GoodGym Ealing and Hanwell Hootie go together like salt and pepper. Each year, the famous free music festival run by local people, attracts thousands of music lovers who swarm in Hanwell to hear emerging young bands - and our team is around to support that brilliant volunteer-led initiative! No wonder why the numbers picked up at tonight's group run to the Brent Lodge Park's Stables to help the Hootie organisers: June and Andrea.

Since the Hootie was in less than three weeks, it was about time to start organising the equipment stored at the Stables: mostly furniture and banners. But here is a twist:the storage space was struck by an unexpected leak, resulting in damp floor in one of the rooms! The solution: all the things had to be brought into the yard, where Andrea would triage them and decide which items were going back inside and which the Stables needed to part with. It was a perfect challenge for 8 GoodGymers with an hour to spare!

The runners Mohamed, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash were glad to see regulars Claire and Madhan again after a short break and welcome a pair of new starters: Erin and Nick. The two could not have chosen a better group run task: local to them, contributing to a beloved Hanwell event, and challenging and fun at the same time!

While part of the team set off to move the furniture in varying states outside, others got rock-and-rolling (mostly rolling) festival banners. On such a great spring evening, we thought that even sofas, armchairs, tables and giant "H" letters deserved a dose of fresh air. Particularly sickly furniture pieces: legless, ripped and mouldy, were going to stay outdoors even longer than us. Spoiler alert: they were not coming back. We split the rest of the items into a YES pile (this year's stuff) and a NO pile (another time stuff). The YES things needed to be kept together and placed in an easily accessible (and most dry) part of the Stables ahead of the festival. We didn't discriminate against the NO objects - they were going back inside too, and for all items, we steered away from putting them in the previously flooded sections.

Our amazing team, thanks to determination, teamwork, muscle- and brainpower (and June's clear direction), achieved the goal in about 65 minutes - and even squeezed in a team photoshoot!

Our tonight's efforts will certainly make the Hootie prep smoother! If you want to join the next task to help the festival, see us in two weeks at the same location - sign up for the session now!

When Kash and Sevan arrived at Mrs H's house for another task, she asked the natural first question for a mission, "How are you?" followed by the last question, "How are you going to get the bins to the front of the house?". Kash and Sevan didn't know what needed to be done yet, so they went to take a look.

Mrs H wanted to reorganise her back garden. The end goal wasn't clear, but there were some wheely bins that would be filled with rubbish, recycling and garden waste. Their usual path to the front of the house was blocked by 2 sofas that Kash, Steph and Sevan moved out of the living room a couple of weeks ago. Sevan thought that a twisty path through the house was possible, so work could get going.

The first job was to create an area for Mrs H's plants at the back of the garden, so 2 tables and some stands needed to be moved there. One of the tables had been used for bird feeding and moving it left some antsy and confused pigeons. They gathered on Mrs H's old greenhouse frame as if it was an aviary. They looked like the menacing crows from The Birds, sitting on the climbing frame. The plan was adapted to add more bird feeders to keep the pigeons happy and that meant that bird attacks were avoided.

With the plant nursery created, all of Mrs H's pots - large and small - were moved to the back of the garden. Empty pots were stacked together and anything broken was thrown away. As items moved around the garden, the GoodGymers started to understand Mrs H's vision, to clear the patio so that she could spend summer sitting on her bench. A quick sweep later, work in the garden was complete. All that was left to do was to weave the wheely bins through the house, which just managed to squeeze through the doorways and gaps.

On Easter Saturday Mr J hosted a GoodGym gardening session for the first time. While many mission beneficiaries are keen gardeners and can advise GoodGymers on how to best deal with their plants, Mr J represented a whole new level - he used to work at Kew's arboretum! With such an expert around, Sevan and Kash turned into gardening apprentices and were all ears to hear about all the horticultural tips.

Mr J loved spending time in nature, and was making the most of his two gardens, despite his reduced mobility, thanks to a network of strategically positioned walking frames and chairs around his place. Unfortunately, even the best strategy could not make up for difficulty moving around, so Mr J's garden was easily getting overgrown.

"This is not a jungle, this is a garden in restoration." - Mr J.

According to Mr J, having too well-managed garden wasn't his style.

"I'm not a stripy-lawn type of person"  - Mr J.

Mr J knew exactly what was hiding under a thick layer of ivy. He recited all the fruit trees he planted, including quince and two different varieties of apple trees, which were specifically paired to maximise the benefits of pollinators. Ivy was the priority to tackle, ideally by chopping it close to the ground, so that the rest would die out.

"There are nettles out there. You should have brought socks!"

Sevan had only short socks on, while Kash (although less likley of the pair to be prepared) brought PPE: the brambleproof gloves and signature high colourful socks. It was decided that Kash would fight the ivy, while Sevan would work with Mr J on equally important job: decluttering garden equipment and packing it into containers. To make that effective, some rules had to be established:

"If it doesn't fit, it's got to go."

After Sevan finished, he was going to help Kash with the ivy, but Mr J came up with another priority: cutting back an overgrown rose bush. The main objective: make space for Mr J to pass through. The secondary objective: rescue a trolley trapped under the thorny branches. Both tasks were surprisingly easy to achieve, despite Sevan getting constantly scratched by the rose. Next time he will bring his socks and thick gloves for sure!

The rescued trolley was used as stand for Mr J's seed trays. Since the GoodGymers had 15 minutes extra to spare before running to the next task, they fixed the ramp to the back garden and cut back the rhubarb flowers. Mr J explained that it helped direct the plant's energy resources to feed the tasty, leafy stems instead.

After the task, the very grateful Mr J had a little gift for the GoodGymers: a small sunflower seedling for each. Sevan had to be extra careful to run with the pot in his hand. No sunflowers were hurt on the way back home.

GoodGym met up with LAGER CAN members on the Grand Union Canal tow path, near Brunel's Three Bridges. At least, some of the GoodGym members met some LAGER CAN members as finding the start point was harder than it seemed, including for the task organiser, Cathy. Eventually, everyone was gathered and Easter litter picking commenced!

Some of the group walked far, with Cathy spearheading the charge towards Southall. Others only ventured a few metres from the start point, like Kash, who disappeared into a clump of bushes for 90 minutes, where she found enlightenment, inner peace and a Buddha statuette. She managed to fill 3 bags with litter too.

Michelle and Sevan stuck with the pack, finding other buds along the way. Plenty of Budweiser bottles, other beer cans, vapes and cigarette butts. The usual suspects.

A huge pile of bags of litter were collected. So big that no one bothered to count them and so big that everyone could see the impact that the group had had. Everyone was cheery. They headed off in their separate ways, looking forward to a good weekend following their morning's good deed.

- Knock, knock!
- Is that Easter Bunny?
- Yes, it is!
- I need your honest opinion about something.
- And I need yours.

First, Mr G and I exchanged fashion critiques. Mr wanted to be sure a top he had found in his wardrobe still suits him well, and I needed an opinion about my new jacket. As I had about 85 minutes to kill in Chiswick between my two shopping missions, I hit the posh charity shops on the high street. That resulted in a new outfit, which passed Mr G's approval (and I trusted him completely when it comes to style).

I set off for a big Easter shopping, and found all the products from Mr G's grocery list, apart from two. First was Brussels sprouts - they must have been out of stock, just like it was Christmas, not Easter! I chose the savoy cabbage instead. The second already sold out item was a pack of paninis. The closest substitute I could think about was brioche hot dogs. Mr G said he'd give then a try.

The groceries were quick, so Mr G and I spent the rest of the mission time, folding a giant piece of tarp he had took out to cover his bike, chatting and having a good laugh. I was glad to see Mr G in good spirits. He gave the credit to the painkillers, but admitted that a GoodGymer's visit always lifts his mood too! As a thank you and a little Easter gift Mr G got me the Lindt Gold Bunny from a corner shop. Such a lovely gesture!

-Thank you so much! I hope it won't get squashed in my running bag with me jacket. Otherwise I'd need to consume it on the spot!
- It will get destroyed anyway. I'm sure you'll smash its head off! Enjoy!

I wished Mr G happy Easter and ran back home with the Easter Bunny joyfully ringing its bell on my bag.

I don't do races - unless they are action movie-class pursuits - like the one today!

It started like any other shopping mission. I had some free time on Friday's bank holiday, so I visited Mr K of Chiswick, who is always very fond of the young people from GoodGym and, recently, Helping Hands, who come to support him. If Mr K was slightly disappointed I was not JP, whom he'd been expecting (although a post-it note on his corkboard had my name down), he didn't show it at all.

Mr K handed me a grocery list with only 5 items, cash, a shopping bag and, of course, his Nectar card.

Sainsbury's was pretty busy on Good Friday, but there was no queue at the checkout. It was at the supermarket's exit where I met my rival: Mr Scooter. Ready, steady, go! We set off with our Sainsbury's branded bags towards the crossing by the Gunnersbury station, not even knowing we'd be racing each other. Wheels against legs, electric motor versus a mighty engine powered by organic compounds.

The competition was about tactics: navigating narrow shop exits, traffic lights and bulging tree roots distorting the pavement. Mr Scooter had the advantage of speed since I was walking, not running, but I could take shortcuts Mr Scooter could not use, which was not good news for the accessibility in the area. Before the pavement got really rough, we went head-to-head, taking different routes to avoid obstacles. At some point, I took the lead and lost Mr Scooter from sight. That made me feel grateful for being able-bodied and, at the same time, bad about the challenges people on mobility scooters go through. Then, suddenly, Mr Scooter appeared on the other side of the road, cruising on the even pavement like a swan on the surface of a lake. He was going for the gold medal! He reached the crossing at the Gunnersbury station and turned toward Chiswick Park. Well done, Mr Scooter. Well done, Chiswick.

Mr K got his groceries soon after and thought I was pretty fast. Well done, silver medallist Kash.