On a Thursday evening, Acton Town station was the scene of many disappointed passengers facing the disrupted Piccadilly line and the end of their westbound journeys. It was also the meeting point for three GoodGymers, who had beaten the unreliable Tube by choosing to run (like Harvey) or walk (like Steph Ducat and Kash).

The day was hot and dry, but not as bad as a couple of days earlier, when the GoodGymers had almost melted on their way to the group run task. The breeze gently cooled the team on their brief jog to the Wildflower Trail to pick up watering cans. During such hot weeks, it seemed like everything was thirsty: the GoodGymers, the grass, trees, pigeons, and even the pavements. But nothing was as thirsty as the Monster of Acton.

To save the people of Acton from the tyranny of the beast, the brave trio, armed only with watering cans, walked to the Pokopia Garden sprawling in front of St Mary's Church and Morrisons. The monstrous garden was actually quite a handsome beast, with plenty of greenery and pictures of cute Pokémon dotted around. It was popular with children and their parents, who visited to explore the planters and take photos. Little did they know how much that garden could drink! Neither did the GoodGymers — so they filled their cans and started watering it.

The garden drank and drank and drank. The trio watered the planters and the Poké Ball terrariums. Then they poured even more water on them, watching how quickly the liquid soaked into the soil. And the garden drank and drank and drank. A lady appeared out of nowhere (or perhaps out of Morrisons) with a bucket of water, then quickly backed off, happy and relieved that the GoodGymers were on watering duty. The trio wouldn't have minded turning into a quartet, as the garden drank and drank and drank...

Harvey, Steph, and Kash eventually moved on to watering the "living wall" structure, which, despite still looking pretty cool, wasn't so lively anymore. Some of the plants had unfortunately dried out, and some trays no longer had any soil in them. But when the GoodGymers poured the water, the wall drank and drank and drank. The GoodGymers must have used 180 litres of water on the living wall alone, having to top up the trays that the water poured from the top couldn't reach. It was literally thirsty work.

After a good 50 minutes of hauling three cans between the water source and the dried-out planters, the monster was eventually satisfied — at least for the day — and calm enough to leave the people of Acton alone. The blissful residents could once again marvel at the wonders of the Pokopia Garden, totally unaware that the pretty beast could have sucked all the moisture out of them. Thank goodness we had GoodGym on duty! And what a Thirsty Thursday it has been!

We had multiple jobs to do at Strand on the Green School last night — finishing off painting the nursery, moving a huge terrace-full of old furniture and toys down the stairs to the skip, and hedge cutting. Three different jobs, three skill sets, no problem.

We ran over to the task where we met caretaker Clare and got straight to work. Michelle, Breda, Lucy and Emily tackled the nursery painting, Jon, Kash, Maxime, Chris, Jonny and Fran became an efficient furniture-moving conveyor belt up and down the stairs, while Gus and Luis turned hedge cutting into an art form outside.

Within just 45 minutes all three jobs were complete. With 12 of us working for 45 minutes, that’s the equivalent of 9 hours (or a full working day!) of work saved for one caretaker — and Clare was delighted with how much time we’d saved her.

With the jobs done, it was time for a lower body blast with three different intensity options to keep everyone moving. We’re also all still wondering what Michelle’s mysterious final blue item could be… answers on a postcard.

After that, we headed back to base for stretches on the grass and a well-earned cool down.

Next week we’re off to Gunnersbury to sort compost — see you there for what will hopefully be a slightly cooler task!

With temperatures hitting 35 degrees, this was never going to be an evening for speedy runs. The team wisely swapped the run for a walk to the task, arriving slightly later than usual - but with the mission still being crystal clear.

Sevan: “Everybody be cool, this is a litter pick!”
Kash “Any of you rubbish tricks move and I'll bin every last bit of ya!”

The assignment was simple: clear the alleyway all the way down towards Park Royale, tackling the usual collection of discarded fast-food wrappers, cans, and mystery debris lurking in the bushes.

As the team spread out with litter pickers and bags, accompanied by Harvey’s improvised Dick Dale & The Del-Tones beatbox soundtrack, the conversations drifted into full-on Tarantino territory.

Steph: “You know what we call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”
Harvey: “You don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?”
Steph: “No, man, we got the metric system. We wouldn't know what a Quarter Pounder is.”
Harvey: “What'd you call it?”
Steph: “We call it a Royale with Cheese.”
Harvey: “Royale with Cheese. What do you call a Big Mac?”
Steph: “Big Mac's a Big Mac, but we call it Le Big Mac.”
Harvey: “Le Big Mac! Ahaha, what do you call a Whopper?”
Steph: “I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.”

The GoodGymers didn’t need to go into Burger King either. Burger King came to them. Wrappers, drink cups and abandoned fries cartons flooded the top section of the alleyway. Sadly, despite reaching Park Royale, the team found very little actual “Royale with Cheese” evidence, only Captain Morgan bottles coming in all shapes and sizes.

Among the haul were disposable vapes, sweets packaging, beer cans and enough assorted rubbish to fill three bags, alongside a couple of small fly-tips cleared from the passage. Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, some mysteries remained unsolved. Who leaves this much litter behind? Why were there so many Captain Morgan bottles in one place? Who planted a Heineken tree? And most importantly: where was the cheese?

Still, there was good news beneath the grime. Compared to the previous visits, the alleyway was noticeably cleaner, proving that repeated community action really is making a difference. The path to Park Royale may not have been paved with gold, but after one sweaty evening with GoodGym, it was at least a little less paved with rubbish.