Tonight we had people arriving by walking, cycling, and running, with Chris and Michelle leading us on the task. We were at one of our regular spots, Strand on the Green school, however tonight was a special occasion because it was Kymm's 50th good deed! Well done Kymm, you've made a huge difference to the local community in Hounslow and beyond, keep up the good work! Our mission was to cut back the overgrown bushes around the side of the school that were starting to obstruct the pavement, and give them a serious haircut. At first we were a bit reluctant because of their beautiful purple flowers, but then our hacking instincts took over and we attacked them with our usual vigour. We split the jobs of hacking and bagging up the offcuts and were done in good time. All in all a nice straightforward task successfully done!

Care4Calais had a big job for GoodGym this afternoon. To prepare around 130 packs of clothing for refugees in one hotel. Some of the residents had been given clothes previously and today, the second big delivery would complete the task.

Boxes of clothes were piled up waiting for the team, who welcomed back Mohamed for his first GoodGym Ealing task since moving back west 👋. The ask was fairly straight forward, to make standard clothing packs in a single size at a time, on a larger scale than normal. Everything was set up like a production line to make the system quick and easy:

1. Open a bag 🛍️
2. Place socks inside 🧦
3. Hand on to the next person 🤜🤛
4. Add men's underwear 🩲
5. Add a hoodie 🧥
6. Hand on to the next person 🤜🤛
7. Add jogging bottoms 👖
8. Add 2 t-shirts 👕👕
9. Done ✅

With much of the clothing being black or navy, the team needed ways to make sure the right clothes ended up in the right bags.

"Are these hoodies or joggers?" - GoodGymer
"Which half naked man is on the pack?"
"The hoodies have topless men on them too, which doesn't make sense" - Tamzin, task owner

The "naked man process" worked up until the team realised that some packs had 2 hoodies and no trousers in them. Cue a rapid search through 40ish packs to identify which ones needed fixing.

Despite the hoodie issues early on, an improved system meant that the job of creating the packs finished early, with a range of small, medium, large and XL bags tightly packed into boxes.

After the rapid and fairly repetitive production line, came the slow, creative piece. Fitting all of those boxes into 2 family cars needed thought, inventiveness and some force. With both cars full to bursting and ready to be delivered to Care4Calais' beneficiaries, it was time to wrap up and wander home in the late afternoon sun.

The legend says that it was at Brent River Park's 50th birthday when Kash from GoodGym and Ben, the leader of Clean Up River Brent, fixed a date for a joint wading event in Pitshanger. When the day came, it became clear that the theme would be the famed balsam bash - the removal of invasive plants with stalks like giant celery and purple flowers of stunning beauty. The gorgeous flowers were particularly troublesome as they were starting to explode, sending hundreds of Himalayan Balsam seeds into the air and water.

The Balsam Bashers group assembled on Sunday morning at Pitshanger Park Bowls Pavilion. Rachel, Lara, Bob, and Martin were busy choosing the right size of waders and listening to Ben's health and safety brief. GoodGymers Sevan, Steph, and Kash were already in the park, after volunteering at junior parkrun and queuing for coffee at the park café. Kymm from GoodGym Hounslow, experienced with balsam bashing, joined them shortly to try on waders for the first time. The pair she got was not the most comfortable to walk in.

Kymm: "Are they supposed to be that harsh on the feet?"
Ben: "Is it some sort of grit? I actually like it, but I'm a masochist."

Comfortable or not, waders were worn by everyone to protect skin from Weil's disease and other nastiness hidden in contaminated water. They also shielded us from brambles, nettles, and even giant hogweed. With long rubber gloves, wading poles, and hi-viz, the team was ready for a serious adventure. We wandered west along the River Brent and found a suitable place to carefully descend from the bank. On a hot day, the water felt nice and cool through the waders.

Guided by the wading poles to avoid the treacherous drops in the river bed, we walked downstream, bashing the balsam on the way, some of us from the water, others occasionally from the bank. We went as far as the footbridge leading to St Benedict's School. Before heading off, we took with us some imposing balsam specimens for a special photoshoot by Martin Sapsed for his project documenting the work of volunteers across different fields. Sadly, we had to remove the best-looking flowers to minimise the risk of balsam seeding on the way. We think we still made quite an impression on the park visitors.

Passer-by: "It looks like a religious festival!"

Our pagan procession returned to the pavilion, where Martin assembled us for a carefully designed Balsam Basher group shot.

Martin: "I'm looking for a look of grim determination."

We gave Martin the most serious stares we could muster, then happily took off the waders as we felt we were starting to boil after having left the cooling water. Some would describe the atmosphere of getting released from waders as whiffy. Ben said it's been a year with the most wading involved so far and promised to give the rubbery equipment a thorough wash before the next session. We're looking forward to another CURB event to do good for biodiversity in Ealing and sweat in fresh waders again!

It was a bumper session last night at GG Hounslow, where we had the pleasure of welcoming three new faces, and welcoming back one we hadn't seen in too long! So great to have you join us for the first time Cristina, Mark and Nina, and lovely to have you back for a flying visit Johnny!

With a reprieve from the heat of the last couple of days, we had a beautiful summer's evening to make the most of, so there was no time to waste. After a quick warm up (with a bike based alternative demonstrated by Mark!) we set off for the Comboni centre, a centre for spirituality run by Sisters, who care for sick people.

The lucky first few queuing up at the shed to be handed out tools by Sister Expedita got their hands on trowels, forks and other legitimate utensils, while the others received....bread knives! Still, we didn't let it hold us back, and got to work on the lawns pulling out the weeds coming up thick and fast. It soon became clear that only bad workmen blame their tools, as the knives were more than adequate for the task - and Christina even commented that her broken knife was even more effective. That's proper GG spirit!

Meanwhile Nina and Florian were doing a beautiful job weeding around the beautifully scented roses, while Cookie and Biscuits (aka the two Johnnies) were working to clear a large area around the back of the building.

After 45 minutes of hard work, Sister Expedita was pleased with our work, and after a quick photo opp, we set off for Turnham Green.

That wasn't the end of the hard graft, as we took on the three minute mountain leg challenge, followed by an arm finisher! Phew. Great work everybody! If you're looking for a mission this weekend, why not sign up for this one helping set up at Waterman's Park? It's going to be a fun one!