A much milder Monday afternoon in west London today for Mr R's weekly shop - as always he was well prepared and even had in his hand the tin of sardines that he wanted - we do like visual references! For some reason Little Gem lettuces remain hard to find in this corner of London, and Mr R was happy not to have any substitute - and so I was soon back with treasure in hand, which included plentiful sources of vitamin C. We had a good chat at the door about the various (joint related mobility) challenges he's currently dealing with, and I wished him well for another week.

To round off the weekend, Kash and Sevan were shopping for a new beneficiary, Mr N, who suffered with Asperger's syndrome. It made it hard for him to go to crowded places as they made him anxious, so he'd requested help from GoodGym to deliver his weekly shop. As an Iceland shopper, his groceries ended up being quite bulky and heavy. Having 2 people and pairs of hands was actually really helpful to get everything back to Mr N's flat.

Inside the flat Kash and Sevan were curious why Mr N had asked them to buy dog food when they could see cat feeders and litter trays on the floor. It turned out that Mr N didn't actually own any pets at all. He was caring for stray animals in the community, who he found to be much more agreeable (and less destructive) than humans. The dog food was for a local fox that Mr N had taken a liking to and the cat feeders were for a couple of strays that had been abandoned by another resident in his block. Despite having his own problems, Mr N took the time and effort to care for others in his neighbourhood, but only the ones living good lives.

After regularly shopping for Ms D on a Thursday morning for so many months, for various reasons Friday has become our new day to meet, although as she put it "it's fine, I'll always be in". This week she was well prepared, in spite of having to deal with a last minute laundry machine issue that her kindly neighbour had managed to fix. It had turned cold out, so it was a brisk walk up the Edgware Road and around the aisles, and before long I was back with her treasure for another week for which she was, as always, extremely grateful.

It was a happy new year to Mrs S who was in good spirits, in spite of finding herself housebound due to the cold weather and icy conditions, and her natural desire to avoid any risk of another fall after last year's little incident. She was keen to tell me that her daily exercises to restore strength in her various repaired joints are going well but I implored her to sit tight, as today was proving particularly blustery!

It was then the usual dictation of the list, which I took down in my best handwriting, and her explaining a few specifics (including how to properly pronounce Skyr...) - familiarity is now helpful in this regard, both of Mrs S's wants, and what's to be found in the aisles of the world's politest supermarket.

For our first group session of the New Year we were full of energy, despite the cold, and back at our regular task - St Andrew's.

We arrived to find the energy levels at the centre were equally as high, and there had even been a new arrival - Spikey the bearded dragon! We were treated to a meet and greet with Spikey later on, but first there was a task to do.

The youth club has recently been given a grant to buy a whole load of new kitchen equipment, but first they had to get rid of all of the old stuff cluttering up the cupboards.

We kicked off by emptying out all the old gadgets and mixers, blenders and sandwich makers, before carefully testing each one to make sure they worked.

Then came the cull, the cleaning and the uncovering of a fabulous new cheese grating machine that youth manager Adrian was very happy with indeed!

With everything cleaned and sorted we organised the cupboards and there was just a time for an audience with Spikey. He gratefully accepted his January feast of mealworm and crickets as we admired him, before heading off into the freezing night.

Next week we're back transporting food to rough sleepers - hope to see you there!

A welcome return out west to visit Mr R, who unfortunately managed to pick up the lurgy (technical term) over the festive period, so we had a suitably socially distanced chat, before I took his list, money, reusable bag, and photos of the specific coffee and bread that he wanted, and set off out towards chilly Maida Vale.

I was delighted (as much for the run report title) that a bag of lemons was high on his list, although Little Gem lettuces proved scarce, as did Tesco's own brand of butter, for which I had to make a substitute of a single block of unsalted Lurpak (at twice the price!). Mr R, as always, was extremely grateful for the assistance, and I wished him well in his ongoing recovery.