A lush Sunday evening saw four Goodgymmers help wheel in the big bins that had collected the detritus of the street Fayre.

A wonderful time taking out the trash (or at least parking in a side street) was capped off with taking the time to relax and socialise with a quick drink.

Did you know that Jim Marshall, a guitar amp innovator, dubbed "the Father of Loud", worked in Hanwell? Marshall passed away in 2012, but his legacy of loud lives through a non-profit, free one-day festival: the Hanwell Hootie. On Saturday, live music was heard all across the town, from a local park, through a "busking boat", numerous pubs, a church and even a library. Loud in a library? Liberating, isn't it?

The Hanwell Community Library was the first place where six GoodGymers convened the next day after the festival to help with the teardown. Divya, who cycled to the task, beat everyone else to it. Anuj ran from the North-West and the rest of the runners from the East (think Acton junior parkrun).

One GoodGymer was coming from further East than that! John, a guest from Camden, ran from his area to us and, when reaching the library, he totalled nearly 20 km, thanks to a spontaneous decision to do an extra community mission in Ealing! Both John and Steph are training for next week's Hackney Half, so getting to the tasks on foot is a nice motivation booster for them.

Having quickly taken down the hessian that Sevan and Kash had put over the books on Friday, the group walked to Sandy Park where the task owner, June, awaited with a multitude of activities:

• Taking down four tents
• Cutting cable ties using various tools
• Loading vans with boxes and folded gazebos
• Riding at the back of the van
• Organising the reusable Hootie-themed pint cups into boxes
• Pondering whether the soggy, beer-scented cardboard is recyclable
• Playing a game with the cups that Steph can explain better

The Hootie team supplied us with water and fruit to keep our energy levels up to a good standard in the direct sun and after all the running. June thanked us for our contribution to the Hootie and invited us to a post-Hootie catch-up for volunteers later. The GoodGymers headed towards the Clocktower in Hanwell for some coffee and food, after which some of us were ready for either more tasks, running, cycling or an afternoon nap.

That's where the GoodGym at Hootie 2024 story ends. Hanwell will remain a quiet town until next year. But who knows!

Today's Acton Junior parkrun involved a game of chicken between a Greener Ealing truck collecting waste bags in Acton Park and an army of charging children. The scene was set when, after the children had been released at the start, the truck decided to drive onto one of the paths of the course.

When the Greener Ealing truck arrived at the first bin it stopped to one side, then, further along at the second, the driver decided to park diagonally across the path of the children. As the runners approached, the driver and children stared each other down. Who would yield? One of the regular volunteers, Jane, fearing an epic clash ran over to speak to the driver. It's not known what she said, but it was probably something like "those children can be terrifying. Get out of here while you still can!"

The driver took another look at the neon clad kid leading the charge and decided to take Jane's advice. He got off the path as quickly as he could, which meant going cross country onto the grass.

With that out of the way, it was a pretty normal Junior parkrun. Kash, Steph, John, Joanna, Michelle and Sevan were marshalling, with Divya on finish tokens and Chikako taking the role of VI Guide.

Bathed in glorious sunshine, Compton Terrace Gardens looked rather nice on Saturday morning - apart from those pesky weeds! The small, scrubby plants dominated the growing areas, starving all the nice ones of goodness, and generally making the place look a mess.

Agata joined me from Hackney and within two and a half hours we'd filled four green bags and a wheelbarrow. There was also time for some planting. And we had a nice chat.

Join us next month, and see if we can help the Gardens get among the medals for Islington In Bloom 2024.