It was a day of miracles at Pitshanger Junior parkrun's Christmas Eve event. It was their 400th event, which is a huge achievement and it was also a balmy 12°C. You could put those down to hard work and climate change respectively, but as it's Christmas, let's call them miracles. Kelvin had also managed to get Santa to carry him around for the day. Astonishing 🤯

Another surprise was that more children were running than last week when were were here, with 56 runners today compared with 38 last week. We also had an unexpected GoodGymer present with the return of Raj from his first term at uni.

Raj was timekeeping along with Harvey and Alan was the last member of the GoodGym contingent in the funnel as a barcode scanner. Meanwhile, Kash, Steph Ducat, Madhan and Sevan were dotted around the course as marshals, cheering on all the Santas and Mrs Claus' 🎅🤶

Our monthly gig with the Ealing Mile seems to end with either a course record or close to it - crikey, some of these young people are speedy! But this is definitely an event for all, and all are welcome! Our volunteers were there to undertake the pre-race course safetly check, marshal, check off finishing numbers (a very important role, indeed) and act as the lead bike late sub (not needed off the bench in the end!). Oh, and we found time to grab a nice coffee (an important part of any community mission in my view!).

Monday ESK takeaway service with usual goodgymers : Steph, Madhan and Raz starting the 1st shift on a wet Monday at the Salvation Army Hall. Steph arrived shortly before 4pm, at the same time as Marvin from City Harvest London who had loads of groceries and 2 massive bags of bread from a polish bakery. Van unloaded and volunteers arrived including Madhan and Raj. Our fist task was to separate the items and the 3 goodgymers were in charge of preparing 90 snack bags which included a mixture of snacks, drinks, chocolate/protein bars, fruit and savoury items. As we had loads of croissants in big boxes, we individually packed 2 in smaller bags to include them in the snack ones. Then we had 5kg of individual chocolate sticks : the 3 of us put 5 of each in smaller bags before putting them in the 90 bags. As we were doing the bags, Emma from ESK approached me as asked if I could and didnot mind helping out in the kitchen to prepare the takeawaymeals with Rebecca. Of course I didnot mind especially that we already cooked together 👨‍🍳👩‍🍳. Raz and Madhan carried on in the foyer with the snack and grocery bags etc.. Rebecca and myself : the Chefs are back in town!! Tonight we did 120 takeaway meals : tuna pasta bake with cheese and pasta bake with cheese(veggie option). At 6pm, the doors opened and we delivered food on time for the serving team. Kash, Sevan and Divya arrived for the 2nd shift, whilst both Madhan and Steph stayed to carry on with the 2nd shift. As only Rebecca and Steph in the kitchen it made sense to stay and carry on with the task. Fantastic or was it pasta-tic food?! Cleaning of pots and pans was easier this time as we put soaked the dishes in super hot water. Next time, if Rebecca and Steph are on kitchen duties we should have our names on the aprons 🤔 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳 Chef Rebecca and Chef Steph.

As the Ealing Soup Kitchen rising star Steph was feeling a bit under the weather, he dropped a message in our group chat around 3 pm. With one hour to go for the mission, I was thinking about who would sign up at the last minute. Raj replied immediately and signed up.

This was Raj's first time with the soup kitchen. While we were waiting for the delivery van, Emma asked us to put the clothes on display. Raj and I started with women's clothes and moved toward men's. Halfway through I switched to a snack-bag-making task. We had to make 90 snack bags.

You are good with Maths aren't you - Tim

Rebecca did the drinks run today as we were out of drinks after making 44 bags. Raj after arranging the men's clothes, joined us and completed the last bits of making snack bags. We finished arranging clothes, making grocery bags and snack bags by 5:15 pm.

Some of us treated ourselves with protein bars, kinder joy eggs, and chocolates. Tim made the tea for us today. There were two Lizs today who were in charge of the kitchen. Chilli con carne was being heated in the stoves, while Liz was making pots of rice back to back.

Rice with Chilli con carne topped with grated cheddar was the meal of the day

As we had some time before the gates are open, Raj and I started labeling the clothes. Raj planned to stay back some more time and Sevan reached by 6 pm and positioned himself in the men's section. As I was about to leave, Liz asked whether I could wash the rice pots. Then I lost track of time as I immersed myself in dishwashing.

(with a nod to Glasgow's strapline)

The monthly Friday Ealing Mile was back after a gap for the various Ealing Festivals to take place. 38 runners of all ages and abilities came and ran one mile on a hot July day and four of the GoodGym Ealing gang were there to help the event take place. From lead bike, to marking out the route (including our own chalk artwork), to setting up cones, to marshaling, to chatting to other park users - we take on all tasks!

Oh, and by the way, Madhan was sporting a very nice 100 good deeds t-shirt - check it out!