It was the yearly Age UK summer party, which celebrates the fantastic volunteers that help out week in and week out at the Hammersmith & Fulham branch. So GoodGym were out to help volunteer for the volunteers!

Peter from the charity helped settle us in. It was a slightly chaotic start to the evening, as the weather decided it didn’t want to play ball and the plan of a lovely drinks reception in the garden was thwarted by the British weather. Doesn’t rain for weeks and it decides to pour the day of the summer party, typical eh?

Despite the drizzle, we had a funny old time helping serve drinks to the guests. We then went from pouring Prosecco to plating up pilau, as it was time for food. The Age UK chef had cooked up a fabulous curry feast, with all the trimmings! The room smelt amazing, as Michelle ladled out lamb and Cookie dished out Dahl to the hungry volunteers.

Once everyone was served, we were able to sample the absolutely delicious culinary delights, which were second to naan. All the volunteers were well fed and watered tonight!

Although our tummies were bursting with Bhajis and full of food, we had to keep calm and curry on, as plates needed to be cleared and pudding prepped.

Lizzie made sure everyone still had a full glass, whilst we tidied the tables to the sound of the evening’s entertainment: Lucy was belting out Neil Diamond and Frank Sinatra… The professional singer also joined in, although he wasn’t able to do it whilst carrying a stack of washing up!

Dinner service complete, the empty platters were moved back to the kitchen, where they were washed up and Katie and Lucy helped dry the dishes, and put away the plates. The final task for the evening was pudding! Everyone got a table service serving of fruit salad, and Lizzie made sure those who wanted also got a drizzle of cream to go on top.

From a drizzle of cream to the drizzle outside, our evening was over as we cleared up and left the volunteers to enjoy the rest of their party!

Mrs H had a beautiful new patio. Her builders weren't gardeners though and had made a mess of her flower beds. They'd left big gaps between the new wall around the flower beds and the soil inside it and someone needed to fill them in. Mrs H's small palm tree had been knocked over too and was now being propped up or weighed down by some pieces of rubble. Not ideal and nor was the fact that Mrs H's favourite fork had vanished.

As well as the main tasks above, there was some general weeding and tidying to do, which Kash took on, plus removing a dead rosemary bush. Mrs H was also concerned about any trees growing in her garden and wanted to dig them out. Sevan thought that would be quite destructive as it would affect a lot of nearby plants, so instead the pair cut the trunks of any potential trees at ground level, stunting their growth for now. All the while, everyone kept their eyes peeled for the missing fork

With the ground work completed, it was time to fill in the missing soil and make the palm tree more stable. Mrs H's son had had 6 bags (or 360 litres) of compost delivered, so Kash and Sevan got to work, moving the bags and pouring the compost, finishing just in time for the end of the mission. The end result was, no gaps 🙌 and no fork 😢. Despite not finding the fork, it was a great way to start the day, leaving Kash and Sevan filling positive for the missions to come...

A challenge was waiting in Mr R's garden, a petrol mower. It had "Easy Start" emblazoned on it, which may or may not have been true. Mr R claimed it was better than his previous model

"Let's see how good you are at starting" - Mr R

There was only one way to find out. A minute later, partly burned exhaust fumes were wafting around the garden. Nice work Honda (and Kash)!

Kash began mowing the lawn and Mr R had a surprise for Sevan, a well stocked shed containing plenty of tools including a battery powered strimmer. Mr R wanted everything in the flower bed nearest the house to go, which would be Sevan's job. Grass, bushes, bluebells... everything was to be strimmed to the ground. Looking carefully, there were hidden dangers. Statuettes were lurking amongst the plants and needed to be removed before chopping started.

The strimmer was good with grass, so-so with thick bluebell leaves and no good with bushes, so Sevan went back to the tool shed to get some shears and secateurs. In this case, the manual tools worked better. Sevan chopped everything down to size while chatting away to Mr R about his sporting past, the history of the area and Laurel and Hardy, who Mr R was a big fan of. To Kash, they looked identical to characters called Flip and Flap. Mr R said that Kash and Sevan reminded him of the slapstick duo, but who was Laurel and who was Hardy? 🤷

With the main jobs complete, Kash went bramble hunting to clear them from flower beds at the back and sides of the garden, with Sevan joining at the end to complete the task. They were good at starting and good at finishing, leaving Mr R happy with his garden. Success!

Ms J had moved into her new flat without lifting a finger. She had been in hospital recently and her best friend had found a team of movers to pack Ms J's belongings, label them and dot them around her new flat. Most of Ms J's belongings were still in boxes, but her priority was getting her TV working as it was lonely being at home with only her cat Coco to keep her company as she was still waiting to have her broadband connected.

Ms J's friend said that the TV was working right before Sevan arrived, then started showing a black screen with no channels available. As this was the most important thing to do, Sevan took a look and it was confusing. After 20 minutes, he figured out that someone had switched it away from the Freeview channels to another TV mode that looked almost identical 💡📺. With that mystery solved, it was onto the unpacking.

Ms J had some essentials that were top of the list to find. Firstly, her electric blanket as her illness left her feeling cold all the time and next up was her razor. It wasn't mentioned at the start, but Sevan found that Ms J was interested in any cosmetics that he found in boxes, so they probably completed the top 3.

When Sevan started to open the large boxes to find Ms J's hit list, he found that there was nowhere to empty the contents to. The flat didn't have much storage, so he rummaged through each box trying to find useful things then put everything else back in the box. Some adhoc storage was created by stacking a couple of empty boxes on their sides to make temporary cubby holes and they became quickly filled with shoes, so it was back to repacking.

The electric blanket was found quickly as it was big and furry. The razor on the other hand was elusive. The boxes in the bedroom were mainly clothes and linens and after exhausting those, it was time to root through what was left in the living room. Eventually, after being foxued on finding it for most of the task, Sevan found a razor shaped thing which, it turned out was missing its head and its charger. It was the old one apparently, so the hunt went on until Sevan ran out of time.

Always a fun mission helping out the TRAID crew.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

I cycled over on a beautiful sunny Saturday and met Mr W's son who was very welcoming and explained the tasks. The council had recently been to clear the debris and contents from a broken down shed but the area still needed clearing of leaves, weeds, rubbish, rocks and bricks. The second task was levelling around the edge of the garden with soil as there was a trench. With a shovel and some core strength I managed to fill in the trench and get it all leveled. Mr W's son was very grateful and explained the plans to build a new shed soon. Oh and bonus - cute cats!