It was a first time GG shop for Mrs G, and she was well prepared when I knocked on her door and she invited me in to sit in a very comfortable armchair for today's briefing. Inside a white envelope that had "£20 and a list for shopping" clearly written on the outside was everything I would need for today's mission...thankfully it didn't self destruct after five seconds.

Mrs G pointed me in the direction of her nearest Tesco, and I set off in the sunshine. I was back (not quite in a flash, but it proved a quick trip) with Mrs G's treasure in hand, and placed it on her dining table for her to put away. Hopefully there'll be more visits to follow...if not, I clearly bought the wrong rice.

A Sunny run and some serious shovelling: GoodGym gets Grounded 🌞🏃🌱

It was one of those evenings yesterday — the kind where the sun’s shining, the city is buzzing, and the pavements stretch out before us. We gathered by Temple Station to greet some new faces - welcome to the group Emily and Siobhan to your first session! Lovely to have you join us. After a quick warm up we took off along the river, weaving between after-work revellers spilling onto the Embankment, and soaking up every golden ray.

Our destination was a community garden with a view so iconic it could distract even the most focused of GoodGymmers. Tower Bridge at golden hour? You don't get much better than that. We didn't have too much time to admire the view though— there was work to be done!

We arrived to find the ever-enthusiastic team already grafting away, tools at the ready, and preparing for their reinforcements (us) to jump in. Under the guidance of Grounded — a brilliant social enterprise using gardening as ecotherapy — our job was to help transform a neglected patch into a green oasis of calm and healing for the city’s residents.

We split into teams with some of us lugging bags of compost up the stairs, others transporting around sacks of Leca (clay pebbles good for drainage, although it could also pass as the name of an Indie band from the 90s), while the rest of us found ourselves elbows-deep in soil emptying old beds before setting up a brand-new irrigation system. The heat of the evening just highlighted how important watering is!

It was sweaty work, but spirits were high - the combination of transforming a garden and seeing the progress already being made was inspiring.

If that wasn't enough of a full body workout we just had time to squeeze in a fitness blast to finish, this time a strength workout with a twist. While one of us ran a lap around the garden in the stopwatch role, the rest of us got stuck into push-ups, planks and tricep dips. Thankfully, nobody pulled the “I’m just walking this lap” trick, and we even inspired a few people sitting nearby to join in — next time we'll get them to help carry the bags of leca too! Anyone else got shaky arms today or is that just me?

All that was left was the run back, with the skyline lit up like a movie set. After all that hard graft, it never looked more beautiful.

Well done everyone — you smashed it. Next week, we’re heading to the oldest youth club in the world - see you there!

As per my last visit, Ms D was a little reluctant for me to go out of my way to the Boots on Oxford Street to get her some hair colouring, but I assured her it was no bother and the walk in the sunshine would give me some free Vitamin D and extra steps...

With that item successfully captured, it was up to Waitrose to complete the rest of her list, which this week included a small bag of flour so that Ms D could do "some proper cooking", as she said her freezer was full of chicken pieces that needed using up, and some fish or fish cakes for Friday. As always Ms D was extremely grateful when I returned with treasure in hand

Another Tuesday night collecting food for for rough sleepers, another massive haul of sandwiches, rolls, bread and baked goods!

First stop was the bakery who gave us masses of pastries and fresh bread, a quick pit stop to hand it over and then it was pret for huge sacks of food! We chatted about all the important things- mud larking, the hidden language of emojis and how to fashion the perfect handle on a bin bag! A great evening with a bug impact 

Mr P has been in hospital for some weeks now and is hoping to get home soon. Alan and I cycled over on a sunny spring evening to meet his wife Mrs A and move his old double bed.

Mrs A was happy to see us when we arrived. She’s been back and forth to the hospital and was quite worried about the mess under the bed when we came to move it. We assured her it would be fine and headed down to the basement to survey the job. As Mrs A gave us the instructions from the top of the stairs we worked out a plan of action for moving the mattress followed by the two sections of the divan and the headboard.

In no time at all the bed and mattress were deposited outside, ready for collection by the council and we’d given the floor in the bedroom a quick tidy up. Mrs A was very grateful for the help and we had a quick chat before wishing them well with Mr P’s physio and discharge. It was a lovely evening for a cycle and a real pleasure to help a lovely beneficiary.

Ms D was a little sheepish when I arrived this morning - she presented me with her usual list and money and then asked if we did more than food shopping, to which I explained that yes, we'd be happy to go to whichever shop or shops she wanted items from (within reason...).

She swiftly re-appeared with some small empty cosmetic containers, and asked if I could go via Boots to refill her supplies. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the products in question, I said I'd need to take the empties with me to make sure I got an exact match of what she wanted.

A little while later I reappeared at Ms D's door with both her shopping and her newly purchased cosmetic supplies - Ms D was absolutely delighted that she'd now be able to look her absolute best for her visiting grand children this coming Easter Week!