What a day it was for the UFO Steelband, who tirelessly rocked the crowds at the Notting Hill Carnival for the whole Sunday! At the end of the long and loud day, the band members had one more job to do: break down their carnival truck and pack up the pans. It can be quite an ordeal after hours and hours of partying, so UFO had reached out to GoodGymers for support. Steph and Kash responded to the call to action and showed up at the storage unit ahead of the estimated time of the truck's arrival. A few band members who had already made it to the disassembly point said that the truck was just behind them. And shortly after - here it was: the UFO carnival vehicle!

Kash hopped onto the truck’s platform to pass down the heavy pans together with the band leader, Jason. And guess who had to catch all of them: Steph! He was scrambling between one descending steelpan and another and hadn’t dropped any of them. That was quite an intense workout! Kash was then trusted with one of two pairs of scissors to snip dozens of cable ties and free the decorative side panels.

After Steph and Kash helped load the steelpans into a van that would transport the equipment to the panyard, they were called to help with creating a giant sushi roll! The huge canvas covering the top of the truck was just being pulled down, and the GoodGymers, together with a big group of band members, ran to catch it. Just before the climax of that operation, it turned out that one cable tie still held the canvas. What a suspense! Ladders were back up, and shortly after, the huge piece of fabric landed in the car park. After the team bedsheet-folding exercise, the time has come for the sushi roll. Kash could certainly tell you how long it took to eventually roll it, and Steph how heavy it was in the end.

Following a slightly awkward moment when Steph and Kash found themselves idly holding ladders they had been asked to bring from the storage, there was time for the band leader’s grand speech. Jason was spectacularly elevated on the van’s lift and delivered an inspiring speech, not forgetting to give a shout-out to our small but mighty GoodGym crew!

Arrived at Mrs R house, which i have been previously on various weeding missions either the front section or in the back garden. Today was the front and on my arrival her neighbour was doing what I was going to do. We had a quick chat before I rang the bell. Got the tools and started removing or scrapping weed in between the brick paved garden. You normally hear about synchronised swimming or gymnastics, but today it was synchronised weeding as both Mrs R neighbour and I were doing the same movements on the front of the 2 houses. During our synchroweed, we had a chat to keep each other company and make the weeding less of a burden especially in the sun. He added an extra task on his side with refilling the gaps with soil and some ciment, we we discussed earlier with Mrs R to avoid the weed and grass growing back in between the paved space. I had to also ask Mr R to move the car as weed underneath and did not want to leave a wild spot of weed.. After the synchroweed we both finished on either side of the small wall the task of removing the unwanted greenery. Perfect score for both of us. Mrs R in the meantime brought me an iced cold drink and think she will be getting services from the neighbour for re cimenting the gaps.

Afternoon mission at Mr E and upon arrival I knew I had been here before some time ago. When Mr E opened the door we both recognised each other. Lat time I was here with my Goodgym partners in crime Sevan and Kash. I was back to clear the back garden from bramble, weed and bind weed. Mr E brought the tools and some extension leads which were all tangled up like the bind weed and bramble around the items on his garden. He said every time he tried to untangle this mess it got knotted up more. You’re knot going to believe the kind of tangling involved. What would my "T"angle of attack be with both the garden and the extension leads? I started with the garden and got the hand mover free of the bramble and bindweed. Did the same with the fence as started to be taken over by brambles and weed. Then attacked the garden and also collected all the apples from the floor as the apple tree was dropping them by buckets. All cleared and we could see the shed at the end of the garden and also the soil in his back garden. Then mission impossible or possible with the tangled leads?! Operation "Tangle trisection" : after a few minutes the knots disappeared as took the right "t"angle to resolve this.

The August conservation day at Grove Farm felt like a proper summer day, after a bit chillier week. Four GoodGymers: Steph, Sevan, Maxime and Kash, were back to continue cutting back the thorny shrubs alongside the lane dividing the woodlands from the meadows at Grove Farm. They met Friends of Grove Farm: Mike, Bharti, Fred and Olena, who was back after a study break. The team of eight started where some of them had finished at the July session.

Ninety minutes of intense trimming, raking and litter picking made a significant difference and left the lane looking tidy and refreshed. As per Mike's suggestion, we have left the plants with berries not cut to make sure the woodland animals would have enough food for the winter months.

We will be back at Grove Farm in September for more conservation work - save the date and sign up now!