Paul and I snuck down to the Community Grocery in North Finchley again this week. An unspecified shipment of goods were expected once again from the Felix Project and we were there to intercept and unload the merchandise.

Wearing our trusty Goodgym disguises, we hung around inconspicuously with Gus at the entrance pretending to be a dog therapy unit. Then the delivery van arrived and we hotfooted it up and down the ramp with cages and trolleys, unloading the shipment.

A parking attended briefly stopped to ask how long the trick would be sat in the electric charging space, but we kept our cool, didn't break our cover, and got the job done in record time.

An excellent way to start the week!

May Anytime Anywhere Litter Pick

A big well done to everyone who got involved in our May Anytime Anywhere litter pick.

This is one of those wonderfully simple GoodGym tasks that anyone can do, wherever they happen to be. A short walk, a pair of gloves, a bag, a litter picker if you have one — and suddenly your local patch is a little bit cleaner.

Across the month we had GoodGymers out and about doing their bit in different places, including Barnet and beyond.

Paul Browning was out in Kidbrooke, south east London, alongside the Quaggy, where he filled three battered “bags for life” from either side of the river. He also pulled out and destroyed around 200 Himalayan balsam plants, which are highly invasive and damaging to river banks — a brilliant bit of extra environmental care while he was there.

Peter Van Tongeren reported his usual combination of “little litter picks out and about” along with some obstacle removal, including heavy canisters.

Sally and Paul also managed to avoid the Champions League final by doing a litter pick — and even found a quiet wisteria-covered pub for a cocktail afterwards, which sounds like excellent reward-based volunteering!

It was great to see people joining in, whether individually, in pairs, or as part of a walk, run or cycle. These small acts really do add up. As the weather gets hotter, more people are outside, bins fill up more quickly, and rubbish can easily spill out or be pulled around by animals. That makes these local litter picks even more valuable.

Thank you to everyone who signed up and took part in May: Harvey, Paul B, Matthew, Paul, Sally, Peter, Jacqui, Richard and Mel.

The June Anytime Anywhere litter pick is already listed, so please sign up if you can. It’s a flexible, useful and very visible way to help look after the places we live, walk, run and enjoy.

Well done everyone — small actions, big difference.

Our first mission cleaning up the Glebelands Open Space in advance of a community gathering started at the corner of the Glebelands Indoor Bowls Club. Jacqui arrived first, beating me to it, soon followed by Fanny with a handy little helper in tow.

We scoured the bushes down the slip road and soon hit the jackpot along the fence along the David Lloyd car park. An unbelievable mess of litter, fast food, plastics, clothes, cans, bottles. Then - out of nowhere! - Paul arrived with Gus (who'd already litter picked a random tennis ball), bringing a second burst of energy. Jacqui and Fanny then had to leave, but - wow! - Richard arrived and boom! We smashed a few more sacks in the last 30min.

We carried the sacks, about a dozen canisters, some signs, a clothes frame and a baby car chair over the corner of the slip road, reported everything and trotted off into the sunshine with a good deed under our belts.

The area still has a lot more work to do, but we have to be careful, as we've been notified by ecologists that there may be important species living in the trash in some of the more overgrown areas. We'll be extra careful around the club house and take advice from an expert when we come back next week.

A small but motivated team of GoodGymers met at the Phoenix Cinema before heading out across East Finchley to support North London Hospice and help promote their upcoming Race The Neighbours community 10 km event.

Despite the intense 30-degree heat, everyone brought great energy and enthusiasm to the session. Armed with stacks of flyers and plenty of determination, we covered a large number of local streets, delivering leaflets to homes and helping spread awareness about the charity run and the important work the hospice does for local families. The warm evening certainly made the task more challenging, but the team kept a strong pace and positive spirit throughout.

During the leaflet drop, we also came across a lost house key that had been left in the keyhole outside. After ringing the bell, we were able to return the key safely to the homeowner, who was very grateful and relieved to have it back.

We gathered afterwards for a well-earned social with refreshments, good conversation, and of course a celebratory cookie to finish the evening on a high.

The session combined fitness, teamwork, and community spirit, while supporting a brilliant local cause and helping encourage more people to take part in the fundraising race next month.

Three Goodgymmers laced up for a start-of-the-week mission at the North Finchley Community Grocery. Based at St Barnabus on North Finchley High Road, this relatively new (8-9 months old) project gets a delivery of food every Monday morning from the Felix Trust (via Volunteers on Wheels) and needs a hand running the trolleys up and down the ramp from the van to the grocery.

We're hoping this will be a regular weekly visit for us to help them out - but no session next week due to it being a bank holiday Monday.

Paul arrived early to do the welcoming, as he also had to leave early. Subham ran 3km (well, 2.99km according to his tracker) from Finchley Central while I had a slightly shorter 1.8km to get there. The delivery was a little later than expected, so we completed the manual handling training and a brief tour of the grocery, courtesy of one of the lovely volunteers.

Then the two of us ferried the trolleys and cages back and forth to the van, with the help of one of the excellent volunteers, Richard. We were done in record time, so we helped Richard unload some of the frozen and fridge food in the store. Then, all done, we jogged off with a spring in our steps for having started the week on such a good note.