A super easy milk & smoothie delivery from Sainsbury's to Mr R left me hungry for more challenges. When chatting to Mr R, I found out about a mysterious issue with his phone, which the local phone store wasn't able to help with. Mr R said he was unable to access some websites, especially those advertised on YouTube. After a quick look at his phone, the verdict was that his browser was perfectly fine loading websites such as GoodGym's, or even commercial ones, if accessed directly, but refused to display the pages trying to sell Mr R all sorts of stuff or hook him into playing online games. I confirmed Mr R's suspicion that his browser seemed to be protecting him from aggressive advertisement trying to prey on his attention, and we both concluded it's probably best to leave the "issue" unresolved, since Mr R could still access Amazon for deliveries, YouTube for learning new things and some fun, and other websites he really needed.

Bank holiday today so some challenges as limited stores open and public services also reduced. A bit of running, walking and bus to get to Ms D and checked out in her area if shops were open etc. Knew I was up for a challenge today! Ms D welcomed me and realised it was bank holiday, and was not too worried if I could not get all the items. She had family around the last few days so had plenty of food and just needed some essential items. This was a typical Goodgym mission as had to run between stores due to bank holiday : roughly 3km to go from one to another. Ms D normally gets items from Waitrose but was ok to get the essentials from elsewhere. So I ran with a list and some cash to 2 different waitrose's I the area...closed!!!Next was Mark's and Spencers which was normally supposed to be open, but not today!! Then last attempt was a Tesco that I noticed a bit further : yeah we have a winner. Limited items as reduced opening hours today and not refilling due to limited deliveries. Got all the main essentials for Ms D like the milk, bread, fruit ,soup etc...only 4 items missing which were not critical for her like the TV list. Ms D was happy to have her shopping done despite it being a bank holiday.

With the help of my two runners we were able to get ahead of schedule which led to the day being much more smooth

Arriving at Miss M's flat and peering in through the front door, to Kash and Sevan it looked packed with stuff. Good thing that they were on a mission to declutter and take donations to a local charity shop.

At first, a set of bags were ready on the landing for donation, filled with clothes and bags. Miss M said that this would be all for today as the bags were heavy. The mission description had said something about heavy books too though, so Sevan asked if there was more to help with. There was, so Kash and Sevan explained that they had the time to do more for Miss M today and she decided to prepare another batch for when Kash and Sevan returned.

The mission was originally listed for 2 or 3 GoodGymers and on the way to the charity shop, the duo found a woman with skates who took some of the weight off them. The now trio speedily made it to Fara and their donations were gratefully received.

For the second round, the donations were more eclectic. Miss M had found a pressure cooker, some curling tongs that historians would be interested in, a saw (not donateable), clothes and more bags. There were also 3 heavy boxes full of books that Sevan helped lift out of the hallway cupboard. Those 3 steps to the cupboard were as far as he or Kash went into the flat during the mission.

The first box from the cupboard was full of novels and the next 2 were a bit lighter and full of... handbags! Miss M could've started her own handbag shop as Sevan estimated that they may have donated 40 of them during the mission. Another quick run to the charity shop with the second set of unnecessary items left the charity shop workers and Miss M very happy.

Anastasia and myself jingled over to Mr D to help him put up some Christmas decorations in his flat to make him and his cat feel more festive. I realised i had done this task before, 2 years ago, so was lovely to see Mr D again. After encountering a chewed Xmas light wire (the cat was looking guilty!), luckily he had plenty of other lights and decorations squirrelled away to complete the transformation and we were done in no time, leaving him happy and looking forward to the festive season! Happy Christmas! 🎄

Set up equipment for those taking part in the workshop