Hanwell Carnival 2023 may be in the past for the local community but not for GoodGymers. After sorting out the Hootie storage locker which held some of the Carnival props, June told us about more decorations in desperate need of sorting before the upcoming events. Those were stored in the vast basement of Hanwell Community Centre which in the past had been the arena of epic GoodGym tasks like painting ceiling frescos (think Sistine Chapel) and sophisticated furniture movements.

Tempted by a vision of dismantling cardboard robots that were on the task listing cover...

...four eager volunteers made their way to the session, representing all GoodGym modes of transport:

• run 🏃🏽‍♂️🏃🏼‍♀️ Sevan and Kash
• walk 🚶🏾‍♂️ Madhan
• cycle 🚴🏾‍♀️ Madiha

Andrea, the task owner, welcomed us at the Community Centre and took us for a time-travel experience! We entered the Caverns of Time to retrieve the pieces of Hanwell Carnival decorations.

The props had been scattered across various decades of the previous century. Our mission was to return them to 2023 (where, we believe, people care more about recycling than in the 20th century ♻️) to disassemble them for upcycling.

Madhan landed in Victorian London...

...where he had to disguise himself as a distinguished citizen to avoid working in the factory for 40 hours a day (even Madhan wouldn't handle that!).

Sevan was sent to the Roaring 20s...

...where he had too many free cocktails and didn't even think about going back to the 21st century.

Kash was stuck in the 80s and tried calling others.

Madiha, who had travelled to the same decade, responded. Together, they built a time machine and went back in time!

They collected the guys and took the course towards the 21st century. The wooden time machine couldn't handle a hundred-year jump forward, so the GoodGymers got stuck halfway, in the 70s. They tried to build time-travelling motorcycles...

...but the vehicles had a design flaw - instead of going forward, they reversed GoodGymers back to 1969! Luckily, the team found The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and emerged back in the 2023 Hanwell Community Centre to finish the task for Andrea.

The pun and idea of the story credit goes to Sevan 🙌

Three people picked paint brushes.

The ceiling is white.

Three people left the basement.

Another Saturday, another dangerous mission involving ladders and paint. We were back at the Hanwell Community Centre to paint the ceiling of their music rehearsal space for the second weekend in a row and this time with the help of our new Area Activator, Lesley who added a fifth pair of hands to the group.

Once we unpacked all of the kit, we realised there were only 4 paint rollers so one of us would need to be on paintbrush duty to handle the difficult bits in the corners. Once we got going, we soon finished the first coat and the ceiling finally looked white which was a huge achievement and we began the second and hopefully last coat of paint.

As we love helping the community centre and getting covered in paint, we decided to leave some of the second pass for another day. Look out for another community mission in your feed soon...

What a lovely evening! We met at Hanwell Community Centre for a short walk to Framfield Allotments in the evening sun. We met Karen there who showed us the job - a coat of primer for a soon-to-be community art shed, including bench and table! It was Jen's birthday soon and, let's face it, we don't need an excuse to eat cake, so both dairy and vegan versions were dutifully consumed (thanks Liv!). It was also Milly's 250th task - brilliant work! A walk/run home followed after a job well done.

After the great painting work at the rehearsal space in Hanwell Community Centre by the Ealing group runners, four weekend-shift GoodGymers raised early on Saturday and came over to the cave of rock to continue with the makeover. This time we were hitting the high notes by patining the ceiling.

We were excited to welcome a new joiner. Madiha did a great job recruiting her sister, Saima, who came all the way from Portugal! The distance is a bit of a stretch but we hope to see Saima again joining other community missions.

The task had a little bit of slippage. After some comms on the phone (and some confusion as there was another Kash - not the GoodGym one - involved!), we were assured the person who is supposed to let us to the basement is on their way.

Once we got in, we used different tactics to reach the ceiling: Saima jumped on a very secure table, Madiha and Sevan installed their paintbrushes on the two poles available and Kash used the ladder which she found the most exciting option. We did what we could in one hour that we had for the task. The delay and our numbers didn't let us finish the job today but our efforts were nonetheless welcomed with gratitude.

Hanwell Community Centre has a great tradition of hosting rehearsal space for famous 70s rock bands. But the next generation will be taking over soon as the Community Centre builds a new community music studio. The rockers n rollers of GoodGym Ealing were on hand with air guitar paintbrushes and paint tin drums to freshen up the basement room with a coat or so of white. We'll be back soon to finish off the ceiling and have the place looking fab four hits!