The three of us arrived today fresh from a Community Mission over in East Finchley so between us that’s six Good Deeds in the bag before lunchtime – at that rate GoodGym will have its next 100,000 in no time!

Our host today in Mill Hill needed the roof repaired on her garden shed. She was full of spark and really resourceful and capable, but now into her seventies and with an injured arm, she understandably wasn’t ready to get up a ladder and start hammering nails into things.

Whilst we gathered ourselves from the pretty tough run up there (turns out Mill Hill is up a hill…) we chatted to her about GoodGym and volunteering. She found out about GoodGym at a volunteering fair, where she was looking to help other people. She’d done befriending in the past, so Fay was able to fill her in about potentially getting a GoodGym Coach; and had used her cooking skills to make food for older people before, so I mentioned ‘Food for Life’ and their efforts to provide food for people sleeping rough in London. It was a wonderful start to know we may have managed to recruit a new Coach runner for GoodGym Barnet!

The issue with the shed was that the apex of the roof had a wide gap with nothing covering it so the rain (if we ever have any again) would just run straight in. All the necessary tools were laid out ready for us, so in no time we were measuring-up, marking the felt out with pink kiddies’ chalk, trimming it to size and then up the ladder to do the business.

Whilst we were there our host had us move her grandchild’s trampoline aside so she could cut the grass underneath. It was quick work, but it exposed a swarm of slugs who’d probably never known direct sunlight their whole lives and were now fleeing (as fast as slugs can flee…) Given that our host had chillis, apples and even guavas growing in the garden, we scooped up the hungry slugs with a brick trowel and put them in the shade of the garden waste bin.

With two jobs done and a potential Coach runner recruited, we enjoyed the pear drops and banana flavoured ice poles she sent us away with as we ambled through the heat back down the hill to Finchley.