The mission briefing mentioned that Mrs P was an absolute diamond, and it couldn't have been more true! I gave her a quick call beforehand just to let her know when I would be showing up and she was most helpful in offering to provide a mask which meant the scarf I was planning on bringing with me was no longer needed.

As I arrived she was well set with a mask, an offer of a drink, a mobile phone and a number of tasks for us to tackle together.

The wonderful lady that she is, she has gifted her laptop to her grandson for his studies and found herself uncertain on how to do some key activities on her phone and without anyone close to her being able to help her in person. Which is where GoodGym stepped in, and I was lucky enough to go along for this mission.

The brief was to help her through an online Tesco order, and instruct her in this from a safe distance. From a distance of 2 metres away this wasn't as tricky as I expected as the smart phone screen was very clear and the font generally large. We were lucky enough to snag a slot for tomorrow morning at 8am so she accordingly loaded up on a combination of fresh produce and heavier items. With a suitably high minimum spend it meant she stocked up on plenty of groceries and household items that should serve her well for the foreseeable future.

After that we rattled through a number of key phone functions including how to take and view photos, along with removing pesky notifications and then she had a couple of things she wanted to treat herself to in the lockdown period. So we downloaded the Amazon and Argos apps and put them on the front page of her phone for easy access. We were able to create accounts and purchase a delightful Japanese Anenmone for her garden which she was most excited about the prospect of that arriving next week. We also picked up a particularly stable shopping trolley for her to use when she will be able to safely venture out to do a spot of shopping herself.

Finally, from the back of the notebook she was making copious notes in, she dug out a Lottery ticket from a draw in early April when there was a rollover and she had chanced her luck by purchasing a ticket. 5 weeks later she still didn't know if she was sitting on a potentially life changing prize winning haul and wanted help checking the results. The anticipation was palpable as she scrolled down the list of draw results to discover that she had in fact matched zero numbers and the paper ticket was actually worthless. Alas! It was fun while it lasted.

All the above was interspersed with plenty of delightful nattering about many topics ranging from her love of history, and audiobooks (and audiobooks about history) as well as her life growing up (which was fascinating) and the various places we had travelled to.

It was such a delightful evening that flew by, and she was most grateful for the help which will hopefully give her more control and autonomy in these challenging times. At the very least she has a few exciting deliveries to look forward to in the coming days.