A Monday afternoon visit for Mrs S, and it was a warm one in central London. As we ran down the list, she got stuck on the type of pasta that's a bit thicker than spaghetti, and between us we threw out all known variations of pasta until we finally arrived at linguine...thankfully the Waitrose at John Lewis had exactly what she wanted on the pasta front, and pretty much everything else too bar a couple of items - I was offered a glass of water with the recently bought elderflower cordial in it by way of post walk refreshment, which hit the spot perfectly.

A cooler Monday afternoon walk from Mr R's front gate to Tesco and back with the now very familiar list and reusable bag in hand - I played a little memory game of picking items without referring to the list, and nearly got a full house, just the tin of prunes caught me out...

One of Gurseva's regular volunteers cooked up a storm on Saturday, so everyone was treated to kidney bean soup, potatos and mixed veg alongside the regular veggie rice.

There was lots of food to give out so we could be generous with the portions. There were a lot of compliments about the food!

Yesterday, there were only two volunteers signed up to help distribute food this evening. Without more helpers, the charity was about to cancel. Goodgym to the rescue!

Thanks mainly to Goodgym Greenwich, we were able to rustle up 7 helpers to assist Jas, and we were able to go ahead.

Today there was veggie rice, bread and biscuits to hand out. And because of the heat, the standard hot chocolate and coffee was replaced by milkshakes to cool everyone down in the heat.

We made a great team, and managed to hand most of the food out while chatting to the crowd that showed up, and each other. Within the hour all food was gone and we packed up and dispersed to catch the England kick off!

I like the fact that Miss N sends me to the (wide range of) local Turkish supermarkets around Church St Market, it certainly widens my horizons on what you can buy... - this week it was a visit to see Sinbad to find a couple of boxes of Dates, that Miss N had kindly taken a picture of, and for which she also gave me excellent instructions on where to find in the shop. A quick tour of Aldi, and we were all good for another week.

Both Mr R and I commented how quickly the week had gone...we both agreed it must have something to do with the heat... Mr R was sceptical that the shelves of Tesco would have all he wanted noting it was 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, so I wandered in that direction with some trepidation...but we were both proved wrong, as the basket was soon full of everything he'd asked for (including the ever present under-ripe bananas...) bar the sourdough loaf - fortunately the sliced super seeded was there to ensure he still has something for breakfast.