Once again we gathered at John Scurr Primary School on a Friday night, and as ever, everything was organised perfectly and caretaker Ray was there to greet us.

Our main task was to scrape white paint off a wall - I'm pleased to say it wasn't the same wall we painted white just a few weeks ago.

There was much conversation; mainly we discussed Germany's health system, as you do. It was certainly more interesting than watching paint dry. In fact, scraping paint off a wall is also more interesting than watching paint dry. The skill is to find the low-hanging fruit of paint-scraping-off: i.e. the loose, flaky bits.

At the end, the debris beneath our feet provided evidence of our work. Everyone removed their protective goggles, except me, I wear mine all the time.

Meanwhile, Martin set to work removing blue paint from a wall and pipe. When asked how it looked afterwards, he said "much the same as before". Many an untrue word is spoken in jest...