GoodGym Ealing may not visit St Andrew's Church in North Ealing frequently, but everyone looks forward to another session there - maybe because the tasks are so unique? The task owner, John, always has a new interesting project for us. This time, he offered us a mixture of new (a DIY task) and familiar (hedge trimming). John knew well that our team could be very effective when it comes to cutting shrubs (maybe even too effective!), so he entrusted us with shaping the hedge at the side of the church. A job that required even more trust in GoodGym was renovating a memorial bench of Roy James Matthews - an artist who used to run art classes for the local community at St Andrew's centre. John consulted the late artist's family before proceeding with the task, so we were committed to doing all the sanding in painting to a high standard.

Steph Ducat and Christos employed a variety of scissor-like tools, including long-handled edging shears, to suppress the unruly expansion of the hedge. The boisterous plant responded by releasing sap, covering Steph's t-shirt, face and shades with sticky spots.

Are you sure you have not chosen the painting task, Steph?

Despite St Andrew's being a United Reformed Church, Christos got to practice Zen meditation by raking the gravel. Getting the leaves out from between the stones required a great deal of patience!

On the other side of the church and the community centre, Claire, Freya and Sevan engaged in an artistic activity: bench renovation - from sanding, through blowing the dust away, to applying varnish. The challenging aspect was painting the hard-to-access surfaces with big paint brushes. One of Roy James' students, who was visiting the community space, came to the rescue! He went back home and brought us what you can easily find in an artist's house: a smaller paintbrush. That made our job a breeze.

Madhan and Kash got to rotate between the two tasks and apply their versatile skills in the arts of both creation and decimation. John was delighted with the results of GoodGym's intervention and, as usual, grateful for our support.

Since the days got longer, the Ealing team was increasingly keen on the fitness element of GoodGym. On the way to the session, our running crew opted for a 2.5 km of hill running. Returning to Ealing Broadway, we took the shortest route down but finished with an 8-minute full-body interval workout.

Next Tuesday, we are visiting a different part of the borough to help Hanwell School of Boxing with the maintenance of their outdoor space. Sign up and join us!

You know how it feels to undo some work because it hasn't had the outcome you expected? Kash and Sevan felt a bit like that when they visited Ms H. A few weeks go, they'd prepared for the visit of a broadband engineer with Steph by moving around most of Ms H's living room furniture, including carrying 2 sofas into storage. The broadband engineer was supposed to rewire all around the room, but instead, only shortened a cable next to the door which didn't need any furniture to move. A true case of crossed wires somewhere.

Today, the furniture was going back, with a twist. Ms H's tall black cabinet was returned to its position against the wall, closing the secret walkway behind it and one sofa was maneuvered back indoors. Ms H had plans for the second sofa. It was to live outdoors in a sunny spot that was also undercover. Kash adjusted it's feet, making it perfect for lazing in the sun over spring and summer. Putting the furniture back was much easier as Ms H had been decluttering since the last visit 🙌.

Ms H rewarded the pair for their hard work with some berries to keep them going and some water. That sofa was a really nice place to sit. Then, Ms H sprung a surprise... there was one more job to complete.

The last task was something that Steph, Kash and Sevan had tried to dodge last time. Ms H had modded her tall black cabinet with some fairy lights, which looped around a shelf, then became a tangled mess. As they were effectively knotted to the shelf, they couldn't be removed without some GoodGym brain power. Kash, Sevan and Ms H worked together to unknot the lights, spending 30 minutes painstakingly following the cable through loops and splits to tease out the knots. Eventually, the 5 metres of lights were tangle free and Ms H wound up the cable, hopefully in a way that won't get into a mess again.

That really was the end of the mission, so Kash and Sevan left the fairy lights behind and ran towards Ealing.

Once upon a time, Los Mariachis from GoodGym travelled through the Ealing Borough and arrived in the town of Hanwell, hoping to find work at music festivals. Have they found any jobs? If you visited Sandy Park in the morning after Hanwell Hootie, you could find six red t-shirts lounging on sofas, getting a lift in vans, and all that accompanied by the whiff of a brewery! What sort of a gym is that? A gym unlike any other!

It was the first GoodGym gig for Roberta, who hadn't known what to expect. The first words Roberta said on arrival were:

How can I help?

And she got stuck in right away!

The regular GoodGymers expected to pack things away and dismantle the festival tents - basically: what they had done on Friday, but in reverse. That wasn't the plan though. Task owner June told our team that the priority was moving the Hootie furniture back to the Stables in Brent Lodge Park. We have done it in two van trips, loading and unloading sofas, armchairs, mirrors, bins, banners and a stand looking like a chromium-plated sombrero, perfect for such a Mariachi as Harvey. Some of us were so desperados to complete the task for our Hootie amigos, that we made an exception and got a lift to the Stables for the sake of time. Runners Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash didn't miss a chance to race the van back to Sandy Park though!

There was one more journey that the Hootie volunteer manager Rose had for us: a trip to the Viaduct pub. That was the task from which some of us emerged with the beer scent. Did we go there for a few pints? Much more than a few! We packed into a van and unpacked crates, boxes and bags of reusable festival pint glasses - hundreds of them! This time everyone walked between locations, much to Michelle's linking as she is very keen on walking to the tasks.

Steph and Harvey took on a bonus quest, also related to popping into a pub: this time The Green. They were tasked with carrying two giant letters "H" there, ahead of a thank you event for the amazing Hootie volunteers crew. Who else if not GoodGym can do a fun pub crawl with no drinking involved?

5 awesome GoodGymers turned out for HANGOT's regular pre-Hootie task, to give Elthorne Triangle's orchard a short back, sides and everything else ready for the summer. The fruit trees there had seen weeds and wildflowers shoot up over the past weeks meaning that they were having to fight for water and light, so HANGOT wanted to give the trees the best chance of producing fruit for the community.

Sun cream was broken out ahead of Steph, Kash, Ramona, Eman and Sevan helping the HANGOT volunteers to chop, rake and wheelbarrow the overgrowth away. Frank and Lydia from HANGOT also had scythes to clear larger areas, so everyone else made sure to keep their ankles away from the sweeping blades. Today was Ramona's first GoodGym task and she did an amazing job, getting stuck into lots of different tasks. Welcome Ramona 👋🎉! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Together, the team freed the majority of fruit trees in the orchard, giving the pear, apple and cherry fruits the opportunity to grow juicy and strong this summer. The mature trees will have fruit ready for the public to forage in a few months 🍎🍐🍒.

When Kash arrived at Sandy Park to offer GoodGym services to the legendary Hanwell Hootie festival, she not only had to wait for her crew, who were busy decorating the Busking Boat, but also for The Van. The van was supposed to deliver festival tents. Sevan and Harvey had the pleasure of waiting for that vehicle at their previous task to no avail, so the hype was on!

Our Bunting Bandits just returned from the cruise on the Busking Boat when the van materialised. Three GoodGymers helped Ralph, the Head of Tentology, put up one pop-up tent, then hung around trying to make themselves useful while watching Ralph fighting with the zips in an attempt to connect the tent walls. The rescue came quickly in the form of another task: setting up a uri-tunnel. Forget GoodGym Ealing's expertise in polytunnel architecture! Uri-tunnels are the future.

The team was tasked to shift three portable urinals and connect them, creating a tunnel to allow men some privacy on the festival day. Some male GoodGymers felt that the end-users of the urinals were underrepresented in the design of the tunnel and came up with some ideas to improve the practicality of the solution. The consultation was soon over and their feedback didn't make it to the final urinals setup. The team followed the original design, then Harvey made an inaugural run through the tunnel.

After the pisstraction, the GoodGymers were called to support another tent setup, where 10 pairs of hands were needed. Following the success of that large-scale project, Ralph invited them to assemble another 10-men tent. It turned out that the grandiose tent was an overkill for a spot selling festival merch, so it was reduced in size by a half.

The last job for Harvey, Sevan and Kash was to move black chairs and tables from the VIP area to the volunteer lounge - they did not fit June's vision of the Sandy Park festival layout. We all knew that the Hootie volunteers were the real VIPs, so we moved the cool, black furniture where it belonged.

The life of a roadie is a tough one. No job security, moving equipment and lots of chatting while waiting around for something exciting to happen. That's how GoodGym's first setup session for the Hanwell Hootie felt like for Bryon, Harvey and Sevan too. Sandy Park had a stage, some portaloos and barriers, with most other things still to arrive.

First up was to move some industrial sized bins around the park, so that the Hootie-ers could recycle or dispose of their rubbish. Then, a pause, before setting out tables and chairs in front of the stage. Then, some waiting around again, talking about life, children and Newcastle United's successful season.

Finally, the excitement came. A trip to the Busking Boat to carry out a task so daring that it would not be mentioned to the Health & Safety Officer... putting up bunting by climbing ladders on a boat! Ladders on a boat! As it turned out, it was perfectly safe. The canal was calm, the boat was well moored and the step ladders were stable. The bunting was efficiently threaded around the roof beams, transforming the barge and making it ready to rock 🤘

The trio headed back to Sandy Park for the second part of Hootie setup, which would be po-tent-tially a lot busier ⛺.