Team S&K are back in town for weekend missions to support older residents in their borough. Today's chapter takes them for a 7 km run to Southall, where their first task is weeding in Mrs C's back garden. Mrs C used to be a keen gardener and tended to her flowerbeds herself, but now she has become unwell and too weak to hold a glass of water for longer than a few seconds. Fortunately, GoodGym help is on the way! But what's that? A row of five wheelie bins blocks the path to the garden! The volunteers reshuffle them and eagerly enter Mrs C's backyard with a green waste bin - too eagerly as the bin needs to come back - it belongs to the neighbour! Too much excitement. 😅

Before the weeding commences, Mrs C has a side quest.

Can you break this?

Sure, they can. The breakable object in question is a piece of chipboard. Kash gives it two attempts with a powerful stomp, but the unity of the wood particles is too strong. Sevan tries a different technique - a slam jump! 💥 With three jumps he breaks the board into four pieces. Impressive. Three pieces are small enough to fit into a bin bag but the fourth one needs more work. Kash redeems herself by trying the jump method and ends up with three new smaller fragments of chipboard that can be bagged. So much excitement! 😃

The weed-ridden flowerbed awaits. Sevan makes use of his assets: the height to untangle withered creeping plants from the fence, and patience to remove the weeds growing around the flowers. He is also resourceful - in his hands, a mason's trowel transforms into a hand spade and scissors into a secateur! Kash is more straightforward and grabs the available well-rounded gardening instrument: a fork! With its help, she extracts an old bush root, digs out extensive patches of weeds and turns the soil in areas without any flowers to save. Seven pots get tipped over as there are no plants (except weeds) inside anymore. So much excitement! 😃

Time for the clean-up. The weeds have been bagged regularly, so Sevan and Kash don't end up with a big pile of garden waste to sort out. They have time to sweep the soil off the concrete path. But what's that? Clink! One of the glasses of water Mrs C offered is down, oh no! Too much excitement. 🥲

Mrs C is happy with the mission result, despite the collateral damage. She enquires about the process to get more GoodGym support. Sevan and Kash know there is a second flowerbed full of weeds on the other side. Maybe that one gets a GoodGym treatment in the upcoming weeks too?