A lovely stroll through West Hampstead with the sun shining soon lef the way to Mr P who had asked for GoodGym's help with organising his kitchen drawers and a bathroom cupboard.

Mr P explained that he is registered blind and as a result it can be a challenge to navigate parts of his house, remembering where things have been placed, keeping them organised and staying on top of expiry dates.

Together, we soon set to work emptying a drawer into one empty bag and then I would describe the item to Mr P to help him identify it and decide whether it was an item he wanted to keep and if so, where it would in the freshly emptied and clean drawer. We had another bag to hand for disposing all unwanted items, rubbish and expired medicines and food.

Some items were a puzzle to us both and I would have to explore my own lexicon to find the appropriate words to describe the item in front of me, whilst guiding Mr P to explore the textures of the item and together we were able to identify them all!

It wasnt long before a rhythm had been established and we cleared through 2 drawers and his bathroom cabinet and filled up an entire bag for disposal. Mr P was incredibly grateful for the support offered by GoodGym today and knew how to request for our help again in the future should his drawers need another sort.

I came much better prepared this week for Mr R's shopping quest, having learned a few lessons from my first visit - an emptier backpack was a pre-requisite. The preparation was well founded, as Mr R dug out his last list on his phone, and with only a few tweaks sent me out to Aldi with largely the same lifting challenge in mind.

I remain amazed how much you can buy for £20 in this particular store, but somehow it all fitted in the two reusable bags, and the backpack proved useful for the milk and peanut butter - I even discovered a short cut through a park to get back to Mr R's, so overall a highly successful workout/mission...

“The food will arrive in vans on Friday evening at 17:15”. That was the information we had, and five GoodGymers duly sneaked out of work to get to Camden food back in time. But heavy traffic, no doubt caused partly by the earlier Tube strike, meant the vans were considerably delayed. Task owner Abi was hugely apologetic and kept urging the van on, phone to his ear. John and Jacqui had tickets for Hampstead Theatre, while Theo had to leave before the vans even arrived. But we were sustained by lively chat, as well as three boxes of croissants which were surplus to requirements following a meeting at a nearby office

As St Pancras church clock struck six, the vans arrived, full of crates of baked beans, nappies and many other goods of varying weight. Together with other volunteers, we formed a human chain to ferry the produce from the van, up a winding staircase and along the upper floor where it was neatly stacked, ready for distribution to those in need

Within half an hour the job was done, Siobhan gave out the remaining croissants at a nearby pub, and John and Jacqui got to Hampstead in time. Well done everyone, and welcome to the very patient Ali-John, on his first good deed. We promise not to keep you waiting 45 minutes next time!

I'd hardly sat down before Mr T pointed to his curtains and said that his kindly neighbour had put the old set through the washing machine and were ready to be rehung, so that was a task to be done once I'd ventured up and down Tottenham Court Road.

Not willing to let Mr T anywhere near a step ladder, I was up and down a few times to get the "stand ins" removed off the curtain cord, and the old new ones put back in their place - there might even have been a round of applause at the end...fortunately it didn't bring the house down.

12 GoodGymers caught sixty spring–sun–shining minutes in Camden!

Under bright blue skies — and as rush hour pushed into twilight — lovely people started arriving at the Cecil Sharp House garden yesterday evening.

Some were dressed in red and everyone looked locked and ready for some form of altruistic action!

First we said a big hello to our three new faces 👉 welcome to the group, Giulia, Maggie, and Sarah!!

Second we said hello to our regular faces 👉 great to see you Ariane, Helen, Jackie, John, Karen, Siobhan, Theo, and Thierry!

And third... we played Simon Says!

Which loosened our limbs and prepared us perfectly for the wonderful difference this group made:

💚 Every yard and metre (even every inch!) of pathway was swept free of litter and blossom

💚 Sackfuls of weeds from nooks and crannies were plucked ready for composting

💚 Bundles of leaves and debris disappeared leaving the greenhouse space spic and span

Thank you, everyone! See you soon!

P.S. Thank you to Ariane for the many photos!

P.P.S. Thank you for Theo for taking the group photo!

Miss V commented on the promptness of my arrival and said to me that only GoodGymmers actually arrive precisely on time - I took that as a badge of honour on behalf of all the volunteers who have helped her! She and I both know the routine - the packaging and bags of rubbish were already outside the door, and so it was just a case of getting them downstairs and into the respective bins.