Yesterday’s group meet-up at the Tiny Forest can only be described as: HOT. SWEATY. HEROIC.

The weather was absolutely boiling ☀️🔥 — the kind of heat where you start sweating just thinking about moving. But did that stop us? Absolutely not.

Before we even got to the gardening part, Jalal decided the best way to arrive at the gardens was via a full-speed sprint 🏃‍♂️💨 One minute we were casually walking…The next minute we were in an unexpected cardio session. By the time we arrived, everyone was out of breath, slightly confused, but somehow fully ready for battle 😂

We got straight to work tackling the other half of the Tiny Forest, pulling weeds left, right, and centre. It was proper hard work, especially in the heat, but the forest is looking better already 💪🌿 Special shoutout to Chau, who arrived like a gardening professional with her handheld shovel 🔧🌱 That little shovel turned out to be the MVP of the day, helping dig out all the stubborn weeds that refused to leave peacefully.

At one point, Jalal entered into direct combat with a giant weed. It was man versus nature.

There was pulling. There was twisting. There was determination. There may even have been emotional damage.

In the end, Jalal got most of it out after a very intense struggle 🌿🥊 The weed put up a strong fight, but victory was ours.

After finishing up, we ran back to the station at top speed again 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️💨 And then… HELICOPTERS 🚁🚁🚁 Loads of them in the sky. No idea what was happening — maybe someone was on the run, maybe it was an action movie filming, maybe Jalal’s weed finally called for backup. Whatever it was, we suddenly found ourselves running EVEN FASTER back home 😂

Tiny Forest: 0 Us: 1 🏆

The last mission of the day for Kash and Sevan had an intriguing title, "Cut, trim and shape garden". How does someone shape a garden? Would they become garden designers? The GoodGymers needed to find out and arriving at Mrs J's home, they could guess what was meant. There were two trees that had been shaped like balls.

Mrs J greeted them and explained that she'd become partially sighted 18 months ago. It meant that she could see some things well and other things were more difficult. Gardening was no longer possible for her and that was tough as she loves gardening, which the GoodGymers could still tell by looking around. Under the cover of grey clouds, Mrs J eyes told her that was too dark to do any work. For Kash and Sevan, even though it was overcast, there was definitely enough light for a few more hours, so they got started.

As expected, Mrs J wanted the GoodGymers to reshape the topiary at the front of the garden. The balls had grown and lost their shape, so an expert was needed to smooth their fuzzy edges. As Kash loves trimming hedges, Sevan volunteered her for the task, leaving him to the "cut, trim" part of the mission.

Kash grabbed Mrs J's shears and a step ladder for the high work, starting with the camellia tree. Sevan worked in the flower bed below, pulling out weeds and having a steady drizzle of camellia leaves and dead heads land around him. As Kash reviewed her work from different angles, trying to create the perfect sphere, Sevan moved onto the other flower beds and trimming the bushes and shrubs in Mrs J's front garden.

Part way through the mission, the pitter patter of camellia leaves changed to the more traditional raindrops falling on the GoodGymers' heads. Mrs J came out and suggested to Kash and Sevan that they stop. As the rain was light and there wasn't much left to do to complete Mrs J's 3 priorities, they powered through to achieve Garden Shaper status and leave Mrs J's garden weed free.

Last night’s volunteering session at Bassuah Legacy Foundation started in the most British way possible… by talking about the weather for a solid few minutes 😄 One minute sunshine, the next wind and rain — classic!

When we arrived, we discovered we’d just missed the BBC apparently 🎥😅 Timing is everything!

Once inside, we split up to tackle different jobs around the shop:

🛒 I took charge of the shop front and even managed to sell an umbrella to a customer — honestly, given the weather, it practically sold itself ☔😂

👕 Meanwhile, Matthew, Kesani and Jalal were hard at work downstairs sorting through clothes and clearing space in the corridor. We separated items ready to sell from those to be recycled, while also clearing out rubbish and making the whole area feel far more organised 🙌♻️

By the end of the evening, the difference was huge — more space, more sorted stock, and less clutter for Tina to worry about 💛

📸 Best of all, we left Tina in such a great mood she didn’t want us to go! Plenty of laughs, smiles, and selfies to finish the night off too 😄✨

Another brilliant evening of teamwork and community spirit — already looking forward to the next one! 💪

What a session! We met at Shepherds Bush station and made our way over to the Masbro Centre for a proper spring clean. 💪

The task list was packed: we tackled the windows till they sparkled, swept the outside areas, hoovered the corridors, cleared all the tree debris, and made sure the plants got a good watering 🪟🧹🪴. Everyone got stuck in and the place looks so much brighter.

Big shoutout to Kesani on their first GoodGym run tonight! 🎉 We had a great chat about AI on the walk over. And reminder: you can absolutely walk to the task if running isn't your thing - all paces welcome. 🚶‍♀️🏃‍♂️

We even had a mini photoshoot courtesy of Rob 📸 - check out the photos in the report for our best cleaning poses and victory smiles!

Well done to everyone who came out. Masbro Centre is looking fresh and ready for the community thanks to you all! 🙌

A very pleasant sunny morning was the background for Ana and I to move a double mattress and divan base from an upstairs bedroom down two flights of stairs and outside for a local council collection - Mr A's wife was on hand to guide us on what she wanted doing.

After moving a single mattress and bed that were lying on top of the double bed into the next-door room, we got hold of a rather limp mattress (which did have handles though, always a bonus) and managed to navigate that down the stairs and into the garden.

The divan base we discovered folded in two, but wouldn't split apart - although we gave it a good go by cutting through the material, only to frustratingly discover a rather large spring ran down the middle, and we'd still be there tomorrow if we started unwinding it...

Not to be deterred, and reciting the GoodGym mantra that it must've somehow got into the room, we folded the base in two, moved a wardrobe to open the door wider, and shuffled our way down the flights of stairs, taking advantage of the fold in the middle to manoeuvre around a u turn on the landing, and parked it in the garden, propping the still floppy mattress next to it.

Some polythene sheets were provided to cover it in case of rain, and we applied our wrapping skills as best we could to stop it blowing away. Mr A's wife was delighted with our efforts - we were both just glad to have solved all the various parts of today's divan puzzle!

Last night’s session was all about getting our hands dirty (literally!) and giving nature a helping hand 🌱💚

We headed to the Tiny Forest at Norland Open Space to tackle a tennis court-sized area of weeds — all in the name of boosting biodiversity in the space 🌼

💪 Matthew, Jalal, and I got stuck in and managed to clear half the area, which felt like a serious win!

🌾 And when we say there were weeds… we mean it. We built piles nearly half the size of me 😅 — a proper jungle before we got going!

🐌🕷️ As we worked, we discovered loads of wildlife — spiders, snails, and caterpillars — a great sign that the biodiversity here is already thriving and ready to flourish even more 🌿✨

🌬️ The evening wrapped up with a sunny but very windy run back, the kind that makes you feel alive (and a little windswept!)

All in all, a brilliant effort from the team. Excited to keep the momentum going and get the Tiny Forest looking absolutely superb! 🌳💫