BYOB

After a productive morning, Cathy, armed with a litter picker and a couple of waste bags, set off for cleanup after the Eco-Festival at St Margarets. When she reached Moormead and Bandy Recreation Ground, she found Kash from GoodGym Ealing, sitting on the grass. Kash claimed she ran for 70 minutes South for the community mission, although it was more likely she has just woken up in the middle of the site, after a series of Saturday garden parties. Another Ealing GoodGymer washed ashore on the Thames riverbank was Sevan who couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse for misplacing his GoodGym t-shirt. The description of his erratic one-hour bike ride from the South didn't make much sense, so chances were that also ended up in Twickenham by accident. Apart from bringing their gardening gloves from yesterday, the Ealing crew seemed to be totally unaware of the Bring Your Own Bags (and litter-pickers) policy. Luckily, Cathy had a waste bag to spare and a cunning plan up her sleeve.

The Ealing people were not the only ones whose stories didn't add up. Cathy claimed she participated in the prep for the festival the day before and that the fair was a massive event, covering the whole recreation ground. There was absolutely no evidence to support that statement. The green space looked pristine and litter-free, just like the Eco Festival never happened! A message from Louisa from the Eco Festival team explained that the fantastic cleaning job was already done in the morning by the council that have beaten the GoodGymers to the task.

Cathy, unmoved by the situation, was determined to do good for the respectable neighbourhood of Richmond (rather than head straight to a coffee shop) and came up with plan B, which involved hitting the streets of Twickenham to hunt for litter (and then going to the coffee shop). While Kash quickly secured a waste bag from Cathy, there was no extra bag left for Sevan who, apparently in need of the hair of the dog, scavenged for last night's leftovers of drinks which have been meticulously documented - as you can see. Despite that our Drunken Master was doing a pretty good job collecting the rubbish from the streets, Cathy and Kash continued to make fun of him until he rightly pointed out the very scant history of Kash's litter-picking endeavours.

After filling the bags mostly with chocolate wrappers, plastic cups and very few used facemasks, and dropping them by the bin at the recreation ground, the trio ended up in the second-best (according to Cathy) coffee place in the nearest area. After a good chat, Cathy had to head back home to continue with her work but she left the Ealing team some great recommendations of things to visit and eat in the area. Cathy was the star of the day and the community mission went ahead mainly thanks to her planning skills and determination.