After a sonic-speed run to volunteer at the junior parkrun, Steph and Kash swapped their morning coffee (well, Kash did - Steph already had time for two of them!) for a walk to a mission in East Acton.

They were off to help Miss G tackle her neglected front and back gardens to make a positive impact on her mental health. The back garden was a priority, with brambles all over, and a massive fridge and some chairs thrown in the middle.

Seating on the thrones of thorns didn't seem like a good impact on anyone's wellbeing or backsides, so Steph removed the chairs, then put on his mighty bramble gloves to pack away the spiky cuttings Kash was about to produce. Kash grabbed the only pair of shears the two had found at the time and started chopping.

The onslaught on the brambles uncovered a mower, a boomerang (?), a fridge that could fit a human or two (no Harrison Ford found inside) and the only plant that was supposed to grow in the garden. The GoodGymers then raked all the cuttings and bagged them into black sacks.

The back garden looked transformed, and the pair still had half an hour to spare. Steph and Kash faced a big decision: should they make a visible difference in the front garden now, or make the transformation at the back more sustainable? You see, the brambles might have been cut to the ground, but their roots remained, which guaranteed new growth over the warmer months. The GoodGymers refused the temptation of easy front garden wins and opted for doing one job properly. They stayed in the back garden and dug out all the bramble roots they could reach.

Miss G came out to see the result of their 90-minute exploits and was utterly shocked by the change.

Gosh! It looks like a different place! - Miss G.

She couldn't believe what a duo of dedicated GoodGymers could achieve in such a short time and said "gosh!" and "thank you" at least ten times more. Steph and Kash made Miss G very happy, but also left some fun for another GoodGym team to tackle the front garden, hoping that their successors would spend the following mission doing an equally proper job as they had strived to do!

Ms C had asked GoodGym for help weeding her garden, which didn't look too bad after another volunteer had visited recently. There were still lots of small bits to do in the gravel and cracks between the paving to keep Kash & Sevan busy. It sounded too easy though, so Ms C added another task, looking after her rose bushes.

One of Ms C's rose bushes was too large, growing over the fence and drooping over onto the pavement behind. Another she had concerns about after some feedback.

"I was told the small rose bush is dead. Is it?" - Ms C
"No, it has green leaves. It's alive." - Kash
"It only ever has 1 flower" - Ms C
"You can adjust your expectations of it"
"Have small expectations and you'll be happy" - Sevan

Ms C agreed and the small rose bush was saved. The larger rose had a large trim coming as Ms C produced some secateurs, a large saw and a step ladder. Kash started trimming the thinner branches with the secateurs while Sevan pulled weeds.

Half way through, there was a switch of roles and Sevan climbed the ladder with the saw, lopping off the thicker branches and Kash chopped the cuttings into black bag sized pieces. Ms C had some really good bags, emblazoned with "The Beast" and they did have beastly strength as the thorns from the rose didn't make a hole in the plastic.

A task that seemed small at first ended up taking the full 90 minutes. It left Ms C happy with her back garden and maybe looking forward to that single flower to bloom on the smallest rose bush.

All hands were on deck for this morning’s mission. We had an hour to lay out the whole food bank, including:

• Setting up the waiting area (tables and chairs)

• Laying all food and products out on tables

• Organising all boxes ready to restock if needed.

Three newbie goodgymmers (inc myself) nailed the task in half hour! There was a real team effort here between us and the food bank team, and we were pleasantly surprised by the offer of panettone at the end.

Mission: Accomplished

A productive power hour indeed as I joined the team at St Simon's Church in Shepherd's Bush to help set up their foodbank. The time flew by as I put up tables, moved and unpacked crates and sorted items before finally marking up a whiteboard with information on today's product availability.

Another wonderful session with Age UK celebrating their wonderful volunteers and nice to see so many new faces to Goodgym as well!

After welcoming the volunteers and helping to serve up the delectable food we were treated to listening to some wonderful tunes and boogieing along with the others!

We also helped with the cleardown, with some relaxing folk tunes and good conversation had in the kitchen!

Thanks to all and congrats to everyone on their first attendance!

3 goodgymers made their way to the church to find customers outside more or less arguing who was 1st in the line. We did try to calm them down and we did say that the Foodbank was no yet open as too early. They all went back in line. First goodgym session for Serene found Goodgym when looking for local community missions. Welcome to Goodgym. Task was the usual of putting out the large tables, smaller ones with chairs and taking out the boxes from the storage room until the van arrived. Once the van arrived both Jonathan and Steph Ducattrollied the crates from the van into the church. We were not trollied 🤣. Serene was in the meantime helping out with sorting some of the pastries into smaller bags.