The Spy Who Lured Me

Having set up the promo banners and the chairs for the guests at this year's Ealing Wildlife Group Annual Photo Exhibition, four GoodGymers moved onto a more subtle task: advertisement. They disguised their GoodGym tops with green Ealing Wildlife Group bibs and worked undercover outside the Rickyard Cafe to convice the passers-by to become avid participants of the award announcement ceremony at the back of the cafe.

Alaa was the most effective of the quartet, and shared her surprising secret of succeeding in that double-agent job.

"You just keep smiling at the people who already look at the photos at the exhibition."

Alaa, Kash, Sevan and Steph used the time outside Rickyard to marvel at the beavers, foxes, pollinators, snails and birds on this year's award-winning photos. Many pictures, especially those from the abstract category, were stunningly creative.

Just before 1 pm the GoodGym-EWG agents set off to infiltrate the back of the cafe and found Sean, the leader of EWG, already giving the speech. Sean was about to announce the prizewinners of each category in the contest.

The last task of the session was to help out hoovering in the refreshments provided by Ealing Wildlife Group: nachos, tortillas, quiches, biscuits, sausage rolls, falafel, etc. Reducing waste is great for our environment, right?

Sevan, Steph and Kash, having not much to do, popped into a nearby lunch place, then came back to Rickyard around 2 pm to see if there is anything they could help with regarding the tear-down. Surprisingly, the EWG volunteers started the wrap-up early and the only task available for GoodGymers was taking down the last banner they had put at the bandstand!