Alan and Kash shopped many times for Mr G as individuals but never as a team - until now! Today's special grocery mission needed two GoodGymers. Alan, as the adult, went to the counter in Chiswick's Sainsbury's to buy some contraband for Mr G - scratchcards, perhaps? In the meantime, Kash was to collect all the other required goods from the supermarket shelves before Alan conquered the queue to the counter, then meet him at the tills. Let the race begin!

Kash knew the layout of aisles with Mr G's favourites by heart - and firmly decided not to be distracted by the sight of pots of reduced-price dhal - yet, Alan caught up with her almost immediately. The only items in the basket so far were cavolo nero, savoy cabbage, breaded chicken breast, breaded cod and chicken & gravy shortcrust pastry pie. It was time to team up again.

While Alan, as the expert on locating Mr G's newest addition to the list, went to hunt down the Taste the Difference Scottish whole rolled jumbo oats (wow, typing the name of that speciality was tougher than 6 km of running during this mission!), Kash found the ready meals. With the protein yoghurts absent from the shopping list this week, the GoodGymers finished the shopping by grabbing a couple of tins of baked beans.

It was our first visit back at Gunnersbury park for 2025, and we had a big challenge in store. In the chilly weather we've been having, a big physical task was just what we needed!

With GGers coming from all over the borough and beyond, we met at a location in the depths of the park to find a massive pile of wood chips waiting for us. Before we could get started we were given a very thorough risk assessment by Jacob, one of the lead gardeners, and were even treated to a rather stylish high vis to wear.

Dividing into groups, we grabbed barrows and spades and got stuck in. As usual, we chatted while we worked, which made the time fly by. Conversations were as varied as ever, from parkrun to training plans and even some rather interesting Guinness world record attempts...

It's amazing to see what can be done when so many people work together, and we had a very efficient spade/barrow system in place. Before long the piles had been decimated and we had several crisp new paths to show for our efforts.

Hard work done, all that was left were the celebrations! Timed to perfection, just before Gus leaves us for a month for glamourous Milan, he achieved his 50 good deed milestone - congratulations! He's gone through several pairs of gardening gloves, managed to do a month of daily 5kms, has forged a brand new cycling habit and has done so much good over those 50 sessions. To mark the occasion Emily made the lemon drizzle to end all lemon drizzles!

If you're looking for some more GoodGym fun this weekend then why not head down to Chiswick eyot to help with cutting and weaving - it's a very fun task if you don't mind a bit of mud!

Also keep an eye on the January challenge - we're doing well but there's still a way to go! What better incentive to book yourself into your next GG session....