Jacquie arrived earlier and stayed for the lunch service. Lots of fun today despite it being busy. Ijo joined and was on top of the cleaning in the kitchen. Chicken or veg stir fry in wraps with salad were served to the clients.

Today was the busiest day ever for Ijo since she joined Goodgym. People just kept coming. Today menu was Chicken/ Tofu fried noodles, dessert was carrot cake. People loved the noodles very much, they gave two rounds of applause to the chef of the day - Arul. Roberta also completed 3 shifts today at ESK : bravo!! Roberta was on bingo and food parcel, then I helped cleaning in the kitchen. They kept calm and curry on with noodles

Friday Hub and the weather was stormy outside. 2 goodgymers in the Pie of the storm that was going on in the crypt of the church as many people and very busy. Alot of new faces around. Ijo joined Roberta who was already there from 11am. Pie or not pie : halal lamb or vegetarian shepherd's Pie was on the menu, followed by a mixed fruit salad.

Today was a super busy day. Jacquie was there from 11am and joined by Ijo at 1pm. They both satyed until 3pm There were lots of volunteers today but even more guests came to enjoy the food. Packing food parcels, sorting clothes and helping out in the kitchen. washing up while food being served also one of the tasks for our volunteers. Menu today were chicken stir fried noodles and vegetarian stir fried noodles, followed by dessert (carrot cake/ berries crumble with custard).

It's been eight years since the very first GoodGym Ealing group run to Boston Manor Park on the 9th August 2016. Such a chunk of history had to be celebrated with style!

A thank you to our supporters

• The venue was kindly provided to us by The William Hobbayne Charity at their community space.
• The birthday cake and snacks were supplied by June Martin from the charity.
• The local pub The Green W7 donated their delicious wood-fired pizza to feed all of us!

Sevan volunteered to drop from the running group of tonight's group run to run to our task and party venue with a peculiar companion - a giant golden "8" helium balloon, causing a sensation amongst Hanwell children.

Mike did the honour of blowing the candle as the longest-serving Ealing GoodGymer at tonight's party, and Milly brought some GoodGym-themed bits and bobs for everyone, donated by the previous leader of our GoodGym, Liv.

What makes us great?

After the birthday speeches, the guests were asked to share with everyone what they think makes GoodGym Ealing great. Here are some facts:

• How nice everyone is
• Having a shared purpose
• The people
• The company
• The passion of all Ealing GoodGymers
• Socialising
• Seeing a group of people spending time to give and help
• It's the people, of course!
• Being able to volunteer with lots of great projects thanks to GoodGym
• The "good" in GoodGym Ealing

Let the games begin!

After last year's quiz, Kash and Sevan decided to up their game and have three teams (Harvey's Angels, Amaretti and W7 Men) compete in four disciplines:

• I Spy, a warm-up silly game. Our fitness leaders never forget about warm-ups, right?)
• Build a polytunnel from recycled materials (think milk bottles, a rainproof poncho, pastel de nata packaging, egg boxes, etc.) in 10 minutes. Every GoodGymer involved in setting up the real-life polytunnel at Western Road in Southall can attest that such a task can be more demanding than it seems!
• Take a photo with as many mouths and as few noses and shoulders on it as possible.
• Write a GoodGym-themed haiku.

All the teams showed fantastic teamwork and unbridled creativity, GoodGym Ealing style.

Here is to the next 8 great years! 🍻

Celebrating 8 years of doing good together is not something to be taken lightly. Our GoodGym had to find an appropriate task to honour the tradition of charitable efforts in Ealing properly! What about helping a charity that is 540 years old? For our anniversary session, we arrived at the William Hobbayne Centre to help the charity maintain the outdoor space. Over the last year, it got mossy and needed a refresh. The eleven GoodGymers had less than an hour to make the yard clear of weeds and look shiny.

Mike and Milly grabbed the hoes and gave everyone an example of what proper moss scraping looks like. Harvey, Penny, Claire and Sevan went for big wins, pulling the weeds on a large scale. Ijo with Christos specialised in sweeping and bagging abundances of leaves. Divya and Kash went back to the shed to hunt for some big tools. They returned with enormous brushes and snow shovels, which they, together with Steph, turned into moss ploughs.

The cake & pizza o'clock was approaching fast, so the team took no breaks and worked tirelessly to scrape and sweep all the unwanted greenery. After packing the waste into countless bags and denying the hitchhiking snails the ride to the bins, the gang returned the tools and moved all rubbish sacks to the front of the centre for disposal. The backyard looked pristine.

June from the Hobbayne Charity felt very grateful for yet another contribution from GoodGym. As it often happens, the gratitude was mutual as tonight's party was hosted at the William Hobbayne Centre! How did it go? Report coming soon here!.

Next week we are making our way to a new partner organisation located between Ealing Broadway and South Ealing, the YMCA nursery to rejuvenate their playground - sign up now!

Upon arrival at Horsenden Farm, seven GoodGymers learnt that the chicken coop had been a scene of a terrible crime. The notorious predator fox decimated the population of Horsenden chickens and geese. After a couple of bird survivors had been taken home by Elsa, the chicken coop ceased to exist. Its structure had been taken down, and the GoodGymers arrived to do forensics. They were to investigate the top six inches of the soil to find clues about the night-time massacre. With subtle instruments such as forks and shovels, the GoodGym team found traces of chicken poo, hay, seashells and tiles in the clay soil. They also excavated potential murder weapons: bricks, glass and two large pieces of concrete.

Elsa asked the GoodGym forensics team to dump the already analysed layer of soil into the space she had prepared for a new compost pile. Sevan, Penny and Kash were joined by an independent detective Kieran, and the rest of the investigators moved to another assignment. Paul, Ijo, Roberta and Steph Ducat examined the compacted compost in the enclosed area of the car park but didn't find anything suspicious. Elsa was still pleased that they moved the compost out of the way onto a big pile.

Paul and Roberta had one more investigation to carry out while at the farm: tip the large tubs with soil and examine the dirt in search of any forbidden plants. The Horsenden Farm came out clear in that test, so the investigators concluded they could trust its food and drink. Eight detectives gathered together for their final investigation of fire-baked pizza and nettle beer and found them guilty of being incredibly tasty.

Hungry for another detective story? Or maybe for the famous Horsenden Loaf pizza with gherkin? We got you covered! Join us for another Horsenden session in September - sign up now!