For tonight's group run, Northfields Community Library had asked GoodGym Ealing to spread the word about the services they offer to people living in the communities near the library. The first area to engage with was in South Ealing, where the library was keen to attract residents to visit their hub on Northfield Avenue. Little did the GoodGymers know of the adventure and perils that awaited them.

Sevan tried to plot a sensible route through an irregularly shaped estate. As they went from door to door, Ming doorbells were everywhere, a lucrative sideline of Ming the Merciless, who had become tired of being evil and was finally trying to go it kinda straight. The doorbells looked perfectly innocent, however they were actually being monitored by a control freak, who didn't want the GoodGymers nor the library to achieve their goal.

The team were making steady progress when they became aware a villainous pirate called Captain Book, who wanted to keep books and knowledge all to himself. This was the opposite of the library's aim, as they wanted to share knowledge and understanding with everyone. The Captain had seen and heard that GoodGym were coming, so he had put obstacles in their way. Snappy letter boxes and angry dogs were some of the early tests that the team faced and overcame. Kash ran and dodged from house to house, avoiding electric scooters and dangerously overgrown hedges.

Eventually, having overcome all other challenges, they reached Book's final test. Liuba was made to walk the plank... and she survived! Liuba returned with her bundle of flyers, having liberated another house from Book's tyranny. After that success, it was time for the GoodGymers to leave the land that Book controlled. Book's hold over the land was weakened, but there is still more for GoodGym to do to free the residents from his oppression.

Mohamed, Sevan and Kash set off for a run from Pear Tree Park and retraced their steps to the OSCARS café on Pitshanger Lane. After a lunch break, their last session that Sunday was just a short jog away. Madiha met the trio at the task after her uphill bike ride. It was great to see her again after a break!

Tamzin from Care4Calais offered the GoodGymers coffee before cracking on with the task. It was the perfect time to announce the latest GoodGym Ealing news: Mohamed's black belt in good deeds - namely, 50 good deeds! Well done, Mohamed. Your unwavering enthusiasm for volunteering and dedication to the Care4Calais cause could not go unnoticed!

Today's job was all about creating labelled packs for individual refugees. Sevan stayed at the ground level at the beginning, assuming the role of a label scribe, which looked like the last thing GoodGymers look for: a desk job! Meanwhile, Mohamed was already making clothes parcels, assembling sets of small, medium, large and extra-large items for men and women. Madiha and Kash, new to creating packs, tried their best not to look confused. Among all the ambiguity, one thing was certain: every refugee lady deserved a scarf - or three of them! The donations of scarves were so abundant that Tamzin decided they had to be given out to not take as much space.

The team created impressive piles of packs for several West London hotels providing shelter for asylum seekers, which hopefully helped Tamzin to catch up on the requests made by refugees during her break!

On a chilly Sunday morning, a group of daredevils wearing red walked out from a coffee shop on Pitshanger Lane. Who would have stayed in a warm, cosy place sipping hot beverages and munching on pastry while adventure awaited in Perivale? The adventurers met a young man wearing shorts in February - just like Steph Ducat does - and they knew right away, he was one of them! Daniel, our newest addition to the GoodGym Ealing team, was not intimidated by the freezing temperature and joined us for a walk to Pear Tree Park, where Richard and three other Ealing Greenwayers awaited with a task.

While the Greenwayers provided the tools and expertise for today's job, the GoodGym run leaders brought their own know-how to the session. Since everyone felt it was a bit too nippy to start the task, Kash conducted a warm-up for everyone and raised the temperature to sub-tropical levels. Getting the muscles and joints warmed up helped the participants to stay injury-free today. Of course, let's not forget Richard's obligatory health and safety briefing!

"In short, don't chop each other's heads off." - Richard
"Don't worry about the limbs. Richard is a qualified first aider. Ha can sort those out." - Kash

Both teams grabbed forks and trowels, then attacked the rockery near the old, now closed, park cafe. The weeds were much weaker than in the summer, so the big team removed the most of undesirable greenery within the first hour. Sevan, Mohamed, Steph and Kash then moved on to the GoodGymer's favourite winter pastime: woodchipping, while Daniel faithfully stuck to the original task to do it wholly and properly.

Five minutes before the task finish time, Steph and Kash heard someone saying brute force and were all ears. Richard casually mentioned a side quest - something about a stubborn tree stump near the green waste dumping area. The two walked there to investigate, then returned a few minutes later.

"No, there is no tree stump over there."

Richard glanced towards the bothersome tree trunk, which indeed disappeared. Or was he only dreaming about it?

Before leaving, the GoodGymers treated everyone to a short series of cooldown stretches, which Richard later asked to become - along with the warm-up - a standard part of the Pear Tree Park sessions!

Join us for next month's task with Ealing Greenwayers - and if you cannot wait to see us earlier, pop in for another weekend green task at Grove Farm next Saturday.

There was a biting cold wind blowing through Pitshanger Park this morning for Junior parkrun. It blew straight through the volunteers too, who nevertheless put on a cheery and enthusiatic event for all today's runners.

Steph Ducat, Chris McC, Kash, Gaby and Sevan all used their motivational skills to help the 61 finishers around the course. Kash and Gaby as marshals and Chris and Sevan as timekeepers were all cheering and put the power of the high 5 into action. Steph on the other hand had to be more creative as the tail walker, hopping, skipping and running to keep the final child entertained and moving towards completing his 2km.

At the finish, Mohamed was getting to grips with funnel management, keeping children in line. Harvey was barcode scanning and Chris Y was providing everyone with moral support. Chris was also silently mocking everyone else's lack of planning as he rocked his woolly mittens 🧤❄️.

Our first session at Western Road Urban Garden in 2025 brought an even more formidable challenge than last year's log relocation. There were plenty of different tasks to do - including planting in the gaps of the native hedge - but when Kash asked who would like a non-muscle task, she heard a resounding silence from Mohamed, Liuba, Steph Ducat and Sevan. Everyone was determined to tackle the job that Janpal thought only GoodGymers would be capable of doing (in the absence of Council's heavy machinery or a chainsaw): moving bases of 70- or 80-year-old pine trees!

For the first four stumps, we used a combination of rolling and pulling a trolley to move them closer to where Janpal wanted to create a natural barrier to the garden. Thanks to stellar teamwork, the five GoodGymers and our friend Andre were well-equipped to complete that job. The remaining two giant tree trunks (one of them was a double tree!), even the mighty Andre considered impossible. Splitting the logs into smaller pieces would make the job manageable - but how?

Just as Deux ex Machina, WRUG's Chief Engineer Ash arrived with his head full of ideas and a wheelbarrow full of tools (sadly not the chainsaw!). His strategy to tackle the big problem was to split it into smaller chunks, using a saw, an axe, a maul, a wedge, a mallet and a sledgehammer. Liuba and Sevan were at the forefront of the transformation, removing the soil from between the roots, and then sawing grooves in the weakest parts of the wood. Steph, Mohamed, Kash and Ash were taking turns hacking into the rifts in the tree bases with the axe and the maul, making slow but constant progress in splitting the trunk.

Halfway through the task, the gang took a short break to replenish their stamina with samosas and tea, kindly provided by Janpal, and warmed themselves up in the polytunnel. The GoodGymers had a chance for a chat with Paul and Katie, who were busy with another job at the urban garden today. Our team found out that the wounded pigeon that Katie had found in the morning sadly didn't survive till the afternoon.

Life had to go on, so we went back to our wood-splitting challenge with fresh energy. We kept turning the enormous tree base (which needed three people!) and attacked it from different angles. The crevices got deeper and deeper with each strike of the maul. We handed the mallet to Janpal for the honorary last blow... which didn't happen! Instead, the wedge was stuck deep in the wood and we could no longer reach it with the hammer! We kept manoeuvring the wood, hoping to split it from another way or at least release the wedge, but we ran out of time. So close - yet so far!

Now it was time for the team to split, with Liuba and Mohamed heading home, and Steph, Sevan and Kash running to their next missions. Ash promised the GoodGymers they would complete the job at the March session at Western Road and the team pledged to return to claim the glory for their hard work. Come and join us at the session next month - the wood-splitting challenge is still on, and other, less extreme, tasks are waiting to to be done.

The Saturday after Valentines day, had a community mission in the morning followed by a mission in the beginning of the afternoon. Obviously running involved going to these. I arrived at Mr P house and was thinking that I did not read properly the mission as thought it was the back garden that needed attention. The front garden looked like it needed some Goodgym. Mr P opened the door and guided through the house to the back garden. As Mr P had 2 knee operations, he could not maintain his garden and enjoy the birds that he feeds and the beautiful roses. Purpose of today was to trim the rose tree and allow passage for Mr P as it loves it so much here that it took a lot of space in the garden. As tall, I was asked to trim as far high as I could. I started being attacked by the thorns when trimming : small cuts all over due to the thorns on the rose tree. The Mr P asked and said: can I be cheeky and get you to tidy the garden by moving the table, chairs rubbish or recycled items as he said, gates etc. I started by moving the table, the gates and then the items which were in boxes/containers but with water or would I describe it like perfume plume in the swamp! Not smelly cat but smelly water! Emptied the containers as requested and put them all together, but part of the garden became a swap. Then when I cleared the area, found a lot of chairs to be moved : musical chairs. Stayed a bit longer as wanted to finish the trimming and tidy the garden so that Mr P could have a full access to his garden. In the end I was going to trim the tree, but ended clearing the garden also - great satisfaction and Mr P was very happy especially that I erected and fixed his stone mushroom and put his garden gnomes back up standing beside it. The green bin is full and understood that it has not been filled and collected for ages : the bin men will be surprised.