After a couple of months off, GoodGym Ealing returned to Care4Calais to find a huge stack of new donations to be sorted. It's like they'd been kept waiting and adding up for the next GoodGym session.

First though, all of the children's clothes had been through the wash, so they were recategorised and bagged first to clear space. Then it was onto the new donations, most of which were supposed to be women's clothes. As always, the expectation of what was in the bag and reality didn't always match, so the team needed to figure out what was what.

"This is XL, but I can't decide if it's men's or women's." - JP
"Does it have the bum design for women?" - Task Owner Tamzin

If there wasn't a clear women's or men's size on the labels, the arm lengths or the bums were a good steer on which gender the clothes were meant for. Even then, it wasn't totally clear in some cases. Cue some puzzled looks over these and also what did or didn't qualify for the winter coat category.

As well as the expected dresses, vests and cardigans, the team found:

• Men's and children's clothes, of course
• Donations in unusual sizes from a film set
• Toys, which turned into a distraction for the big kids
• An ashtray (clean, thankfully)
• Bucket hats
• Lots of items that went onto the "to wash" pile

After almost 2 hours of solid sorting, it was time to find space for the clothes. The store room was thankfully not bursting at the seams like during the last Care4Calais session, so putting away was fairly straightforward with everyone chipping in.

The next Care4Calais session is in 2 weeks and you can sign up here to help the charity, its clients and also critique other people's fashion choices.

A bright Halloween morning saw 5 GGers gather at the Short Lot allotments by Kew Bridge.

The team welcomed us and explained that help was needed on some of the lots held by older members who were less able to manage heavier physical work.

Chris and Adam got to work on one plot while Alex and Manuela took the other, soon joined by JP. We got stuck in to weeding and tidying and soon saw the fruits of our labours - literally, where there were gooseberry and raspberry bushes.

A solid good deed on a bracing morning was rewarded with tea and coffee, before we headed off for a spooky Saturday.

Another mission helping to set up the H&F food bank at St Simon’s church