The first Reduce & Recycle Hub - an Acton-based initiative to reduce waste and live more sustainably - in 2025 takes place on the second, not the usual first Saturday of the month. A tactical move? The January hub has a special seasonal event: unloved gift swap! After the Twelve Days of Christmas, we enter the season when bare Christmas trees suddenly start populating the pavements and supermarkets experience a reenactment of year 1066 where minced pies are the Anglo-Saxons and easter bunnies are the Normans. It feels like the right time to live the principle that one man's junk is another's treasure and let go of those unwanted presents.

Tonight, GoodGym Ealing, reinforced by GoodGym Hounslow, united in Acton to promote the make love, not waste mindset and increase the chances that no Christmas gifts in Acton go unloved. The runners Mohamed, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash met the guests from Hounslow, Alan and Michelle - both critical to distributing all 400 leaflets before our fingers get frozen!

The temperature was dropping close to 0 degrees. We felt it in our fingers, we felt it in our toes - Well, the chill was all around us and so the feeling grew! Only Kash got to wear an extra layer - and not just any layer, but the legendary item worn so far only by Ana from GoodGym Hounslow: the Cape of Thousand Deeds of West London crafted by a skilled GoodGymer Milly. Kash couldn't part with her backpack, which resulted in quite a unique sight!

You look like the glamorous version of Hunchback of Notre Dame - Michelle

To distribute all 400 leaflets, the GoodGymers went down a different avenue than usual: namely Avenue Road, Avenue Crescent, Avenue Gardens, Mill Hill Road and Heathfield Road. Thanks to having six people on the team, the task didn't take ages and everyone could spend the rest of the time allocated to the group run sampling the Acton's delight: karak chaii! The chaii places became a staple of post-Acton tasks in winter and the Ealing folk wanted to introduce the Hounslow neighbours to that treat. Alan, who kindly got us a whole round of chaii, was amazed by how magnificent beverage that was!

Having dealt with a task of such gravity - searching for recycled love for unloved Christmas gifts - the team deserved a little snack. As the lyrics of Habanera from Bizet's Carmen go Love is a rebellious bird that naan can tame, Kash got some cheese-filled naan and tried to slice it for sharing in the utmost messy way. Taming melted cheese does not come as easily as a thousand good deeds.

Next Tuesday we are visiting Walpole Park to dig out some bramble roots - sign up now for next week's group task! The week after we are back in Acton for another recycling-themed initiative: creating the Reduce & Recycle Hub banner and work on other upcycling crafts that benefit local communities.