Miss M proudly announced to Kash and Sevan that after today, she would only have one more mission before her decluttering would be complete. Wonderful!

Miss M had 2 big laundry bags, 3 smaller bags and a small box ready to go for them. The box said Steiff and Sevan commented that it was a fancy toy brand. Miss M agreed and said that the bear was in her flat. There were only socks in the box, which was disappointing. Sevan emptied the box and left it behind for Miss M's bear to live in.

On the way to the charity shop, Sevan and Kash spoke about Steiff bears and what the point in having collectible teddy bears was. Sevan pointed out that they had another, more regular teddy bear to donate and there was also a bear in a bag that Kash was carrying. After a short pause:

"Winnie the Pooh" - Sevan
"What?" - Kash
"Winnie the Pooh" - Sevan
"I don't understand. You're saying that WE need a poo?!" - Kash
"No. The bear? In your bag? It's Winnie the Pooh" - Sevan
"Oh! 🤭 This is going to be a more interesting report than I thought" - Kash

They'd finished giggling by the time they got to Fara where it was time for the serious business of donating Miss M's belongings. Unlike previous times, the staff wanted to know what was in the bags. They were happy to take the clothes, DVDs and soft toys, but bedding, blankets and towels weren't useful to them, so were turned away. That left Kash and Sevan to take 80% of the contents back to Miss M, including the Winnie the Pooh towel.

Miss M was disappointed that the fabrics had come back:

"I'm back to square one" - Miss M

Kash and Sevan spoke about the progress Miss M had made and tried to reassure her. Based on the shop assistant's recommmendation, Kash and Sevan suggested contacting a homeless shelter, who may be happy to receive and collect blankets and bedding.

On the way out they heard Miss M talking to herself at the top of the stairwell, saying:

"I'm back to square one" - Miss M

😢

"Who's at the door? I saw something red." - Mrs Z.
"Kash and Sevan from GoodGym to help you with your garden." - Sevan.
"Pardon?"
”We're the volunteers to help with weeding your garden."
"You're supposed to come tomorrow."
"No, we've been confirmed for Sunday, and we're here to help you today."
"Peace."

Despite the GoodGym visit apparently taking Mrs Z by surprise, the lady welcomed gardening help with gratitude. Unfortunately, she didn't have any tools and had only one black bag to spare for the garden waste. Mrs Z led Sevan and Kash to the back garden, which was covered with dried cuttings and had new brambles appearing along the wall and the fence. There were also beautiful flowers that Sevan praised.

"What do you want us to do with the garden?" - Sevan.
"Do what a man does in the garden." - Mrs Z.
"We'll do what we can." - Kash.
"That's good. I'm very grateful." - Mrs Z.

Having received the artistic license, the GoodGymers had a thought about what was in their power to complete without the tools. Kash has spotted a rake and a spare black bag and decided to rake all the old cuttings into a single pile and pack what she could into the rubbish sack. Sevan, in the absence of cutting tools, pulled out brambles with his gloved hands alone, while Kash went back to the Stone Age, cutting the stems with a piece of debris.

Mrs Z recalled two strange incidents she had not long ago while going to the garden. Firstly, she just found herself suddenly in the garden, sitting on the ground, and not realising how she'd ended up there. She gathered she must have had a fall. Not only that - she'd been stuck in the garden, waiting for the carer to rescue her - as, apparently, at midday Clapham becomes still like the space and no one can hear your scream. Another time, Mrs Z went to the garden with kitchen scissors to cut the brambles and dropped the cutting tool. At the time of the GoodGym visit, she was convinced that the scissors were still somewhere on the ground, but despite all the raking, Sevan and Kash couldn't find them.

As promised, the GoodGymers did what they could. As a result, the garden looked more pleasant to the eye, and Mrs Z was extremely grateful and wanted to treat them to some tea, which she'd already offered before the two started the work.

"Maybe it's not allowed, but come on, you deserve at least some tea! Man cannot work the whole day and have nothing to drink." - Mrs Z.
"But we're here just for an hour and a half." - Sevan.
"Well, even for that, you should get something!"

The GoodGymers were scheduled for another mission in the afternoon at the other side of the river, so they had to politely say no to Mrs Z's invitation, say their goodbyes, and set off for a run to another GoodGym area.

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.

I was out at 5:40pm to catch some sunshine after work and, of course, run for my usual end-of-the-workweek shop for Mr G. I altered my usual route to drop off the soft plastics at the local supermarket for recycling, which took me through Gunnersbury Park way afterwards. I had the wind in my face pretty much all the way to Acton, which wasn’t too bad, given how sunny it was.

The grocery list had Mr G’s standard book of labels and a couple of additional items.

"Can you buy me that furry, green thing?" - Mr G.
"Cavolo nero? Sure thing."
"And margarine. Do you want to take the lid with you? I know you’re quite forgetful."
"I will be fine."

To tell the truth, all the way to the shop I had doubts about whether I’d remember Sainsbury’s olive spread, so I decided to pick it up first, and then do the usual route through the aisles in reverse.

The Brussels sprouts season seemed to have passed by now, so I bought Mr G some tenderstem broccoli and his classic cabbage instead. A lot of green stuff to put on his plate!

Even though Mr G and I spent some time chatting as usual, on my way home, I still caught more sun - in my face - which was much better than the wind if you are wearing shades!