Dark clouds, silver linings...and some brown packing tape.

Yesterday afternoon I tried to collect a parcel from the delivery office in Whitechapel, only to discover they'd changed their opening hours to 7-9am...frustrating at the time..but on the plus side it did then see me being up bright and early this morning, and once I'd done the pick up, I peddled furiously up Cambridge Heath Road to now familiar St Luke's church, where I discovered no-one had yet put a list up on the door for today's foodbank collection.

Experience over the past few weeks has taught me to be prepared for most things on this mission, and in my bag I had a piece of paper, pen and roll of brown tape...30 seconds later the list had been created, and I'd placed myself first in the queue...My only concern as I rode home was the threat of rain washing away the list, but fortunately it seemed light drizzle was all that was in the air.

So back to Mrs E's at 11, pick up the letter from her daughter and set off to join the crowd, which seemed very thin on the ground today until 1125 when people started appearing from all directions. With the threat of rain, the volunteers constructed a small awning over the table and got started.

The volunteers were still happy with Mrs E's letter, handed over the four bags (I still don't know how Katie managed to carry two parcels worth last week), and by 1150 I was back knocking on the door. Mrs E's daughter couldn't believe I'd managed to be so quick and could only laugh when I told her about the unexpected benefit of this morning's early alarm call...