Goodgym Ealing : we know what you did last April in Hanwell!!Yes and we were up to it again at the Hanwell stables. Conor, Sevan and Steph Ducat ran in the streets of sunny Ealing to Hanwell to meet Breda, Harvey and Maria who were waiting outside the stables. Andrea was here to open the stables so that we could do what we did last year - this is not a horror film but the scene would be perfect as poor lighting inside, loads of cobwebs and spiders, loads of branches lying around, abandoned sofas, chairs etc...creepy but we were safe.

Task was to move all sofas and chairs outside and give them a wipe, but also for Andrea to assess which ones would be used at the Hanwell Hootie this year. At one stage we had a human chain getting the green chairs from under the stairs. Maria helped Andrea upstairs for a while to tidy some items ...we think they went for a small nap.

We had the vintage leather chairs, the down to earth sofa(no legs), the psychologist(speak to me Harvey), the 3 legged sofa, the comfy sofa(Steph sofa surfing), the nature sofa(green leather sofa), the spring chair(iron springs), the matching cushion chair and some others with legs going haywire.

Once all cleaned we played Sofa Tetris as needed to put them back in the middle section of the stables ready for the festival next month. Sofa La Vista, Baby and we will be back!!

If you live in the Ealing Borough, you might have heard about one day in May when the whole town of Hanwell turns into a massive gig space with pubs, community hubs and green spaces hosting performances of young talent and more established artists. Yes, I’m talking about the Hanwell Hootie, the largest free one-day festival in London, celebrating Hanwell’s legendary link to Jim Marshall, the inventor of the amplifier. GoodGym Ealing is proud to support this fully volunteer-led event year after year.

This Tuesday night, Conor, Sevan and Kash ran 3.7 km to the Stables in Brent Lodge Park in Hanwell for the first Hootie task of 2026. Maria cycled to the session from Chiswick, and Harvey walked to meet the group at the task location. June and Andrea, the volunteers and planners behind the Hootie, were already there, waiting to share with GoodGymers their discovery.

The lack of electricity to light up the indoor of the Stables wasn’t a surprise, but a large pile of tyres stacked inside was! The unexpected stack was obstructing the way to pull out and clean the festival furniture, so the whole team had to think fast on their feet and redirect their energy to removing the obstacle: carrying, rolling, or flipping the tyres to the backyard.

With less time left to deal with the festival sofas and chairs in need of tidying, June and Andrea decided that the best use of the time would be unrolling and cleaning the Hootie banners - some of them really huge! When Maria and Conor unfolded the largest of the banners, it turned out that what was printed on it had no relevance to this year’s Hootie: Marshall’s diamond jubilee. The team uncovered a few more out-of-date posters, which June classified as legacy and recommended putting aside. A big win was discovering the Hootie on the Meadow banner as the 2026 festival was making a comeback to that large outdoor venue after a couple of year’s absence.

After an hour at the Stables, two tasks had been completed, and the runners were ready to set off for the run back to Ealing Broadway, just as the night settled over Ealing. Luckily, we’ve booked a follow-up session with Andrea in advance, so next week we’ll come back to Hanwell to deal with the dusty Hootie furniture. Sign up now!

Our usual Tuesday group run and changes of location for our LAGER Can litterpick - Ealing Parks Great British Spring Clean(13-29 March 2026) .Originally we were meant to go to Hanwell but it changed to Haven Green near Ealinng Broadway station which was literally just opposite our meeting point. 3 GoodGym Angels on LAGER CAN Duty tonight and the cold wind did not stop them. We still decided to do a small run after a nice warm up. Went around the area running to then start litterpicking in the park before the Heavens would open. We dodged the rain. Conor, Katarina and Steph Ducat went for a little slice of litter-picking heaven. The 3 helpers managed nearly 2 full bags of litter which mainly consisted of food wrappers, drinks, vapes, newspapers and take away food bags. The trio were thanked by a person walking nearby to acknowledge their Spring mission.

After a circus-style warm-up, full of jumping into and over bin bag hoops, Conor, Steph, Sevan and Kash ran nearly 4 km from Ealing to North Acton, which GoodGym hadn't visited for a litterpick for a while. The area might have changed dramatically over a couple of years, with its seemingly never-ending supply of new tower blocks, but what had not changed was the supply of litter in the alleyway cutting through North Acton Cemetery. Or maybe it had even grown bigger with the expanding population?

The runners met Maria, who had cycled to North Acton Station from Chiswick after having successfully repaired her bike. Well done! The five dished out council bin bags, litter pickers, hoops and even hi-viz vests to legitimise their litter-picking claims. And be safer in a poorly-lit passage.

The GoodGymers didn't need to travel far to find rubbish, as just within a few metres from the entrance to the alleyway, they collected six bags of litter in under 40 minutes. Apart from an industrial-sized brush that barely fitted a bin sack and some food wrappers, the collection of trash consisted mostly of drink cans and bottles from around the world. If that alleyway had been a bar, it would have served you whatever you wanted - you name it! Stella Artois? Check. Carlsberg? Check. Tyskie? Check. Corona? Check. Smirnoff? Check. Heineken? Check. Glen's? Check. Red Stripe? Check. And so on.

The team opted for depth rather than length of the litter research and cleared the section of the path that probably needed it most, leaving the rest of the passage for another time. Solid impact, everyone!