For the third year in a row, the first Saturday of March had our GoodGym Ealing band on tour, with gigs jotted around Hanwell, Perivale, Greenford, and again Hanwell.

The performance in Perivale's countryside-style venue was all about rock & roll: rolling the rocks in wheelbarrows. Devi, Victoria, Maxime, Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash entered the stage at Horsenden Farm, cheered by Elsa and other familiar faces. They were ready to make some noise - and, boy, they did!

The band started on a clean slate, with a new task: moving the slate debris obstructing the car park to a space behind a container, planned to be transformed from an eroding bank into a reinforced and levelled seating area. The tempo and loudness of wheelbarrow loading were so intense that the audience insisted on an encore after the GoodGym band finished.

The amped up six then moved onto another stage: a space with raised beds that also had to be cleared of debris and levelled. GoodGymmers rocked that task, leaving behind a smooth, rockless area, with an outdoor sink firmly planted on top.

If you missed the beat in March, join us in April for another unforgettable jam (and pizza)!

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!