Two GoodGymers ran from Ealing Broadway to Park Royal to bring order to the infamous alleyway along the Picadilly Line tracks. The pathway was known for continuously attracting litter. On a November night, however, the rubbish was playing hide and seek with our team. The darkness and unexpectedly large amount of leaves must have had an impact on how much litter we had found. Is it a leaf? Is it a chocolate wrapper? Are there bottles buried under the leaves?

It felt like it was already January - not because of the cold. The ratio between the soft drink bottles and the beer cans was - surprise, surprise - definitely in favour of the non-alcoholic beverages. Was it Dry January already? We still found a decent amount of evidence that drinkers of Polish beers like Żubr and Warka must have been around.

We collected everything we could see in the light of head torches and not hidden under the leaves - two bags in total in less than an hour. Four tennis balls and a jacket that someone had left on a bollard, we haven't classified as rubbish and left those items alone. Maybe someone would come back for them?

On Monday evening, Divya and Kash rushed from work to get to West Ealing for the Soup Kitchen service for the homeless. Both landed in the clothes department: Divya on mens and Kash on womens.

As the temperatures started to drop, warm jumpers, coats, thick socks, gloves and hats were in demand. Luckily, the Soup Kitchen had a decent amount of those today. The toiletries table was also well stocked up with an abundance of shower gel scents so that clients could pick their favourites.

The shift finished with wiping and folding the tables, sweeping the floor, and, of course, squeezing the bags with packed clothes into the Cupboard of Doom™. The last activity resulted in a surprisingly neatly organised cupboard - it looked so flawless that the volunteers started worrying that they had forgotten to pack something up!

Trick or treat? Getting some food for Mr G to eat. Nothing scary about tonight’s good deed, in which I hit the pumpkin-coloured Sainsburys for a weekly shop.

On my bike I headed out, To Mr G of Ealing, It was blooming cold even in my gloves, My fingers had lost all feeling.

Mr G was prepared as always, With his list of goods for the week, A meal a day and some leafy greens, Yoghurts and pie I shall seek.

Off to Sainsburys, wrapped up warm, Find all the bits he asked for, Paid up, bag loaded and outside again, Cycled back to Mr G’s front door.

Shopping delivered and change returned, I went back outside into the chill, Another good deed completed today, By me, Lucy Victoria Hill.

Across the country, it was a Bert windy today and Acton Park was no different. Sevan and Mohamed arrived early to find Geoff, today's Run Director, almost finished with the course set up. The funnel poles were in the ground and Mohamed placed the "Caution Runners" signs at the top and bottom gates. Everything else was at risk of blowing away, including the runners and volunteers, so there were no cones to mark the course or lightweight table for the token sorting.

Harvey took advantage of the conditions, deciding to fly down the hill to the start line, where there were a good group of brave runners. 38 of them were blown around the course including Chikako who was the VI guide and Alan, whose tail walker tail was blowing in the wind. They flew past Mohamed and Joanna who were marshalling. They then tumbled over the finish line and into the funnel, where the other GoodGymers were at work. Sevan and Harvey were timekeeping, Divy was handing out finish tokens and Kash in her favourite role scanning barcodes.

There was little to pack up, so results were quickly submitted and then it was onto collecting all of the shoes that were brought for recycling.

Five GoodGymers responded to the last-minute call to recycle their old sports shoes at Acton junior parkrun. Some of us couldn't make it the day before to the very successful shoe recycling initiative by We Run Ealing and GoodGym at Gunnersbury parkrun, so we gave those GoodGymers a chance to drop their shoes while volunteering at Acton juniors anyway.

Harvey made the most of both sessions: taking the lead in organising the Saturday collection at Gunnersbury with Tom and Steph, then bringing his daughter's shoes to Acton junior parkrun on Sunday. Chikako brought a couple of her daughter's sports footwear, and Sevan and Joanna donated their old running shoes. Kash, after a long wait, finally found a way to recycle her worn trainers that were getting a bit too slippery to run to GoodGym missions on pavements covered with wet leaves.

Ten collected pairs of used sports shoes will be packed up into a box early next week and sent to Jog On for reusing or recycling. That's twenty shoes saved from landfill!