Extra help was needed today at Northfields Allotments to continue setting up for the sold-out Halloween family event on Saturday! This was just the task for four GoodGymers on Friday afternoon, with Clare, Christos, Roberta and Kash joining to continue decorating and preparing the site for the event.

The invaluable guidance provided by Clare to help our decorating talents shine through for this Halloween event – “More is more!!”

And with that, the group were focused on decorating the inside of the food and drinks marquee whilst the rain was falling hard. Christos and Kash started out carefully tying up the Halloween-themed “Trick or Treat!” bunting to the inside of the marquee. But with more complex decorations, a simple tie was no longer an option. What to do now?

No issue at all when there is Gaffa tape on hand, quickly becoming the tool of choice to hold up all the decorations! Roberta ensured the eerie bat had a prime place looking down on us, and with balloons being blown up, this completed the Spooky-themed decorations in the marquee.

Still time for one last task… to set up half of the more than 100 pumpkins - that had been so impressively carved by the previous days’ GoodGymers - along the Pumpkin trail! The team made quick work spreading out the pumpkins across the trail in both directions, whilst admiring the ghostly, chilling, plots across the Allotments.

The task was finished up with a well-deserved tea and Jaffa cake, amongst the spooky decor!

The clock was ticking : both the kitchen and dining team were ready to rock and roll. We don't chicken out when it is busy. Guests started rolling in to sit down and enjoy a chinese soup(vegetables) with some hot drinks, then came the much appreciated chinese BBQ chicken served with rice and stir fried cabbage...customers really enjoyed and gave 10/10 for the chicken. Then swiss roll with custard was served and an option of home made cinnamon rolls. Busy but steady service. We also had some vegetarian chicken casserole for those who wanted something else.

Friday Hub and the Goodgymteers joined forces for the early shift at the Crypt. 5 regulars present today helping in different areas from unloading the deliveries, serving tea and biscuits, sorting the clothes, preparing grocery bags, preparing the service/dining area and cooking lovely food in the kitchen. Busy first shift but all ready for the customers to come in and have food and other items/activities at the Crypt.

The first Halloween-themed session of this season had a staggering turnout of six GoodGymers at Northfield Allotments! Was it the sunshine throughout the day, the lovely dog Rocket, Clare's marketing strategy for the Allotment tasks or everyone's craving for carving? We don't know!

The Pumpkin Trail organisers and the GoodGymers had 109 pumpkins ahead of them to carve - it was quite an intimidating number! Luckily, Rocket the dog put everyone at ease with his serene demeanour. For the moral support he provided, Rocket rightfully scored plenty of ear scratches and even a few treats from Michelle!

Michelle, the most seasoned GoodGymer at the session, showed everyone what efficiency is, without skimping on quality (everyone seeing Michelle perfecting her bats can attest to that). She probably carved most of the GoodGym pumpkins although she claimed she had never done that before. Well, some of us remembered that last year, she was able to even carve a pumpkin face with a hammer if needed. What a legend!

Apart from Clare, who had a go at the pumpkin craft the year before, each GoodGymer was a pumpkin-carving virgin about to turn into an artist. While others built confidence wielding the knives, Clare got into the business of gutting the pumpkins with a knife and an ice cream scoop - someone had to do it together with Martin (the allotment holder interested exclusively in pumpkin gutting rather than decorating them) to supply craftspeople with carving material. Clare reignited her artsy side at the end by carving her last pumpkin with an amazing flame pattern.

Roberta showed us the precision of a dental surgeon with her elaborate pumpkin teeth patterns. Her creativity, combined with some inspiration from the internet, produced pumpkins with precise cat and bat designs.

Alaa, being into arts and crafts, put a lot of meticulous knife work into her creations, unleashing her talent to come up with probably the most intricate pumpkin faces we have seen today. The number of pointy teeth in her last pumpkin would put a great white shark to shame!

Kash appreciated the sheets with pumpkin face templates at the tables, but eventually decided not to follow the rules and created her own avant-garde styles from creepy pumpkins with stitches in place of eyes to twisted half moons and stars.

Diana, who was about to find out today that deep inside she was a hidden GoodGymer, already must have known she had an inner artist. Her pumpkins went beyond the ragged mouths and ghoulish eyes. Diana's creations were full of subtle beauty, with their gorgeous smiles and hearts in place of their eyes - just as they came from a place where Halloween meet Valentines.

Welcome to your first GoodGym Diana!

By 6 pm all the pumpkins were dunked in bleach for protection from rotting and hidden under tarpaulin. We all keep our fingers crossed they will not suffer any attention from the foxes and slugs before Saturday! The allotment team was astonished at how quickly everyone managed to finish the job as a team.

"We would not have done it so quickly without GoodGym! We'd be carving them for three days!" - Christina.

The pumpkin carving is done, but there are still tasks at the allotments ahead of the big event - come along on Friday and Saturday for more fun decorating the site!

The fifth chapter of GoodGym x Ealing Repair Cafe collab brought three new apprentices of upcycling to Acton: Roberta, Nishy and a guest from Tower Hamlets: Sian. While Sevan, Steph and Kash - not newbies to the sewing workshops - felt comfortable with their speedy 4.5km run from Ealing Broadway, it was Claire who was the most comfortable with the sewing machine. Like a boss - that's how Claire looked in front of the apparatus which others approached with caution, suspicious about whether it can sew their fingers to the fabric. Spoiler alert: no one left the workshop with holes in their fingers.

Mary from Ealing Repair Cafe gave us a choice of two tasks:

1) make draught excluders from old jeans to give them out to residents at the Reduce & Recycle Hub 2) make drawstring bags from old, colourful running t-shirts for the South Ealing Community Food Cupboard)

It was a night full of discoveries!

• Roberta and Sian joined the growing circle of people who know what the draught excluders are. They achieved enlightenment by experiencing the draught excluderness first-hand: by sewing jeans and stuffing them with socks.
• Sevan learned that there is actually a signal in the Donut Factory (Mary's secret facility where she runs the workshops with us).
• We all discovered that the material of Ealing Eagles t-shirts can make running easier, but not necessarily sewing.
• Steph looks stunning in cropped Ealing Eagles tank tops (see the photos).
• Roberta looks stunning even with three legs (see the photos).

The enjoyable evening session with Mary and Lone resulted in six finished drawstring bags for the Food Cupboard and two draught excluders (that's a pair of jeans legs!) for the Reduce & Recycle Hub at Acton Market.

We will team up once more with Ealing Repair Cafe this year before December, so watch this space for more workshops! Next week we are back in Acton to distribute leaflets for next month's Reduce & Recycle Hub - sign up to join us!