The temperatures tonight might have scared off a few new GoodGymers, as out of eight signups, only five regulars showed up. Freya, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway to Acton to meet Maria, who ran to the task straight from the gym - she is unstoppable! It would have been great if more ladies in Acton and neighbouring towns had so much motivation to stay fit and healthy! Well, that's what this Tuesday session was about!

Action West London asked us to help distribute flyers announcing the January edition of a free health & fitness programme for women. The sessions, this time including dance classes and pelvic floor exercises, will take place at St Mary’s Church Hall in Acton and give the residents an opportunity to stay active, healthy, and connected.

Before we ventured into the streets off Horn Lane, we congratulated Freya on her 50th good deed. She got to wear the GoodGym Ealing elegant black sash, marking the fantastic milestone, ahead of claiming the famed black GoodGym t-shirt. So far, Freya has been known as a dedicated Tuesday group runner and a Soup Kitchen supporter. Who knows what new, exciting sessions the future has for her! Well done, Freya, and onto the next fifty to claim your wings!

Throughout one hour, each of us walked about 3km, and the air became colder and colder. Having covered Rosemont Rd, Mayfield Rd, Creswick Rd, Julian Ave, Shalimar Gardens and Hereford Rd, we called it a day and ran back to Ealing Broadway to warm up again.

We will be back in Acton to further spread the word about the January sessions for women in three weeks - sign up now to join us!

Next week, we will run or walk to Walpole Park to replace woodchip on the paths in the Walled Garden. Shovelling and wheelbarrowing will be an excellent way to get active and stay warm! Join next week's session here!

I arrived at my 2nd mission of the day and my 2nd Mr H of the day too!! So I went from Mr H to Mr H. Mr H moved to a smaller place with all his and his mothers belongings and needed help sorting or decluttering so that he has more space in his flat. He did mention that on his own he does not have the motivation, but as we started going through boxes and items in the lounge and corridor, he felt the energy and said he would carry on after my departure. We were able to clear a good section and decluttered 2 big black bags and got rid of 3 boxes. Mr H is organised and has storing units in the entrance and in the lounge/kitchen area : as he said it is a bit chaotic but then I said organised chaos as things are sorted by type of items. Easier to declutter and store and also for him to know where everything is as not the case before as all mixed up. Mr H was super motivated and was in a box-tastic mood and happy with the 90 minutes spent together. More space already and also some space made in the corridor cupboard. All tools in the toolbox together. He also has a jar : not a swear or sweet jar but a cable jar!!

November and you all know that I do Movember and I have been running double races every weekend this month. As I arrived at Mr H home, his wife welcomed me and said the mower is not working but we got a new one and don't know how to start it. So it is a double Mo(w)er task today. I went through the side to the garden to find a brand new Mower with electrical cord and got it started. It had the security on so I did show Mr H wife how to start it. I said I would look at it once I have cut the grass. I cut the grass, sticky one as wet and filled a bag full of grass. I also hand picked the grass out of the flower bed so it looked nicer. I then took the Mo challenge: try and start the electrical one which stopped working. I took the battery out, checked it ok and found a hidden switch next to it. Switched it the opposite way and tried the mower. Boom it worked. So seems that Mr H and hiw wife have 2 working Mowers. Before I left, I did show Mrs H the switch so she knows I rhe future.

I was on finish token support at Pitshanger Junior parkrun this morning. 51 youngsters came through the finish funnel - judging by the state of their clothes they had a lot of fun running round a very muddy park!

“Seek, and ye shall find”, says a quote from the Bible - but it doesn’t specify whether the sought and the found are necessarily the same thing. The November Grove Farm conservation day was all about searching and discovering. Mike treated us today to a unique quest, equipped with a treasure map from an unlikely source: Thames Water. More precisely, the map wasn’t really a map, but a clue: “that amuse adults”.

On the way to the presumed treasure location, we followed a golden, shiny trail, distracted by the lustre of beer cans scattered along the path. We diligently collected the spoils, packed them in a bag, and cunningly hid our riches inside a rubbish bin. Next to the bin, we made an amusing discovery: a couple of pieces of illustrated literature for the enthusiasts of bottom-heavy ladies. Was that what amuses adults?

Five GoodGymers and three Friends of Grove Farm pressed on, venturing off the path into the wilderness, where Mike stopped and revealed what sort of treasures we were after. The treasure had been buried on the grounds of Grove Farm a century ago, under a manhole owned by Thames Water. But the riches it contained were not of a material kind - that would have been, of course, rather desirable, as we could have funded Friends of Grove Farm efforts to maintain the nature reserve. However, there was more at stake. The beautiful wood anemone patch up the hill was threatened by an underground water blockage, which only Thames Water could fix. But first, we had to find the manhole and clear the access.

After three people pointed out that it would have been great to have a metal detector, we accepted the reality (in which there was no metal detector) and got stuck into hacking the brambles and branches, raking cuttings and leaves, and poking the ground with a fork or a spade. After a few false alarms, resulting in digging out bricks, pipes, pots, and tyres, we tightened our search area to more accurately match the what3words phrase “what.amuses.adults” - to no avail. One of us came up with a hypothesis that a tree with many stems growing in the middle of the patch we scoured might have easily grown right from the manhole within the hundred years - an idea we feared to accept.

It would have been a privilege to report to my dear readers that the mission ended with great success. Alas, we haven’t found the manhole. All we discovered was rubbish hiding in the undergrowth. That had to suffice for a treasure at the end of a worthy quest. We will continue our search in December, so wrap yourself warmly, Dear Explorers, and let us know if you want to put your name down for another adventure here!

"Chef's choice!" declared Mr C's daughter cheerily when asked where the priorities were in tidying up her dad's garden. Neither she nor her dad were able to look after it, so the flowerbeds were filled with weeds and weeds were also coming through between the slabs. Kash and Sevan looked at how they could get the best outcome for Mr C, a Hobson's choice of weeding the left flowerbed or the right flowerbed.

Kash and Sevan flipped an imaginary coin and chose their patch. Before they started digging, Mr C's daughter offered them biscuits, cake, hot chocolate or cocoa. The hot chocolate (Kash) and biscuits (Sevan) were very tempting on a miserably wet day in London, but they'd just had lunch. The pair got digging, with Kash first finding a fork with 3 tines, then Sevan's unearthed one with a twisted handle to help them with their weeding.

There was lots of lovely, sticky clay soil to dig through and a lot of it ended up attached to the GoodGymers' shoes. Still, the 1¾ forks got the weeds out with their roots, leaving Mr C a nice clear stretch of soil - maybe for some new plants - and 3 bags of garden waste.

When they wrapped up, Kash and Sevan needed to rush to their next mission, leaving Mr C's daughter a little disappointed that they didn't have time for any treats. Sevan said maybe next time, so Mr C's daughter promised to have the biscuits ready when they arrive.