🎬 It was take 2 for GoodGym Ealing at IMPACT Theatre. Task owner Peter explained to the GoodGymers that HS2 were going to paint the walls of IMPACT's future dressing rooms as one of their community projects, so the walls had to be ready to be blitzed with paint.

Last month the team had come to help prepare the walls of the same room. On that night, they only had very fine sandpaper and made little progress in sanding down the very pink walls. Only a 2 metre stretch was completed.

This time, the team were powered up by some really rough sandpaper and Alex, who braved the rain to complete his first good deed. Welcome 🎉! They got straight to work and compared to their previous visit, breezed through the sanding at high speed. So much so that the heat of the sandpaper burned their fingers.

"Is that smoke coming off the wall?" - Alex

No, they weren't that hot at sanding. It was only fine pink dust that fell mostly to the floor. What didn't hit the ground ended up on the heads, shoulders and most other bits of the GoodGym team.

By the end of the task, one and a half long walls had been sanded and many places the pale undercoat could be seen peeking through. Kash was so happy with their progress that she pulled the alarm cord to get more attention, which luckily didn't call the fire brigade out.

GoodGym Ealing were back at IMPACT Theatre following IMPACT's well deserved summer break to help them and their service users on the next step of their mass redecoration. It was a night when little went to plan.

Keyless Entry

Task owner Peter opened the door to let Steph, Kash and Sevan in and said that he'd been on quite an adventure already this evening. The keys to IMPACT had been locked inside, so Peter had to locate another set on the opposite side of the borough, driving through rush hour traffic to collect them.

Paperless Sanding

Next, Peter realised that he'd forgotten to bring the sandpaper, an essential part of today's task of preparing IMPACT's dressing room for a new coat of paint. Peter set the trio up with tea and coffee while he went to source more sandpaper in Tesco. No luck there, so after a root through the cupboards, 3 sheets of sandpaper were found. Enough to keep the team in red out of trouble for a while.

Timeless Décor

Finally, the GoodGymers had something to do which wasn't slurping tea. Peter led them to the dressing room, which for now, was less glamourous than it sounded. That's due to change after it's big makeover to have mirrors, lights and a changing area. For now, it was a big, pink box.

With their 3 sheets of quite fine sandpaper and little time remaining, Steph, Kash and Sevan got to work rubbing down the walls. They managed to rub down one short wall and part of another, getting rid of the bumps as they did. At times, they couldn't see how much IMPACT their sanding was having until they saw the fine layer of pink dust on their hands and ran their fingertips across the wall.

There's plenty more to be done to get the walls ready for painting. Whenever the next task is listed for, hopefully we'll all be having a good day.

Sanding at the theatre Branded a volunteer What will they say Monday at work?

Someday, when the toilets are painted Somehow, someway, our two worlds will be one

I sit, I wonder whyyyyy… Oh why you left the walls so smooth Oh, GoodGym, baby

A great philosopher once said:

You gotta roll with it. You gotta take your time. You gotta spray where you spray. Don't let anybody get in your way

Tonight, GoodGym Ealing heeded the wise philosophers words while at Impact Theatre. We were there to work on a corridor. A corridor that our some of our members remember prepping over recent years.

We were only 8 who ventured up to Perivale so that we wouldn't get in each others way during the task. We were to wield paint rollers and cover the walls with white paint, replacing the old terracotta colour that was peeking through the undercoat.

We quickly got our equipment ready with Kash pouring paint into roller trays. Jenni, Emily, Madhan, Kat and Sevan grabbed rollers and paint brushes while Cam and a vertically challenged (so he claimed) Mike grabbed rollers on extendable poles to reach the heights.

For the first 20 minutes, it looked like we were removing more paint from the walls that we were adding to them. More and more terracotta paint appeared and we were all a bit worried. While we discussed what to do next, we saw that some of us were sprayed with paint, while others had managed to avoid getting any white freckles.

As the first coat dried, we were able to paint over it and get the second coat to stick. Finally we were making progress and the walls actually looked whiter than when we had arrived! With the second coat still wet, we decided the most productive thing we could do was take the time for a tea break.

We sat in the kitchen area with Peter from Impact Theatre. He told us about the roles that Impact's actors had had on TV and how they had adapted during Covid. Luckily they'd survived and are planning for their next theatre production in the summer.

After 15 minutes, Jenni went back to check on the walls and see if we'd be able to add a third and final coat. Unfortunately not, so we packed up and washed the paint rollers, promising Peter we'd be back to finish the job in the coming months.

We always get a warm welcome at Impact Theatre, a wonderful community arts project. Tonight we were adding a second coat of paint to corridor walls in readiness for Impact's big community day on 9 July. The place has to look its best when you have visitors arriving! At times, we struggled to see which bits we'd painted and which we hadn't. But, in true dogid GoodGym style, we pressed on and got the job done!

We love going up to Impact Theatre to help out. Three of us ran up there from our regular meeting point and we met three more there. Tonight we started to decorate a corridor to brighten it up. There were lots of signed photos of celebrities on the wall to unscrew and take down, including Daniel Craig as James Bond, filling in the holes (can you get the pun now?! Thanks Ben!) and then doing a first coat of paint on the opposite wall. We'll be back to finish the job off in a few weeks.