Sixteen months have passed since GoodGym Ealing visited the IMPACT Theatre, a place where adults with severe learning disabilities can develop communication skills and confidence through performances on stage and creative arts.

Just like previously, the GoodGymers were contacted as trusted DIY experts when the time came to redecorate one of the art centre rooms - this time, the Creative Health Room, used for activities like yoga.

Three runners, Steph Ducat and Kash, led by Sevan, ran to the task from Ealing Broadway, Amy and Richard biked to Perivale individually, and Maria walked to the session, and then decided she wouldn't mind a few extra minutes in the outdoor gym while waiting for the others.

When task owner Peter opened the door, he was a bit surprised to find a larger group than those who had been visiting in the last few sessions.

"Is this a firing squad?" - Peter.

The arrivals turned out to be peaceful, and they decided to direct their energy towards the walls that needed prepping for painting. Who needs sandy beaches on a hot summer evening when you can have sandpaper! Different heights of GoodGymers came in handy while focusing on different parts of the four walls. One surface needed a particular smooth finish - the wall intended to become a projector display.

The team got to sanding, filling the room with constant rustling and raising plenty of dust. Peter equipped GoodGymers with face masks (who doesn't have a stock of spare face masks after 2020?) to reduce the amount of dust they inhaled.

After all the walls became nice and smooth, Richard fired up Henry the Hoover and did a round around the edges of the room to vacuum up the dust. Peter thanked everyone for the great job, then the GoodGymers ran, walked or cycled home - apart from the Frenchmen and Spaniards, who headed to the pub to catch the last minutes of their countries’ semi-final match.

Next week we are back for an outdoor task - but worry not - we'll be safe in the shade of the Half Acre woods while cutting back the wild summer growth to improve accessibility of the public paths. Sign up now to join us!

Monday, the 13th of July 2026, marked a new era in Mr G's shopping: his groceries were about to enter the digital age!

The regular mission beneficiary, well known to a group of West London GoodGymers for his unusual "book of labels" shopping list, artistic flair, and razor-sharp wit, decided to switch to online shopping. His objective was to supplement, rather than entirely replace, the end-of-the-week GoodGym shopping missions. The hope was that Mr G would be able to buy food more independently, including larger quantities of store cupboard items he couldn’t carry home himself.

Sevan and Kash signed up for this quest to render themselves obsolete as Mr G's shopping helpers - or at least reduce his dependence on GoodGymers' weekly availability.

Two GoodGymers and the beneficiary sat together around a 15-year-old laptop that dictated the pace of the mission, suspensefully displaying a blank browser window for long stretches, keeping everyone on the edge of the fashionable 1930s chairs.

The good news was that Mr G (or someone acting on his behalf) had already set up a Sainsbury's customer account, filled in his address details and special instructions to carry the purchased goods upstairs. Mr G even had the correct details recorded to log into the account. He had also already added a few items to his virtual basket.

During the mission, the GoodGymers introduced Mr G to the ease of using the search box rather than looking up items by category. The gentleman went through the user flow himself with minimal guidance, although he couldn't resist commenting on the website's UX and advertising from the perspective of a former professional in the display and sale of high-end products.

Some of the items Mr G selected for his basket reflected what Kash, Alan or others regularly used to buy in the physical Sainsbury's, but there were also items Mr G wouldn't always have on his weekly list. Chicken korma ready meals turned out to be a huge disappointment, as there were no such products available without a ton of rice in the portion, no matter whether one looked in a store aisle or on Sainsbury's website. There were difficult words like quiche to type and important choices to be made about the toilet paper.

"Cheap, but not just the cheapest one - that looks abrasive!"

Mr G was quick to make decisions about the product alternatives.

"I don't want the Taste the Difference - I cannot taste the difference!"

Eventually, the trio arrived at the checkout. The checkout had even more distractions than the product pages and countless screens to click through, evading the retailer's attempts to sell Mr G even more stuff.

The last hurdle, after selecting the delivery slot, was entering the payment details and navigating the credit card’s two-factor verification, expertly guided by Sevan. In the end, an order confirmation page appeared, resulting in an explosion of cheer entirely unrelated to the World Cup.

The delivery slot was diligently noted down. It was a successful "dry run", as Mr G put it - hopefully just the beginning of an era of greater independence. The gentleman felt much more confident about online shopping after going through the process once, but would love to have someone beside him one or two more times to become more familiar with the flow.