Ms E had been through incredibly tough times that culminated in a long-term hospitalisation. Her plans to renovate the patio and the materials bought for that purpose became the last thing to worry about. When Ms E returned home, the garden she had known was no longer there. Instead, there was an uninviting portal that led to an impenetrable wall of brambles. Behind the curtain of spikes lay Outworld - once a beautiful and peaceful place until it became overtaken by brambles.

Ms E summoned two warriors from Ealingrealm to fight the invaders in a deadly tournament to protect her home from being conquered by thorns from Bramblerealm. She had only one pair of shears; the other was probably a victim of a bramble conspiracy. But that would not stop Sevan and Kash.

Kash went first through the portal with a pair of Ms E's shears and immediately entered berserk mode, snipping, cutting, and chopping everything in her way. Sevan bravely entered the portal with bare gloves and plastic bin bags. He meticulously captured the defeated brambles and put them into sacks, which was not easy as even the cut brambles fought back, hooking to Sevan's clothes with their spikes.

The warriors had limited time, as it was the shortest day of the year, to win the tournament. They had to knock the brambles out for good. With the help of Amphibian, whom they'd rescued on the way, and a newly discovered rake, Sevan and Kash pressed on and eventually reached the brick wall at the far side of the arena.

When the sun set and the rain came, the battle was over. The surviving brambles retreated to the left side of the arena. Everyone was certain that the light would return to Outworld and to Ms E's garden the following day.

Arriving at Miss M's flat and peering in through the front door, to Kash and Sevan it looked packed with stuff. Good thing that they were on a mission to declutter and take donations to a local charity shop.

At first, a set of bags were ready on the landing for donation, filled with clothes and bags. Miss M said that this would be all for today as the bags were heavy. The mission description had said something about heavy books too though, so Sevan asked if there was more to help with. There was, so Kash and Sevan explained that they had the time to do more for Miss M today and she decided to prepare another batch for when Kash and Sevan returned.

The mission was originally listed for 2 or 3 GoodGymers and on the way to the charity shop, the duo found a woman with skates who took some of the weight off them. The now trio speedily made it to Fara and their donations were gratefully received.

For the second round, the donations were more eclectic. Miss M had found a pressure cooker, some curling tongs that historians would be interested in, a saw (not donateable), clothes and more bags. There were also 3 heavy boxes full of books that Sevan helped lift out of the hallway cupboard. Those 3 steps to the cupboard were as far as he or Kash went into the flat during the mission.

The first box from the cupboard was full of novels and the next 2 were a bit lighter and full of... handbags! Miss M could've started her own handbag shop as Sevan estimated that they may have donated 40 of them during the mission. Another quick run to the charity shop with the second set of unnecessary items left the charity shop workers and Miss M very happy.

Today was the last Junior parkrun before Xmas and Santa had come to town early. There was lots of fancy dress on show at Pitshanger Juniors from the volunteers and also the runners 🤶⛄🎅.

Steph, Harvey and Sevan spread Xmas cheer as marshals, encouraging the runners around the course and making sure they made it around safely. At the other end of the naughty-nice spectrum, tail walkers Kash and Maria turned one little girl into the Grinch 👹.

The girl didn't want to complete the course, didn't want to be spoken to and didn't want to be followed by the tail walkers, which is difficult as that's the whole point of their role. She was being a bit mean and definitely not in the Christmas spirit. Maybe she has tail walker phobia? Her grandma said that the child would drop out, so the tail walkers passed her, then 15 minutes later, she was still working her way around the course. After reaching the funnel, Kash went to find the grouchy child and carefully supported them to get to the finish.

Ms K was happy to see Team Sevan & Kash again, after a while. The lady had known the two as experts in tech support and decluttering. But would she entrust them with building flatpack furniture? She had to, as three or four different IKEA units had been delivered to her flat, all mixed together. And they were not small pieces to assemble as a single person.

The priority over the bed and a pair of bedside tables was a double wardrobe - in fact, two double wardrobes! To add to the confusion, both wardrobes were custom designs, each with a different setup inside.

Sevan and Kash started by building the outer wardrobe case. They spent most of their time figuring out which of the countless pre-drilled holes were meant for the fixings. Eventually, the box came together nicely, with minimal screws adjustments, just in time, after Ms K printed the custom design instructions for the shelving, after battling with IKEA customer support for almost an hour.

Knowing they wouldn’t complete the job, but determined to give Ms K at least a minimum space to start putting the clothes away, Team S&K spent extra time at the task to install shelves and a hanging rail in the unit they’d built. The inside of the wardrobe was functional. Sadly, the GoodGymers had to leave assembling the door for another occasion - hopefully, GoodGym would be able to finish the wardrobes before Christmas or at least before the New Year.

Ms C had asked GoodGym for help weeding her garden, which didn't look too bad after another volunteer had visited recently. There were still lots of small bits to do in the gravel and cracks between the paving to keep Kash & Sevan busy. It sounded too easy though, so Ms C added another task, looking after her rose bushes.

One of Ms C's rose bushes was too large, growing over the fence and drooping over onto the pavement behind. Another she had concerns about after some feedback.

"I was told the small rose bush is dead. Is it?" - Ms C
"No, it has green leaves. It's alive." - Kash
"It only ever has 1 flower" - Ms C
"You can adjust your expectations of it"
"Have small expectations and you'll be happy" - Sevan

Ms C agreed and the small rose bush was saved. The larger rose had a large trim coming as Ms C produced some secateurs, a large saw and a step ladder. Kash started trimming the thinner branches with the secateurs while Sevan pulled weeds.

Half way through, there was a switch of roles and Sevan climbed the ladder with the saw, lopping off the thicker branches and Kash chopped the cuttings into black bag sized pieces. Ms C had some really good bags, emblazoned with "The Beast" and they did have beastly strength as the thorns from the rose didn't make a hole in the plastic.

A task that seemed small at first ended up taking the full 90 minutes. It left Ms C happy with her back garden and maybe looking forward to that single flower to bloom on the smallest rose bush.

The legend has it that deep in the ancient woodlands of Grove Farm, there was a hundred-year-old manhole covering a portal to another dimension.

Five GoodGym daredevils walked, ran and cycled to join Mike the Explorer on his mission to uncover the gate to the multiverse. The quest brought the only survivors of Mike's last month's manhole expedition: Sevan and Kash, as well as couch surfers (but not as you imagine them!), Steph Ducat and James, and a guest from another universe (GoodGym Wandsworth), Kamil.

The team used the cryptic what3words clue that.amuse.adults and a magic staff they hadn't been able to use previously - it looked like a metal detector! Mike demonstrated what the contraption does when it gets in proximity of a wormhole to a different dimension.

Aaa-aah

We heard a cry, which we couldn't tell whether it came from a human, an animal or something entirely out of this world. We had never encountered such a demonic voice.

Did a girl shout?
Was it a cat?

In fact, it was the staff channelling the sounds from the other universe! None of the heroes felt brave enough to wield such a haunted item. Eventually, Sevan, who probably resembled a wizard the most, was tasked with sweeping the staff over the ground to make it shout:

Aaa-aah!

Mike brought another enchanted weapon with him: The Hedge Equaliser, also known as The Brambles' Bane. That was Kash's favourite tool of destruction, and she only dropped it when faced with an even more powerful artefact: The Black Circle. Others might have been fooled and thought it was just a fly-tipped tyre, but the adventurers knew better. The circle must be destroyed (or at least recycled). One does not simply walk into Mordor with a huge ring of rubber - but one can roll it to the border of Grove Farm! Kash volunteered to do so, and probably for the best, as James picked up her sword and did a far better job pushing back a horde of brambles.

In the meantime, once in a while, the explorers kept hearing:

Aaa-aah!

Mike and Sevan dug out some 20th-century treasures from places hinted at by the magic staff, but none of the artefacts resembled a door obscuring an interdimensional portal.

Feeling that the quest to find a manhole was not succeeding, Mike decided on plan B, which involved simply digging a wormhole in a location associated with a primal power source: near the water. Kamil and Steph, with skill and power, quickly created a man-made hole with earthworms inside. A manhole and a wormhole in one? That would do, Mike thought, and, together with the team, planted a legendary tree in the hole: the black poplar.

In case you didn't know, black poplars are very rare, especially the female trees. Mike wanted to restore balance in Grove Farm by closing the gender gap within the tree population. Once the new female black poplar roots itself into the wormhole, it will become a guardian of the multiverse, and GoodGymers will be able to jump to different worlds to do more good - or wreak chaos, perhaps? Time will tell.

We will be back to the magical Grove Farm for more adventures next year, so make sure to join us!