Having failed to find him some mustard powder last week on the aisles of Lidl or his local Tesco, Mr T was delighted when I arrived this week with a small yellow tin in hand. With last week's list belatedly now completed we discussed this week's cross word ('intensively"...) and covered off a large chunk of the news stories of the week (both good and bad...), before I headed downstairs with trolley in tow.

The aisles were quiet, as was the checkout area (after my initial misgivings about Lidl's rearranged till area I'm starting to think maybe there was a bit of method to their madness), and so I was soon back with all the treasure (including a very large jar of Nescafe that hadn't made it to the original list), giving us time to discuss Liverpool FC, and his recent visitation by some Jehovah's Witnesses...not for the first time it proved to be an enlightening chat.

13 inspiring GoodGym folk made a wonderful difference in Kentish Town last night!

Some people can distinguish a grass from a weed and a weed from a flower. I am not one of these people.

But many of these intelligent beings... everyone apart from me... were present in our special group!

Our group in red 👉 Alison, Danny (on their first good deed - hello!), Helen, Imogen, Jackie, John, Majid (on their first good deed - huge welcome!), Sarah, Siobhan, Steve, and Will 👉 arrived in Kentish Town (not far from the Prime Minister's house!) to meet the wonderful Hilda (who was also on their first good deed!!) 👉 and we were there to help her cultivate a healthy hedgerow 🌳💚

I watched in awe as this group identified the 'keeps' from the 'get-rids' while also sharing stories and connecting. The weeds were piled – bag upon bag – and the remaining wild flowers and bushes noticeably started to breathe. And I resorted to taking photos and walking up and down in an attempt to look busy.

Across 60 bright evening minutes this group opened space in the hedgerow – and the fruits of their efforts will carry through into June and beyond – this would have taken a single soul 13 hours to match!

Thank you so much, everyone, for a well-spent evening ☺️

Here's to next time!

A triple header visit for Mr T today - soup from M&S, bread from Tesco, (nearly) everything else from Lidl. Today's challenge (apart from solving his cross word of the day which was "discerning"...) was to try and find some Coleman's Mustard powder as Mr T (being a stickler for not wasting food) didn't need a whole jar of the stuff. Unfortunately this particular product was nowhere to be seen on any of the shelves, which did include a vast array of (unsuitable) alternatives, but he was pleased I'd got everything else on the list.

Great sunny Friday vibes everywhere in Camden ☀️ today. Gosia and Alex decided to spend this afternoon by helping Mrs J in tidying her garden.

We arrived around 5 pm at Mrs J's door and rung a buzzer 🚪. She warmly welcomed us but then right away told us that she just heard some bad news so it was clear she didn't feel particularly well today.

She showed us where the garden 🌱 is, where the tools are 🧹🧹 and also what needs to be done. The garden looked quite tidy from the first sight🕵‍♀️, but the devil is in the details! It turned out that actually many leaves 🍂, dirt and dust was hiding between the flower pots.

We then indulged ourselves in a sweeping / hide and seek journey, maneuvering between the various objects in the garden and also our conversational topics 💬.

Mrs J also asked us to change the bird food 🐦, a task that was handled by Mr Alex whose height and agility were just perfectly right for the job. When Mrs J suggested we could get a stool 🪑 we kindly but promptly declined 😆.

We thought we did a pretty decent job with sweeping and stuff but Mrs J did find a couple of spots that did not reach this perfection 👀. We quickly caught up and neatly packed the waste into provided bags.

Before leaving the flat we have taken other bin bags that were already there when we arrived. We put all the waste into the bins outside Mrs J's property. We hope, that our visit sprinkled a bit of good spirit energy in Mrs J's day 🙂.

I had the pleasure of visiting Miss E, who was absolutely lovely and very welcoming.

The issue with her Epson XP-4200 series printer was due to a recent Wi-Fi change, which had disconnected the printer from the internet. Thankfully, I had watched a few videos in advance about setting up Wi-Fi on this specific model, so I was able to get started confidently.

I successfully: - Reconnected the printer to the internet - Linked it to Epson’s mobile app - Printed a test page to confirm everything was working

We then discovered that the printer was running low on ink. Miss E had some replacement cartridges, but unfortunately, they weren’t compatible with her printer model. We found the correct product online, and Miss E asked her daughter to place an order. I also showed her how to change the cartridges once they arrive.

She seemed really pleased with the outcome and even insisted on offering me some sweets as a thank you, which was very kind of her!

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to take any photos during the visit, but it was a very positive and worthwhile experience. It was a pleasure supporting Miss E, and I’m glad she now has access to her printer again. This will be especially helpful for her when printing out important appointment letters and other documents to keep things organised.

Why does sweeping never end with just sweeping?

This is my experience of GoodGym...

"...yeah – that sounds about right – maybe just start with some sweeping over there..."

...and before you know it... you've built a gazebo or painted a bench!

Just sweeping was how our wonderful group – of Charlie, Danny, Emily, Gosia, Gus, Imogen, John, Michael, and Steve – started at the beautiful Cecil Sharp House on Wednesday evening.

In perfect May sun, sweeping strewn leaves is a good place to start – I even thought perhaps it really will just be sweeping – but then...

... Emily grabbed a hose and started dousing the (bountiful) flower beds around the house – I even flowers inch their heads towards the flowing water, and then...

...Charlie, Danny, Gus, Imogen, and John descended on a pile of... well, I'm not too sure what it was really – wooden crates, fallen branches, cut ivy – a pile of things that needed discarding! I turned my back and before I knew it... the van's boot was cleared, the crates had been snapped, and everything had been tidily bagged up! And then...

...seemingly everyone was busy planting seeds (all manner of wonderful flowers) in a row of planters! And not to forget...

...the sweeping that everyone started with... that was all finished too :)

And we finished off by cutting some fresh mint (all gifted to us by our brilliant host, Susannah) to take home – very wonderful!

Amazing work, everyone! Thank you for a lovely evening!