Today was the last Junior parkrun before Xmas and Santa had come to town early. There was lots of fancy dress on show at Pitshanger Juniors from the volunteers and also the runners 🤶⛄🎅.

Steph, Harvey and Sevan spread Xmas cheer as marshals, encouraging the runners around the course and making sure they made it around safely. At the other end of the naughty-nice spectrum, tail walkers Kash and Maria turned one little girl into the Grinch 👹.

The girl didn't want to complete the course, didn't want to be spoken to and didn't want to be followed by the tail walkers, which is difficult as that's the whole point of their role. She was being a bit mean and definitely not in the Christmas spirit. Maybe she has tail walker phobia? Her grandma said that the child would drop out, so the tail walkers passed her, then 15 minutes later, she was still working her way around the course. After reaching the funnel, Kash went to find the grouchy child and carefully supported them to get to the finish.

On a mild December Sunday morning, Santa visiting Pitshanger junior parkrun was looking for workouts to be ready for January to get back in shape after the abundance of Christmas treats.

He tried some tai chi and breathwork first, which turned out to be more intense than he had expected! Santa had to do a couple of sprints between the park cafe and the gazebo where a group practiced tai chi - people could not get enough photos with Santa, so he kept running back to pose with them!

Tired of fame, he joined a smaller GoodGym group for a full-body workout with zero equipment (well, apart from the picnic benches!). Could Santa do jumping jacks and Bulgarian split squats? Yes, he could! At the end of the 15-minute session, Santa and his two helpers were warmed-up and ready to go for all the high-fives, cheering and tail-walking at junior parkrun. Well done, Santa!

Back at Mr C house where his daughter welcomed me back as I was there recently and had some work to be done on the back garden. As the front needed a bit of weeding too, I did that too as had enough of 90 minutes to finish both sides. In the front flower bed, had to get rid all the dead weed/branches and clear the rubbish that was coming from the main road. Seems that the various cats seen in front like this flower bed...could smell cat poo or was it from the fox i saw a few minutes in front?! Then i went to finish the back garden with the weeding and removing grass in between the slabs. I also cut down all the brambles that were left against the old shed as still some but nothing to cut it last time : used the hoe to cut the smaller brambles. This time, Mr C daughter said she still did not find something to cut the thicker brambles, but i searched in the shed and found some small old rusty clippers or something like that. With pure strength and rusty tool was able to cut and pull out the remaining. Now Mr C and his daughter have to get rid of the bags that were filled from the GG missions(see pic)

Ms K was happy to see Team Sevan & Kash again, after a while. The lady had known the two as experts in tech support and decluttering. But would she entrust them with building flatpack furniture? She had to, as three or four different IKEA units had been delivered to her flat, all mixed together. And they were not small pieces to assemble as a single person.

The priority over the bed and a pair of bedside tables was a double wardrobe - in fact, two double wardrobes! To add to the confusion, both wardrobes were custom designs, each with a different setup inside.

Sevan and Kash started by building the outer wardrobe case. They spent most of their time figuring out which of the countless pre-drilled holes were meant for the fixings. Eventually, the box came together nicely, with minimal screws adjustments, just in time, after Ms K printed the custom design instructions for the shelving, after battling with IKEA customer support for almost an hour.

Knowing they wouldn’t complete the job, but determined to give Ms K at least a minimum space to start putting the clothes away, Team S&K spent extra time at the task to install shelves and a hanging rail in the unit they’d built. The inside of the wardrobe was functional. Sadly, the GoodGymers had to leave assembling the door for another occasion - hopefully, GoodGym would be able to finish the wardrobes before Christmas or at least before the New Year.

The legend has it that deep in the ancient woodlands of Grove Farm, there was a hundred-year-old manhole covering a portal to another dimension.

Five GoodGym daredevils walked, ran and cycled to join Mike the Explorer on his mission to uncover the gate to the multiverse. The quest brought the only survivors of Mike's last month's manhole expedition: Sevan and Kash, as well as couch surfers (but not as you imagine them!), Steph Ducat and James, and a guest from another universe (GoodGym Wandsworth), Kamil.

The team used the cryptic what3words clue that.amuse.adults and a magic staff they hadn't been able to use previously - it looked like a metal detector! Mike demonstrated what the contraption does when it gets in proximity of a wormhole to a different dimension.

Aaa-aah

We heard a cry, which we couldn't tell whether it came from a human, an animal or something entirely out of this world. We had never encountered such a demonic voice.

Did a girl shout?
Was it a cat?

In fact, it was the staff channelling the sounds from the other universe! None of the heroes felt brave enough to wield such a haunted item. Eventually, Sevan, who probably resembled a wizard the most, was tasked with sweeping the staff over the ground to make it shout:

Aaa-aah!

Mike brought another enchanted weapon with him: The Hedge Equaliser, also known as The Brambles' Bane. That was Kash's favourite tool of destruction, and she only dropped it when faced with an even more powerful artefact: The Black Circle. Others might have been fooled and thought it was just a fly-tipped tyre, but the adventurers knew better. The circle must be destroyed (or at least recycled). One does not simply walk into Mordor with a huge ring of rubber - but one can roll it to the border of Grove Farm! Kash volunteered to do so, and probably for the best, as James picked up her sword and did a far better job pushing back a horde of brambles.

In the meantime, once in a while, the explorers kept hearing:

Aaa-aah!

Mike and Sevan dug out some 20th-century treasures from places hinted at by the magic staff, but none of the artefacts resembled a door obscuring an interdimensional portal.

Feeling that the quest to find a manhole was not succeeding, Mike decided on plan B, which involved simply digging a wormhole in a location associated with a primal power source: near the water. Kamil and Steph, with skill and power, quickly created a man-made hole with earthworms inside. A manhole and a wormhole in one? That would do, Mike thought, and, together with the team, planted a legendary tree in the hole: the black poplar.

In case you didn't know, black poplars are very rare, especially the female trees. Mike wanted to restore balance in Grove Farm by closing the gender gap within the tree population. Once the new female black poplar roots itself into the wormhole, it will become a guardian of the multiverse, and GoodGymers will be able to jump to different worlds to do more good - or wreak chaos, perhaps? Time will tell.

We will be back to the magical Grove Farm for more adventures next year, so make sure to join us!

Don't tell that to Santa, but neither Mr G nor I are the biggest fans of the festive time in December. We still wanted to make the most of the Christmas spirit and exchanged cards: one to Mr G from a bunch of Ealing and Hounslow GoodGymers, who supported him with his shopping in the past (Mr G is lucky to live on the area's border!), and from Mr G to his trusted helpers (with a lovely pack of chocolates). Thank you, Mr G!

After a chat about pets we owned in the past, I ran to Sainsbury's to complete Mr G's usual grocery order - this time with new additions: grated cheddar and tinned tuna. Mr G may not love Christmas time, but he does love Brussels sprouts - all year round! He's been lucky over the past few weeks, as Sainsbury's was well-stocked with those little cabbages of the cabbage family.

When I was back at Mr G's, I brought not only two Santa sacks of Christmas goods, but also my partner in crime, Alan, for my double-act tonight: a tech support mission. But that's another story!

Everything went smoothly, apart from my return, with a detour over the South Acton Station, as the train track barriers on my way back seemed to be down until further notice. Well, what can I say to that? Thank you for the extra steps!