💥 FUTURE LEADER SOUTHERN COHORT LAUNCHES

To launch the Southern cohort of the Future Leader programme we all came together to help out St Pancras gardens. We did a quick garden tidy up to ensure the area is kept clean for people to enjoy this wonderful green space in the heart of London.

Denzel led a group of runners with Jack leading the group of walkers, with photographer Dave capturing some brilliant shots along the way.

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Future Leaders are young people that will be building leadership skills and care about their community, fitness and social impact. We had people travel in today from York, Plymouth and Cambridge - so amazing to see you all!

🎵 St Pancras Gardens are attached to St Pancras Old Church and have a long history. In 1968, The Beatles were photographed here for a famous series of pictures designed to promote the single "Hey Jude" and the White Album. More recently artists such as Sam Smith have performed concerts there.

🌿 It's a busy place right in the centre of London which attracts a lot of footfall, hence the constant need to keep litter at bay and the paths clear.

🛏 We have all collaborated and made new connections whilst efficiently getting the task done - we also discovered the war of the fallen mattress.

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🙌 Thank you Tyler!
We also had a very special guest speaker - I was joined by the brilliant Tyler Williams-Green for a Q&A session.

Tyler founded The Outrunners Charity in 2015 and shared how he transformed a running club into a charity that last year empowered 1,150+ young people through all their programmes, breaking down deep systemic barriers through fitness, career mentoring and more.

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Huge well done on your 1st good deed Imantha, Ana, Nazifa, Malachi, Tatianna, Luna, Jemima, Javic, Mason, Lubna, Lesley, Rasheed and Jihane.

Such great work everyone 🙌🙌🙌 so excited to see what you all make happen!

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Huge thank you to Havas for allowing us to use their amazing office space for our cohort workshop.

This lovely group met earlier than usual — ahead of England's ill-fated (!) semi final — to make a wonderful difference at Cressfield Close Sheltered Housing :)

They weeded, pruned, dug, and shifted, and they left a brilliant number of ticked-off tasks :)

Thank you, everyone!

In 21st century we encounter rising complexity in most unexpected places. Take a supermarket for example. Ms F sent me yesterday to purchase "Waitrose Baby Jersey Royal New Potatoes". That product had a name made up of six segments! That's three times more complex than my full legal name. I felt so inadequate.

The challenge of remembering that pinnacle of retailer wordsmithing was dealt with by using good old tech: a paper shopping list. After all, those groceries were as simple as taking candy from a baby.

But one question remains unanswered: would Germans be able to make "Waitrose Baby Jersey Royal New Potatoes" a single word? Or maybe two words? Thoughts anyone?

I was convinced that Tottenham Court Road was experiencing its own micro-climate this afternoon, as it felt about 5 degrees warmer walking to Tesco with trolley in tow than it had in the various other corners of London I'd ventured to earlier in the day. Tesco also came good with the four tins of sardines (does that count as a school...?) that Mr T had asked for, after they'd been awol for the past few weeks.

Mr T had enjoyed a good recent spell with the turf accountants, so was keen to recount in great detail the joys of his week - I still don't fully understand the intricacies of the accumulator, but, as with most visits to Mr T, every day really is a school day...

If you're reading these words, it means I managed to publish the second version of this report. Version one had just been finished on a sweltering tube when, moments after I typed the closing line, "No drama encountered otherwise," the entire text was swallowed by a wrong slip of a finger on my phone screen, never to be retrieved again. Thanks to the unexpected wonders of 21st-century technology, I was gifted the opportunity to rewrite history from scratch and practise mindfulness in the face of frustration.

It wasn't an easy week for Ms F, who suffered from the hot temperatures to the point that she had to cancel her medical appointment. She also found it difficult to get a good night's sleep, so she was pleased to hear that I'd be coming slightly later than originally planned, giving her a little more time to rest during the day.

I happened to be off work that week, showing my family around London, and a 40-minute midday shopping mission was a perfect break from crowded touristy places. For Ms F, however, hearing that I'd be coming before 6 pm on a weekday caused a little confusion.

To provide some relief from the heat, I was asked to buy a six-pack of Buxton still water and a little treat: a bottle of refreshing ginger beer. One more summer delight came in the form of a healthy snack.

"Last time Louis brought me some delicious strawberries. They're called No. 1. You'll know when you've found them because they cost four pounds."

And off I went for a successful shop, with all the items located without difficulty. The only event worth mentioning was the outer packaging of the Buxton water dramatically ripping apart just as I left the till, allowing two of the bottles to attempt an escape.

Now, this is the part of my original story v1.0 where I wrote "No drama encountered otherwise", but I feel that if I finish it on this note, something ominous will happen again, and I'll end up writing the third version of this story.

So let's close it with me going to the British Museum to look for my not-so-distant ancestors - and I don't mean the ancient residents of the sarcophagi here! My family and I glanced through the Greek excavations before heading off. As entertaining as they looked, the figurines of ancient pigs didn't feel relevant for the closure of this story either, as Ms F is much less of a fan of pork than she is of fish.

Another thing I haven't mentioned in my original report was that, on the way back west, under very rare circumstances, I happened to bump into one of Mission Control's stars while they were on a break. I think that truly closes the loop of this story.

Hopefully, this is a worthy ending, and all the ancient and modern gods of fate, together with the muses of GoodGym report writing, will allow me to publish this version and won't turn it into a Sisyphean task.

We had a lengthy discussion this afternoon about the trade offs between Unwashed Baby Spinach (Mr T's vegetable of choice for the past however many weeks of shopping for him as it lasts longer in his fridge) and the washed variety (shorter shelf life) - prompted by Mr T discovering last week that a lot of "dirt" had formed around the top of his saucepan whilst washing (twice...) the unwashed variety.

To this end, he wasn't keen to continue to ingest whatever was lurking on these unwashed leaves, and so it's the washed variety he wants (understandably I'd say based on the description he gave me of his pan water...). Fortunately Lidl continues to stock all varieties, so it proved to be an easy substitution.