Gosia was tasked to help Ms L with sweeping leaves 🍂🍁 from her back garden. It was a quite chilly ❄️ morning but still bearable even for doing a little bit of gardening 👩‍🌾.

Report from 10:00

I arrived exactly at 10 am 🕚 and used the door buzzer few times without getting a response. I wasn't sure if it's working as I didn't hear any sound so I also used a door clapper to see if that helps. There were two ✌️ flats located in the same building 🏠 so was not particulary convinced if this worked either.

I eventually called Ms L using the landline ☎️ number provided in the mission description. I could hear a ring clearly somewhere in the house but noone was picking up. I then tried it another couple of times before giving up and returning home.

Got a bit worried about Ms L wellbeing so it would be great if we could just check if everything is all right.

Report from 12:30

I have tried to call Ms L again to check on her and she did not pick up. I then thought the best would be to call for a welfare check. I eventually called 999 and explained a situation. They said that the crew will also try to call her using the same phone number GG provided. They also said that regardless of if they get a connection with her or not, the help will arrive to check on her at the property.

I am not entirely sure if I won't cause too much hassle here but all actions were driven by a true concern about her welfare at this point.

Report from 18:00

Noone from the services contacted me for a follow up. This is for GG's office information tomorrow (I know they are off today).

Nick, David and Gosia spent this afternoon helping Mr A in moving an old sofa bed 🛋 and a sink to a bin shed 🚮.

We started of with Gosia being a bit lost 😆 about where Mr A's property is 🗺😵‍💫. We quickly figured out where the confusion comes from, Gosia run to the meeting place and we were all ready to give a buzz to the apartament at around 2:10 pm.

We followed the GG's introductions on getting to the flat and quickly met Mr A, who was waiting for us outside. Both items were already moved close to the front door 🚪 to make it easier for us to pick them up.

We have started with the sofa bed as (surprisingly 🎁!) it was less heavy than the SINK (it deserves to be written in capitals and bolded out to reflect its weight). Initially, the sofa bed task was handled between Nick and Gosia, then Gosia smoothly handed over to David half way 😅 .

It turned out that the bin shed was not open as expected so Mr A said he will give a property manager a call 🤙 to clarify that. While he was doing that, we temporarily put the sofa outside leaning on the wall and came back upstairs for the sink.

Now all heavy lifting 💪 here was done by a dream David and Nick's duet while Gosia helped to clear the way and pushed the right buttons ⏫️⏬️ in the lift. This piece of art was really heavy so boys did make a quick stop ☕️ before reaching its resting place 🙏. Eventually, it turned out that the bin shed won't get open and we need to leave the sink just as we left the sofa bed. It will be moved inside once the shed is open.

Mr A was very grateful for help and also interested in what GoodGym does. David did a little pitch for us, telling a bit more about the GG history and types of work we could help out with 🔧🔨💡. We left the property around 2:40 pm fully accomplishing the work and wishing Mr A a Merry Christmas and a great day ☀️.

Alan and Gosia helped Ms J with dismantling a double bed 🛏 and getting it ready for the rubbish collection 🗑.

Both arrived on time and were both quite relieved when we learned that the flat is just on the 1st floor (not on e.g. 6th 😆) in case we will need to use stairs carrying the bed later.

We were welcomed by Ms J and she showed us where the bed is currently placed. It didn't have a mattress anymore, the "only" thing that we needed to sort out was the frame.

We have started optimistically both very proud of taking our own spanners with us 🤓. It quickly turned out that the bolts are hidden in holes so tiny that made them not accessible by none of Ms J's tools nor our spanners. We almost gave up 🏳️‍ just as we started 😆. Quite randomly Gosia had a pair of pliers which helped us get rid of the bolts.

Now, probably the most challenging part was around dealing with around 10-15 screws in the frame. The only suitable tool we had was a tiny yellow screwdriver 🪛🍋 that Ms J provided. This brave little hero, survived a tone of pressure today as we tried to deal with the most stubborn and almost-completely-stuck screws.

The last two board were kicked out 🦵🥷as we lost patience with the screws (screw it!).

Then, we took all parts of the frame downstairs and placed them - according to Ms J's instructions - next to the bins.

Ms J was thankful for the help and doublechecked with us if we were charging for it or not. Of course we said no 🙂, wished her a lovely day and said goodbye.

Gosia and I arrived at Miss C's hoping that today's mission would prove to be as described...and so it proved. Miss C just needed a ceiling bulb changing outside her kitchen area, and helpfully she had quite a low ceiling such that I could reach the bulb without needing to use her stepladder.

With the paper shade off, it was then just a quick change of bulb. Miss C then pressed the switch and once more she had light - I think we may have collectively let out a little cheer at that point. With the shade refitted, we then bid farewell to a pleased Miss C in her newly re-illuminated living room.

"Say again?" > "What did you say? > "I think they said..........."

These were the whispered sentences (amongst giggles) that filled the beginning of our evening. We were playing a game of (warm up) Telephone. Which is where folks pass a message (via whispers) around a group whilst trying to avoid subtle (then large) differences emerging.

Our wonderful group must have played Telephone before. Single words were too easy for these expert whisperers and listeners. Yet full unique sentences weren't. I can't quite remember the correct sentence in our last round, but I do remember it ending up as something like "SOMETHING SOMETHING HAHA FENCE SEA FLOOR.

We soon took our warmed bodies on the short stroll to the King's Cross Story Garden. Met by Megs and Karari, we soon split into two groups.

Charlie, Matt, Jackie, and Steve each grabbed large brooms and voluminous buckets of soapy water, and they began scrubbing, wiping, and hosing a large poly-tunnel. It'd attracted the season's muck and detritus, and this group were there to clean it. In 25 minutes, they brought a clear shine to the outside (and inside) of this space. Their work has made a wonderful difference.

At the same time, Gosia, John, Natalia, and Rose picked spades and wheelbarrows, and they started work on a freshly dropped (and quite huge) pile of wood chip. Local tree surgeons donate wood chip to the garden, and the team use it to create natural and walkable pathways. It is natural sustainability in action. This crew were a blur of digging, wheeling, and raking, and the pile shrunk by the minute. By the end of the session, we were all (wood)chipping in :)

Thank you, everyone, for your time, work, and positive energy - it made for a special evening and a big difference!!

Here's to next time!

P.S. if you want to see Gosia's masterfully creative video from the evening... just click here!

Nick, David and Gosia were tasked to help out Ms H in moving an old sofa 🛋 and replace it with a new day bed. We were like Yeah yeah yeah we did this million times 😎 but it all sounded more simple and straightforward than it actually was 😆.

First we decided to tackle the old sofa aka monster 👾 (which was apparently 40+ years old). We removed the pillows hoping this will allow us to fit the sofa through the door 🚪. We also temporarily moved a bookshelf from the corridor to the bathroom to make a bit more space for the maneuvers. Geniuses💡🙌! Then we optimistically and bravely moved the furniture into the corridor just to get completely stuck there 😆😆😆.

We spent another 15-20 mins brainstorming, looking at each other with hope, contemplating life 🤔💭 and trying to come up with any possible way of transporting the sofa to its dream spot. We didn't come up with anything and arrived at a conclusion that the only way is to dismantle it. Ms M agreed and said that we can do whatever is necessary to remove it ❌️ from the room and then she will ask council to pick the parts for rubbish collection.

Nick - a true GG missions' John Wick - had a spanner 🔧 and a pocket knife 🔪 which turned out to be extremely useful. We spent another 30 min on dismantling the sofa which required a high level of collab and spiritual support 🧘‍♀️😆. The furniture was super dusty so we ended up with quite a portion of dust in our lungs 🫁. We moved the parts into the adjacent room, still forming some sort of sofa, which Ms H was still planning to use for a while.

Moving a new bed was a breeze 🌊. Gosia helped Ms H to vacuum 🧹 the space remained after the monster sofa, while Nick and David were attaching legs 🦵 to the new bed. Then they both carefully placed it in its new spot. Perfect!

Ms H was happy with the outcome and grateful for the time we spent on helping her out. She might need some further help with moving the old sofa parts at some point. We left around 16:30, physically and mentally feeling like we did a monstrous workout there 😆😅.