Three Goodgymmers laced up for a start-of-the-week mission at the North Finchley Community Grocery. Based at St Barnabus on North Finchley High Road, this relatively new (8-9 months old) project gets a delivery of food every Monday morning from the Felix Trust (via Volunteers on Wheels) and needs a hand running the trolleys up and down the ramp from the van to the grocery.

We're hoping this will be a regular weekly visit for us to help them out - but no session next week due to it being a bank holiday Monday.

Paul arrived early to do the welcoming, as he also had to leave early. Subham ran 3km (well, 2.99km according to his tracker) from Finchley Central while I had a slightly shorter 1.8km to get there. The delivery was a little later than expected, so we completed the manual handling training and a brief tour of the grocery, courtesy of one of the lovely volunteers.

Then the two of us ferried the trolleys and cages back and forth to the van, with the help of one of the excellent volunteers, Richard. We were done in record time, so we helped Richard unload some of the frozen and fridge food in the store. Then, all done, we jogged off with a spring in our steps for having started the week on such a good note.

It was great to be able to host a table at the annual Coppetts Wood Festival this year - the site where Paul signed me up to Goodgym for the first time two years ago. This time we had a small table with flyers, though back then Paul had the full TinyForest layout, with calipers and everything.

Richard joined me for the first couple of hours, and we started in Goodgym fashion, helping Sue the Willow Weaver put up her marquee in record time. The band started playing and people arriving, so we set to spreading cheer and chatting to passersby. Richard then set off to do some training for a marathon, and I stayed for the long haul, then helped Sue pack down her marquee and the Coppetts Wood Conservationists with their tables and stalls.

Another great session, this time with Richard for his first climb. We had a long, leisurely time, warming up, touring the centre and trying out various bouldering problems, getting used to the different routes, blocks and grips. Richard bravely clambered his way up to the top of several walls and managed to maintain his grin and his grip! We wrapped up at the end with a snack in the veggie/vegan cafe.

As always, let me know if you want to try it out in the comments and I'll get in touch.