Thursday evening Achilles UK session at the Emirates(Arsenal) and roughly nearly 20 people turned up to run or walk but also to chat and get treats at the end. We wont forget our 4 legged friend who also enjoyed the treats. After a great session we were treated to warm mince pies and some home baked ginger bread cakes with different shapes including Xmas trees. Well done all.

After my morning community mission, I was heading to Islington for missions and a community mission later in the afternoon. As my 1st one got cancelled, I anticipated and took my foldable litter picker. Went for lunch then started walking and litterpicking which was different between the GG boroughs. Started in Hammersmith which was mainly to do with food as lunch time. Then Hyde park was really clean and bumped into the park litter Pickers...territorial? Then carried o through Camden to end up in Islington. Filled 1 bag of litter on my walk which lasted just over 17km as my 2nd mission got cancelled 1 hour 30 before the planned time. So taking the litterpicker paid off in the end. As Guide running around Arsenal time to pack it back in the bag.

3 goodgymers made their way to the church to find customers outside more or less arguing who was 1st in the line. We did try to calm them down and we did say that the Foodbank was no yet open as too early. They all went back in line. First goodgym session for Serene found Goodgym when looking for local community missions. Welcome to Goodgym. Task was the usual of putting out the large tables, smaller ones with chairs and taking out the boxes from the storage room until the van arrived. Once the van arrived both Jonathan and Steph Ducattrollied the crates from the van into the church. We were not trollied 🤣. Serene was in the meantime helping out with sorting some of the pastries into smaller bags.

This year's GoodGym Ealing's Christmas party didn't encourage us to get more steps in - it was just opposite St Mary's Church, at the New Inn pub in South Ealing! Big thanks to Iram, who found and booked the venue! The room we had was nice and quiet - until we started popping the Christmas crackers!

The jokes from the crackers were a perfect, silly warm-up to the traditional GoodGym quiz, prepared by quiz masters Sevan and Iram. The prize? Chocolates - and, if you were vegan, chocolate bars. Yum!

Just as if there was not enough joy (there was!) during the quiz, Santa himself visited us. He was very secretive - we couldn't guess his identity or where he got his gifts from. From books and plush reindeer to best of the best shower kits, everyone received a little something to take back home.

What a fun and festive evening it's been!

Every community has its own traditions to celebrate festive times. GoodGym Ealing is no different. Our Christmas tradition since 2018 (with some breaks) has been kicking off the season by decorating the Christmas tree at St Mary’s in South Ealing to get the church ready for the Christmas services.

Eleven GoodGymers and one new GoodGymer-to-be were welcomed at the church by Wei Hei, Revd. Joy French and her husband, Clynt. It was a great opportunity to meet the vicar, who, although new to Ealing, showed a familiar warmth and - pun not intended - joy. We’ve been treated to some Christmas tunes, mulled wine, and minced pies, yum!

We had a Geordie Santa, The True Santa, and a bunch of helpful elves on our team. Not all the elves had expected to be following a Christmas dress code, but Thaiza got them covered! She brought all sorts of festive headwear, making everyone a bit more sparkly.

Some elves got busy decorating the tree, and others headed to the gallery for a work at height: a little bit of dusting. The good news was that our earlier session in September hadn’t left us with much dust to bust.

With Joy very pleased with the outcome of using our Christmastifying skills, the team headed to the New Inn across the road for more festivities: Christmas crackers, quiz time, and Secret Santa!