The three welcomed Basia to her first group session in Ealing, although she had already had a taste of GoodGym in Richmond. Great to have you with us, Basia, and we hope to see more of you in Ealing!

After a break from Care4Calais in August, when requests for parcels had been rare enough for Tamzin to manage them without our help, we were glad to be back. Tamzin’s dog, Dora, greeted us with vigorous tail-wagging, making it clear that she was just as excited to see us.

Sevan, the most experienced of the group, joined Tamzin to put together men’s clothing packs. The tracksuits bought for the asylum seekers with council funding were anything but vibrant: the jumpers, T-shirts and bottoms were all the same shade of grey. Hopefully, it’s the novelty and comfort of the clothes, rather than their colour, that brightens the recipients’ day.

Meanwhile, Basia, Steph and Kash enjoyed sorting the latest men’s and women’s clothes donations, discovering what curiosities they might find among otherwise sensible and practical outfits. Nothing particularly stood out, apart from a couple of T-shirts bearing some rather rude vocabulary. Perhaps an impressive collection of Lacoste tops?

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and set out for the next chapter of their Sunday afternoon. An indoor session not only helped the asylum seekers receive appropriate clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and headed off to the next part of their Sunday afternoon. The indoor task not only helped ensure that asylum seekers received suitable clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

It has been a while since Goodgym Ealing volunteered at Bixley allotment. Therese and Steph Ducat walked to the allotment while Iram cycled. We then met with Jason who was going to give us some tasks for the afternoon. Changes have been done since Jason is looking after the 2 allotments. The green house disappeared with a lot of the rubbish and a polytunnel has made its place. The pond is still there but the parcels were re arranged and loads of plants have made this there home.

Jason gave us a 1st task of filling the empty buckets with water from the tank - the buckets make it easier to water the plants/vegetables. Then 2nd task was to remove weed but also the overgrown amaranth to avoid all the seeds dropping on the ground and take over this space. We then had 2 wheelbarrows at our disposal to move the unwanted greenery, but then Steph Ducat realised that his one was drunk...yes we all now remember that Bixley has always flats tyres on the wheelbarrows!!! We relocated the snails - out of the vegetable parcel but plenty of green stuff for them. We spotted one of the foxes that live here - can you spot it in the photos?Jason harvested some cucumbers and gave them to the Goodgymers.

Yes Goodgym Ealing is back at Bixley - return of the red crew!!We wioll be back next month - Hasta la vista until next time.

Sunday morning and 4 Goodgymers ran from Ealing Broadway station to Acton park before volunteering with the junior par runners. The overcast and grey weather did not stop them to wizz through the streets of Ealing.

The children at Junior parkruns are all characters in their own right. After the start of the of the new school term, there were a lot of new faces. Some fast, some slower, all with their unique personalities.

The volunteers brought their personalities to the parkrun too, with run director Geoff bringing his Wonky Bear, made from reused parkrun t-shirts, others being more casual than usual and Maria stepping forward to lead the first timers' briefing and today's warm up with Kash supporting.

Maria triple-roled today, also barcode scanning alongside Sevan. Divy funnel managed a well behaved group of runners ahead of Joanna who dished out today's finish tokens. Chris and Steph were marshals and Kash was last to the finish, tail walking again.

Today's final runner was quite stop-start. Their mum tried to motivate them around the course and for a while the prize of getting some jelly babies worked and then mum upped the offer to cake. There was also free motivation all around in the universal Junior parkrun power up of high fives 🖐️. Rather than meeting hand with hand, our Junior chose to rush the outstretched paws with a headbutt and had lots of fun doing it.