Clearing up the view was the mission, and swiftly it was done. The tree had grown quite a bit since last cut so my job was to cut the most i could. now not much is left and the garden view can ve enjoyed from the bench! As some time was remaining I tidied up one more bush and was done for the day.

Ms J's flat looked hugely better today compared to the first time that Sevan came in April. The living room was mostly box free for a start. Alan joined him this time to help Ms J unpack and organise whatever was still boxed up in Ms J's bedroom. The priority for today was to find kitchen equipment.

Without any idea of the contents of each box, a random one was taken to look through with Ms J. It had an interesting mix of items, vases, scarves and underwear. The vases were put on display and the 2 men present decided to leave the underwear for another day as it wasn't useful cookware.

Onto box 2, which contained bedding. Ms J was still light on storage, so emptying this box would need to wait too. Ms J told the pair that she didn't know what was inside the remaining boxes as they were stacked on top of each other. With no drawers or wardrobes for the clothes, that was a tough problem that would need an ingenious solution.

While Alan chatted away with Ms J and moved onto the next box, containing a Ms J favourite, cosmetics, Sevan grabbed a kitchen knife and got creative. Ms J had 4 wardrobe boxes where some of her clothes hung. Sevan used his (non-existent) surgical skills to cut a window into the side of each one, letting Ms J see what was inside.

There was definite progress, with a lot of packing materials taken to be recycled at the end of a mission. The boxes that weren't sorted through were labelled with what types of things were inside and none of them looked to have kitchen equipment, so that remains a mystery for next time.

Four Goodgymers from Hounslow and Ealing were so keen to hang out with each other they signed up for not one but two tasks helping out Traid with their stock clearance. TRAID is an environmental charity working to tackle and solve the problems caused by producing, consuming and disposing of clothes.

After finishing up at the Hammersmith store, Sevan and Kash set off on foot, while Chris and I jumped on our bikes and headed over to Shepherd’s Bush, where we met Holly.

The five of us got stuck in, removing clothes from hangers, piling the stock into giant boxes and collecting the hangers up and boxing them away. Every season the Traid stores do a rotation and restock and Goodgym has been helping out for several years now.

The team at Shepherd’s Bush are always pleased to see us and within an hour we’ve usually powered through and cleared the store. Tonight was no different.

It was the yearly Age UK summer party, which celebrates the fantastic volunteers that help out week in and week out at the Hammersmith & Fulham branch. So GoodGym were out to help volunteer for the volunteers!

Peter from the charity helped settle us in. It was a slightly chaotic start to the evening, as the weather decided it didn’t want to play ball and the plan of a lovely drinks reception in the garden was thwarted by the British weather. Doesn’t rain for weeks and it decides to pour the day of the summer party, typical eh?

Despite the drizzle, we had a funny old time helping serve drinks to the guests. We then went from pouring Prosecco to plating up pilau, as it was time for food. The Age UK chef had cooked up a fabulous curry feast, with all the trimmings! The room smelt amazing, as Michelle ladled out lamb and Cookie dished out Dahl to the hungry volunteers.

Once everyone was served, we were able to sample the absolutely delicious culinary delights, which were second to naan. All the volunteers were well fed and watered tonight!

Although our tummies were bursting with Bhajis and full of food, we had to keep calm and curry on, as plates needed to be cleared and pudding prepped.

Lizzie made sure everyone still had a full glass, whilst we tidied the tables to the sound of the evening’s entertainment: Lucy was belting out Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra… The professional singer also joined in, although he wasn’t able to do it whilst carrying a stack of washing up!

Dinner service complete, the empty platters were moved back to the kitchen, where they were washed up and Katie and Lucy helped dry the dishes, and put away the plates. The final task for the evening was pudding! Everyone got a table service serving of fruit salad, and Lizzie made sure those who wanted also got a drizzle of cream to go on top.

From a drizzle of cream to the drizzle outside, our evening was over as we cleared up and left the volunteers to enjoy the rest of their party!

Mrs H had a beautiful new patio. Her builders weren't gardeners though and had made a mess of her flower beds. They'd left big gaps between the new wall around the flower beds and the soil inside it and someone needed to fill them in. Mrs H's small palm tree had been knocked over too and was now being propped up or weighed down by some pieces of rubble. Not ideal and nor was the fact that Mrs H's favourite fork had vanished.

As well as the main tasks above, there was some general weeding and tidying to do, which Kash took on, plus removing a dead rosemary bush. Mrs H was also concerned about any trees growing in her garden and wanted to dig them out. Sevan thought that would be quite destructive as it would affect a lot of nearby plants, so instead the pair cut the trunks of any potential trees at ground level, stunting their growth for now. All the while, everyone kept their eyes peeled for the missing fork

With the ground work completed, it was time to fill in the missing soil and make the palm tree more stable. Mrs H's son had had 6 bags (or 360 litres) of compost delivered, so Kash and Sevan got to work, moving the bags and pouring the compost, finishing just in time for the end of the mission. The end result was, no gaps 🙌 and no fork 😢. Despite not finding the fork, it was a great way to start the day, leaving Kash and Sevan filling positive for the missions to come...

A challenge was waiting in Mr R's garden, a petrol mower. It had "Easy Start" emblazoned on it, which may or may not have been true. Mr R claimed it was better than his previous model

"Let's see how good you are at starting" - Mr R

There was only one way to find out. A minute later, partly burned exhaust fumes were wafting around the garden. Nice work Honda (and Kash)!

Kash began mowing the lawn and Mr R had a surprise for Sevan, a well stocked shed containing plenty of tools including a battery powered strimmer. Mr R wanted everything in the flower bed nearest the house to go, which would be Sevan's job. Grass, bushes, bluebells... everything was to be strimmed to the ground. Looking carefully, there were hidden dangers. Statuettes were lurking amongst the plants and needed to be removed before chopping started.

The strimmer was good with grass, so-so with thick bluebell leaves and no good with bushes, so Sevan went back to the tool shed to get some shears and secateurs. In this case, the manual tools worked better. Sevan chopped everything down to size while chatting away to Mr R about his sporting past, the history of the area and Laurel and Hardy, who Mr R was a big fan of. To Kash, they looked identical to characters called Flip and Flap. Mr R said that Kash and Sevan reminded him of the slapstick duo, but who was Laurel and who was Hardy? 🤷

With the main jobs complete, Kash went bramble hunting to clear them from flower beds at the back and sides of the garden, with Sevan joining at the end to complete the task. They were good at starting and good at finishing, leaving Mr R happy with his garden. Success!