After a few weeks of a break, it was my turn to visit Ms F's for her weekly shopping mission. It was good to see her in good spirits after catching up with her friends.

Today's list didn't include the usual Orkney oatcakes and Ryvita, but had a special treat: Bonne Maman blueberry yoghurt, apparently beneficial for the eyes. Unfortunately, the sizes and flavours of the yoghurts in the store didn't match the voucher Ms F had hoped to use. She'd still have a week to redeem it.

Another special request was a discounted pinot grigio wine. I didn't have much luck with getting the product Ms F wanted as the promotion on her favourite had finished. I called Ms F and suggested a different, also discounted, brand that matched the budget and, apparently, was organic. It didn't come up as a surprise to me that Ms F decided to give the organic alternative a try.

Back at Ms F's flat, the lady examined the label, discovering that the wine originated from Sicily. Potential involvement of mafia in the vineyards or production was briefly brought up, but Ms F decided to trust the new brand and try the pinot grigio later with dinner.

The award-winning Ealing Half Marathon is one of the events of the year for runners and supporters in Ealing and across the country. Our group of walkers, wanderers, minstrels, travelers, joggers and runners gathered together for a key job ahead of this year's half on 27 September - advance notice signs of road closures. Yes, sooper dooper important for our supportive local residents to know what's happening on the day.

This was a carefully planned logistical enterprise, with weeks and months (well, minutes and hours) of high level project planning (well, some notes on Harvey's iPhone and jumping on the bus with a bag of signs). Two groups were formed, with members chosen for their specific skills mix after significant testing and modeling (well, the people standing together on one side at our meeting spot, and, erm, the people standing together on the other side at our meeting spot). It helped that we had a range of heights within our team because street furniture (esp. lamp posts) is our bread and butter. There was a slight suspicion that one group was competing with the other to get their share of signs put up first. Or was it that they wanted to get home in time to watch the football? Whatever.

A year out from the last time we fed cable ties together, you wouldn't believe how many different kinds of lamp posts there are! You might not actually care, but you would if the lamp post was too fat to get your cable tie around!

We guided around our section of the half marathon route as the sun set over the West Ealing tall towers (how romantic).

Before we finished, there was just time for Sevan to enact a culturally iconic Bob Dylan music video from 1965 (hence the title of this report). Then, like rolling stones, we blew in the wind, to head off and knock on the heaven's door we call home.

Some decluttering missions disguise themselves as tasks labelled simply as "bed move". This wasn't the case with an urgent mission Sevan and Kash had signed up for Sunday afternoon. It was quite the opposite: a furniture move mission camouflaged itself as "decluttering". Or rather - the task involved both decluttering and dismantling and relocating two divan beds. What a legendary scope! Luckily, the extended team for the job was equally legendary.

Mrs V's daughter, Ms G, arrived seconds before Sevan and Kash finished their run-walk from Pitshanger to Southall at the beneficiary's doorstep. Ms G introduced the GoodGymers to her mum and dad, and proceeded upstairs to show Sevan and Kash what needed to be done. The three devised a plan, with no guarantee that they could complete the whole endeavour in the time available.

Pack the clutter on the Alpha bed in the Alpha room and move the bags downstairs. Dismantle the Alpha bed, take it downstairs and take it outside of the house. Hoover the floor in the Alpha room. Pack the clutter on the Beta bed in the Beta room and move the bags and boxes downstairs. Dismantle the Beta bed, take it to the Alpha room and assemble it there. Make more space in the Beta room.

The Beta room, once cleared, was to house Mrs V’s new hospital bed to reduce the risk of pressure sores, while the Alpha room was to serve as a temporary bedroom for Mrs V and her husband for a couple of nights while the family awaited the delivery of the hospital bed.

At step two of executing the plan, the GoodGymers bumped into Ms R - another daughter of Mrs V, who had just arrived and was ready to lend a hand. The sisters, Ms G and Ms R, directed the GoodGymers to the side of the house, helping store the pieces of what was the Alpha bed out of sight. Then they proceeded to hoover the Alpha room - or at least they intended to. It turned out that Mrs V's hoover hadn't been charged, so the daughters had to resort to instantaneous sweeping while Sevan and Kash moved to step 4 in the Beta room.

When Kash carried a batch of packed clothes found on top of the Beta bed downstairs, she heard a doorbell and opened the door to the third daughter, who came to help.

"It's great to have a team of five," Sevan rejoiced.

While the three sisters, having found three dustpans, frantically removed thick layers of dust accumulated for years, or maybe decades, Kash stepped into the Alpha room with a bold announcement.

"The bed is ready to move!"

The statement was slightly premature, as Kash didn't anticipate what she and Sevan would find between the mattress and the surface of the Beta bed. Similar to the Alpha bed, its counterpart from the Beta room hid stratigraphic layers from different decades under the mattress: blankets, dozens of underwear pieces, a whole layer of colourful rags and even a pillow. Kash struggled to find a logical explanation for the accumulation of the fabrics, while Sevan theorised that the deposits were deliberate and served as a filler to ease the unevenness of the ageing mattress. Clearly, this solution couldn't work forever, and that's exactly what brought the GoodGymers to Mrs V.

Excavating the strata of clothes, rags and blankets by Sevan and Kash to free the Beta bed bought the sisters enough time to sweep the Alpha room.

The Beta room's bed construction, though similar on the surface to the other divan bed, was actually much simpler. It only took undoing two screws to remove the headboard and move the bed piece by piece to the Alpha room. The team completed the critical step 5 with 89th minute on the clock - bang on time! The three sisters were happy to move a few more things around in the Beta room, while the GoodGymers offered to carry the heaviest ones downstairs before leaving the house. The most important thing was that there was enough space in the Beta room to install the hospital bed, and that Mrs V and her husband had a place to sleep before the arrival of the new bed. What a mission it was!

Some of the junior parkrun crew who had met in the morning - and already shared a chatty run, a task and a table in a coffee shop in Acton - decided to stick together for the next session with Care4Calais. Sevan, Steph Ducat and Kash ran 4.5 km from Acton to Hanger Hill to help task owner Tamzin turn unsorted clothes donations into neat parcels with the goods asylum seekers needed most.

The three welcomed Basia to her first group session in Ealing, although she had already had a taste of GoodGym in Richmond. Great to have you with us, Basia, and we hope to see more of you in Ealing!

After a break from Care4Calais in August, when requests for parcels had been rare enough for Tamzin to manage them without our help, we were glad to be back. Tamzin’s dog, Dora, greeted us with vigorous tail-wagging, making it clear that she was just as excited to see us.

Sevan, the most experienced of the group, joined Tamzin to put together men’s clothing packs. The tracksuits bought for the asylum seekers with council funding were anything but vibrant: the jumpers, T-shirts and bottoms were all the same shade of grey. Hopefully, it’s the novelty and comfort of the clothes, rather than their colour, that brightens the recipients’ day.

Meanwhile, Basia, Steph and Kash enjoyed sorting the latest men’s and women’s clothes donations, discovering what curiosities they might find among otherwise sensible and practical outfits. Nothing particularly stood out, apart from a couple of T-shirts bearing some rather rude vocabulary. Perhaps an impressive collection of Lacoste tops?

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and set out for the next chapter of their Sunday afternoon. An indoor session not only helped the asylum seekers receive appropriate clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

Four GoodGymers finished the task ahead of time and headed off to the next part of their Sunday afternoon. The indoor task not only helped ensure that asylum seekers received suitable clothing, but also kept the GoodGymers out of the rain during a brief shower.

The children at Junior parkruns are all characters in their own right. After the start of the of the new school term, there were a lot of new faces. Some fast, some slower, all with their unique personalities.

The volunteers brought their personalities to the parkrun too, with run director Geoff bringing his Wonky Bear, made from reused parkrun t-shirts, others being more casual than usual and Maria stepping forward to lead the first timers' briefing and today's warm up with Kash supporting.

Maria triple-roled today, also barcode scanning alongside Sevan. Divy funnel managed a well behaved group of runners ahead of Joanna who dished out today's finish tokens. Chris and Steph were marshals and Kash was last to the finish, tail walking again.

Today's final runner was quite stop-start. Their mum tried to motivate them around the course and for a while the prize of getting some jelly babies worked and then mum upped the offer to cake. There was also free motivation all around in the universal Junior parkrun power up of high fives 🖐️. Rather than meeting hand with hand, our Junior chose to rush the outstretched paws with a headbutt and had lots of fun doing it.