The taming of the Yew

Good Morning good gymmers! This week our mission was for Mr. T. The A-team (geddit), which consisted of Qiao, Bianca, Patrick and me (Mridula), went over to Hackney to help him clear out his garden just in time for summer. We needed to clear out some of the overgrown hedges so he could appreciate his garden, and maybe in the future he could install a paddling pool. We like your thinking Mr. T! Dream big!

I arrived a little early and was standing in the quad waiting for the other's to arrive, whilst simultaneously trying not look like a shifty lurker. A young lady approached me, and asked me if I was from GoodGym, which made me think that I'm getting better at not looking creepy. She is Mr T's neighbour and an actress who is in the currently acting at a play in the Barbican! She showed us where the tools were and introduced us Mr. T, and give us rough instructions on what to do. The brief was to take down a tree that was growing into the neighbours, so when Mr. T had his summer party, his neighbours would come! For all your horticulturists out there, we were not entirely sure if the tree was an yew, but the pun really worked. Forgive us, and feel free to troll us in the comments.

We split up into teams and took a two pronged approach with Patrick and I tackling the (possible) yew tree that was overhanging into the neighbours yard, and the ladies tackled the tree and the rest of the yard from the front. The tree was obstructing a tremendous amount of Mr. T's view, and it needed to be attacked with gusto. Patrick put on some motivational (albeit questionable in taste) choons, and we began to work. Avril Lavigne was on his playlist. Patrick, if you met me when I was 13, I think we would have been best friends.

The Yew tree looked tougher than it appeared but relatively easy to saw down. Patrick being the 300 mission expert that he is, was on hand to provide some critique (I accused him of being judgemental) of my poor sawing technique. I apparently use teeny tiny strokes, but would benefit from using the entire length of the saw. In fairness to him, my arms did hurt less using his approach. We broke down the tree from the back and I managed to yank out an enormous section, which made me feel like some kind of gladiator whilst Bianca and Qiao tackled the front.

Bianca and Qiao tackled the intimidating front of the yard, proving how much they could get done in a couple of short hours. If you see the before and after pictures, they basically cleared the entirety of a yard in the same time it took me to saw down most of a tree. There was a slight issue with Bianca getting a bit too familiar with a rose bush. Fortunately for her, she had on her safety pants and neither of her buttocks were harmed during this mission. Bianca and the safety pants is also a great name for a band.

Mid way through the mission, quite randomly, I heard someone shouting my name. Looking up, it was an old friend from my adult gymnastics class. And by adult, I mean middle aged, not the other kind of adult. It turns out she was Mr T's neighbour. She loved the idea of goodgym and she may be joining us on our group runs soon!

Qiao made light work of clearing up and began piling through the enormous amount of debris we had picked up with our clearing of Mr. T's garden. She managed to fill up the most bags of any of us, whilst Bianca tidied up. We all agreed that having 4 people on a task was exponentially better than having two. The same task would have taken 2 people at least 6 hours.

After two hours flew by rapidly we were done, and couldn't quite believe our before and after. By Mr. T's estimates he won't need to see us for another two years, but he was so much fun, I kind of hope we get to do more for him soon. Another day, another good deed done! Till next time!