We had multiple jobs to do at Strand on the Green School last night — finishing off painting the nursery, moving a huge terrace-full of old furniture and toys down the stairs to the skip, and hedge cutting. Three different jobs, three skill sets, no problem.

We ran over to the task where we met caretaker Clare and got straight to work. Michelle, Breda, Lucy and Emily tackled the nursery painting, Jon, Kash, Maxime, Chris, Jonny and Fran became an efficient furniture-moving conveyor belt up and down the stairs, while Gus and Luis turned hedge cutting into an art form outside.

Within just 45 minutes all three jobs were complete. With 12 of us working for 45 minutes, that’s the equivalent of 9 hours (or a full working day!) of work saved for one caretaker — and Clare was delighted with how much time we’d saved her.

With the jobs done, it was time for a lower body blast with three different intensity options to keep everyone moving. We’re also all still wondering what Michelle’s mysterious final blue item could be… answers on a postcard.

After that, we headed back to base for stretches on the grass and a well-earned cool down.

Next week we’re off to Gunnersbury to sort compost — see you there for what will hopefully be a slightly cooler task!

With temperatures hitting 35 degrees, this was never going to be an evening for speedy runs. The team wisely swapped the run for a walk to the task, arriving slightly later than usual - but with the mission still being crystal clear.

Sevan: “Everybody be cool, this is a litter pick!”
Kash “Any of you rubbish tricks move and I'll bin every last bit of ya!”

The assignment was simple: clear the alleyway all the way down towards Park Royale, tackling the usual collection of discarded fast-food wrappers, cans, and mystery debris lurking in the bushes.

As the team spread out with litter pickers and bags, accompanied by Harvey’s improvised Dick Dale & The Del-Tones beatbox soundtrack, the conversations drifted into full-on Tarantino territory.

Steph: “You know what we call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”
Harvey: “You don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?”
Steph: “No, man, we got the metric system. We wouldn't know what a Quarter Pounder is.”
Harvey: “What'd you call it?”
Steph: “We call it a Royale with Cheese.”
Harvey: “Royale with Cheese. What do you call a Big Mac?”
Steph: “Big Mac's a Big Mac, but we call it Le Big Mac.”
Harvey: “Le Big Mac! Ahaha, what do you call a Whopper?”
Steph: “I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.”

The GoodGymers didn’t need to go into Burger King either. Burger King came to them. Wrappers, drink cups and abandoned fries cartons flooded the top section of the alleyway. Sadly, despite reaching Park Royale, the team found very little actual “Royale with Cheese” evidence, only Captain Morgan bottles coming in all shapes and sizes.

Among the haul were disposable vapes, sweets packaging, beer cans and enough assorted rubbish to fill three bags, alongside a couple of small fly-tips cleared from the passage. Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, some mysteries remained unsolved. Who leaves this much litter behind? Why were there so many Captain Morgan bottles in one place? Who planted a Heineken tree? And most importantly: where was the cheese?

Still, there was good news beneath the grime. Compared to the previous visits, the alleyway was noticeably cleaner, proving that repeated community action really is making a difference. The path to Park Royale may not have been paved with gold, but after one sweaty evening with GoodGym, it was at least a little less paved with rubbish.

Mr E was a collector of literature and other reading material. His flat was full of papers. Books, magazines, leaflets, newspapers. All piled up on tables and filled in bags. It was time for Mr E to let go of them a little bit at a time.

When Kash and Sevan entered his flat, Mr E pointed to the big problem that he had, some thick blue rubble bags on his sofa. They needed to be recycled, so the GoodGymers lugged them down the stairs and as the contents spilled out into the recycling bin, they looked at what was inside. All of the bags were filled with newspapers. Old ones, from 2014, 2015 and other editions that Mr E must have found notable. One that jumped out at Kash was from 2009, pronouncing the death of Michael Jackson. Unlike (or like) Michael Jackson, the newspapers were both black and white and they were all getting recycled, no matter how newsworthy their stories once were.

With that quick task completed, Kash and Sevan offered to help Mr E sort through the piles of papers and books sitting on his dining table. Some of them Mr E said that he paid a lot of money for and the valuable ones, he wanted to donate to the library. Together, they managed to dispose of a few leaflets, but Mr E wanted to work through the rest once he was in better health. That meant that the classic Around Ealing magazines - in colour - will have to wait for next time.