On 30 June 1908, near the Tunguska River in Siberia, a mysterious shock wave flattened 2,150 square metres of taiga forest. The explosion sparked numerous hypotheses and inspired many works of fiction. 117 years later, a similar event took place in Walpole Park, Ealing. Thistles in an area roughly the size of half a tennis court have been flattened by an unknown force. On Tuesday evening, the GoodGym Ealing Team set off around sunset to investigate the unusual occurrence.

Bryon and Kash headed to the Rangers' secret facility to collect scientific equipment while Steph and Sevan scouted the outer area of Walpole Park, running. Apart from the closed and taped gate, they haven't found anything worth reporting, so they reunited with the rest of the team. In the Rangers' base, the GoodGymers read the research materials about thistles. Easy to pull when young, was the key information. It seemed that the knowledge from seemingly unrelated fields applied to nature conservation. Armed with that advice, the team collected a trolley and a minimum of tools, just in case they would encounter mature thistles.

The site of the unnatural phenomenon, located near the park entrance close to Lammas Park, looked odd, but passers-by didn't seem to pay too much attention to the anomaly. The GoodGymers started collecting samples, and, in the process, they pulled out almost all the felled thistles. It appeared as if they were now covering up the incident. Kash took the first full trolley to dispose of the evidence. On the way through the dark park, she encountered a couple on the bench.

"Is that for the giraffes?", the man asked at the sight of the heap of thistles.
"Yes, and they already want seconds!"
"Ha. Very hungry!"

Steph was the one to bring the giraffes the "seconds", hauling the next trolley to the space where the Rangers kept sensitive evidence. Meanwhile, the team progressed with clearance so far that they have pulled out the thistles that hadn't even been knocked down. The third and final trolley was pulled by Sevan, with the assistance of the rest of the team, in case they weren't able to pull off the giraffe feed excuse anymore and would have to deal with the witnesses of the thistle drop off. Luckily, nothing like that happened, and all the evidence was safely disposed of in the designated area.

Brentford Festival is an annual, community run, family friendly festival that has been running since 2005. Unfortunately, due to operational difficulties, it was announced that this year's edition would be the last. It was a great relief, then, that the late summer downpours made way for a glorious Sunday in West London. From 9am, Goodgym was directed by the unflappable festival organiser Linda to erect gazebos, take furniture and bins out of the storage area and place flags around the site. While we were faced with gazebos with various important bits missing or broken, Kash and Sevan's experience came through and we ultimately conquered the task with typical Goodgym team work and communication. Not long after we finished our setup shift, people started arriving and the festival quickly swung into gear, judging by how much everyone was enjoying themselves, it was obvious just how much this festival would be missed.

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 ⛺.