On a hot Saturday afternoon in Swiss Cottage, two visitors from GoodGym Ealing, Sevan and Kash, enjoyed shade, cool water and Mrs G's soul and trance playlist in her back garden.

In return, they chopped away a patch of young bamboo plants that had come to Mrs G's garden out of nowhere and, since then, plagued the space, restricting the lady's access to the watering cans and outdoor water tap. Another nuisance in the garden was the rose bushes, which, although beautiful with the red and pink flowers, grew out of control and had to be trimmed and tied to the fence.

After raising and securing the fallen rose branches and packing and piling the trimmings, the two GoodGymers were done for the day and set off back to Ealing, leaving the grateful Mrs G to enjoy the transformed garden.

That's a beautiful building that Mr P lives in"

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"The lobby looks familiar"

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"I think we were here 2 years ago to help clear a writing desk?"

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What Kash and Sevan could see of the world around them woke up some long forgotten memories and sparked brain cells back into action. When Mr P opened the door, he looked vaguely familiar. His writing desk and where it sat in the hallway brought back more memories of Kash and Sevan's previous mission. Mr P couldn't do this in the same way he was blind. Through the mission, he showed off his own techniques to remember things from the past.

Today, Mr P wanted help sorting through a drawer of medicines which was apparently a very small task for the GoodGymers. It was impossible for Mr P to do this himself. He knew that the drawer was a bit messy without knowing what had happened in it. First though, he whipped out a roll of gaffer tape and asked for help with a broken bathroom tile. Kash snipped the tape and Sevan stuck it into place until the council and it's bureaucracy would get around to a longer term fix.

With the trip hazard sorted, it was onto the drawer. Mr P asked the team to tip it all onto the bed, then they'd sort through everything and put the important items back in the drawer. With the drawer empty, Kash noticed it could do with a clean. No amount of wiping would remove the thing stuck to the bottom and Mr P couldn't remember what it was. Probably cured cosmetics. Sevan grabbed the most useful tool available, a chisel, to remove the stain. While he chipped away at it, removing glued batteries and bits of paper, Kash made a start at grouping what came out of the drawer.

Kash found:

• Many bars of soap
• Deodorants, balms and lavender essential oils
• Cases for glasses (no longer useful for a blind man)
• Hearing aids and batteries
• Hand creams ("that's handy")
• Extension leads
• 3 bags of cotton balls (with some escapees)
• A bag of hats
• A pipe
• His marriage certificate ("oh, that's very important!")

Each item was described to Mr P, setting the cogs in his brain whirring. Sometimes the description was enough. The feel of items reminded Mr P of what some of them were and if that didn't do it, the smells could help. Anything that was past its use by date went straight in the bin.

The feel of items sometimes reminded him of what they were, other times the smells. Anything that was past its use by date went straight in the bin.

The small task turned into an hour and 40 minutes of sorting and binning. In the end, the drawer appeared much tidier which was pleasing for Kash and Sevan. Mr P's understanding of what was in the drawer was much clearer in his mind too, which was more important to him than how well organised it looked.

Hot Friday and I was back at Ms F for her food shopping. As the week end is going to be hot. I wanted to make sure she had enough bottles of water to stay hydrated. The time has come for her Waitrose to close for a face lift - this is happening this week end which means getting more items for Ms F but also meant that the store was facing some shortages. On the list today, had some extra items like avocado, prawn sauce and more vegetables. The basket was with more green vegetables to go with her salmon. As the store was closing in the next 2 days, some items were out of stock like the prawns and the Duchy semi skimmed milk. Not to worry, Ms F still had enough milk and said she could go to the local Tesco near her flat if she needed some. Today was hot, which also means the fridge and freezers were not coping so some of them were empty. Good news, the store will will re open and have a new look.

Been a while since I went shopping for Ms F. So here I am on a late Saturday afternoon to sort her shopping out especially bottled water as only had 1 left. Usual list with a few changes based on store coupons. Also heard that works will be done in the store which means some extra discounts as the fresh counters are soon to close for refurbishment. So the chase for extra and cheaper race went on which Ms F already started during the week with some bits. As a Saturday late afternoon the shelves were nearly empty but got 95% of the list. No extra cheese as most had gone due to the reduced prices before they go for a counter refurbishment. Ms F was happy for all her groceries and was also happy to see me so she could speak in French. End of mission ended up with how her new TV box works as the engineer of the day did not explain a lot so I took 5 to 10 minutes to show her. Until next time, but who knows which store as her local Waitrose is getting a makeover.

The sardines in olive oil drought continues into another week - surely the Strait of Hormuz can't be responsible for this. However everything else could be safely caught in the net, and Mr T was delighted that I was back in double quick time so that we could have a good natter about the ins and outs of his recent blood extraction (four vials worth!), which, if I'm honest, sounded so very much like the Tony Hancock TV episode...

8 GoodGymers plant aplenty in Kentish Town!

This lovely group - Alex, Jackie, John, Karen, Siobhan, Steve, and Theo - arrived at Greenwood Sheltered Housing with altruistic energy on Wednesday night!

This was a new task hosted by an old friend. We hadn't been to Greenwood before but we had met our brilliant host, Frezghi.

And we swiftly got stuck into nature-based good deeding!

💚 Siobhan and Theo planted fresh lavender and weeded the front paving!

💚 Karen and John planted young lettuce!

💚 Alex, Steve, and Jackie planted aplenty in the raised beds!

Thank you, everyone! Here's to next time!