When I got back to Mrs S's with her shopping this morning, she asked me if I'd passed anyone on the staircase coming up. I wasn't sure if this was an observation or memory test (or both), but could only reply that I hadn't...Mrs S then explained that a nurse had visited only moments earlier to take an armful of blood from her (well a small vial's worth...) and all had gone painlessly...rather like her shopping for this morning (thankfully) - even the sardines were back.

Busy Saturday evening on the Strand and today 4 Goodgymers joined forces to serve frsshly cooked pasta with veggies. 2 of the goodgymers went bananas!!!Guess who? Yes today we had bananas and apples to be given out. To top this we also handed out bread 🍞 and water bottles. Another great session with Gurseva and loads of happy people with full stomachs.

GoodGym Yorkie James was down in London for work. After a quick dash back to his hotel to change into his GGs, he came and met me at Traid on Westbourne Grove. The store receives deliveries on Mondays, then sorts through and hangs the stock up on Tuesdays. James and I caught up with the happenings in each other's lives and reminisced about how this task reminded us of the Acomb clothes swap, a regular task for GoodGym York. During our time at the store we managed to sort and hang up 9 enormous bags full of clothing. Some really cute stuff among them which I was severely tempted by! After we finished at Traid, we took a circuitous wander towards Paddington for a run and some drinks 🍻

...without wings.

Lots of up and down a stepladder this afternoon to help Mr M with removing some roller blinds from his living room and bedroom. Fortunately once I'd climbed the ladder to take a closer look at how the blind units were attached to the ceiling (via a series of push clips that required quite a bit of thumb action to release), then they all descended under a reasonable amount of control as I moved along each frame, and I was then able to unscrew the brackets leaving the ceiling clear for Mr M to repaint the rooms.

He asked me to take a look at one of the doors into his washing machine room that was stubbornly locked at the top for some reason - after a close inspection and applying a good amount of force, I was unable to get the lock to release and was reluctant to force it much further, so Mr M will need to follow up with his landlord on that part.

Last night, GoodGym Westminster tackled food waste and food vulnerability in an impactful evening task. Brenda and I headed down to GAIL's Bakery to collect surplus food that would otherwise have been thrown away at closing time.The generosity of the haul last night was immense. We managed to completely fill two enormous bags with all manner of pastries, sweet baked goodies, and fresh loaves of bread. Heavy cargo in hand, we carried the massive haul across town to meet up with the incredible outreach team at Under One Sky.

Under One Sky is a volunteer-led charity performing vital, life-saving street outreach for people experiencing homelessness across London. Beyond handing out critical food and supplies, their work is incredibly important because they focus heavily on human connection, trust, and dignity.

When we arrived, the organiser told us their team had already prepared 50 fresh sandwiches. They confirmed that the entire lot, along with every single item from our massive GAIL's haul, would be completely gone and distributed to those who need it most by the end of the night.

The great news is that our partnership is growing! From next week, we will be ramping up our support for Under One Sky by making sandwiches and dropping off surplus food directly at their base.Watch this space and keep an eye out for upcoming Westminster sessions—this is a real opportunity to make a big difference on the streets of our community!

A familiar routine for Mr R this afternoon - even the sun had made a re-appearance to take us back to the heights of mid summer - he'd crossed off the bread, then had second thoughts and put it back onto the list, even in deleted form...sardines though seem to be in short supply at the moment across all the shelves, perhaps it's an indicator of something.