We were ready for our close up last night in Hounslow as our task plastic picking by the river was to be covered by a photographer from Associated Press. It was with the flash of the camera that we left Chiswick Town Hall after warm ups to head to Kew Bridge.

Once there we met up with Dan from Active 360, who handed out litter pickers and plastic tubs. Luckily for us the tide was out, but unluckily it revealed masses of plastic bottles, cans, microplastics and wrappers that had been washed up onto shore.

We ventured down as far as we could go collecting everything we could see and chatting with local people who were interested to see what we were up to. We even spoke to one older lady who was stopped from studying geology at school because of her gender, but went on to do an archeology course in later life. She was very keen to see what treasures we might find! Unfortunately I don't think the British museum would be particularly interested int he discovery we made under the bridge last night....

The trugs were being filled quickly and our trainers getting muddier (see Breda's muddy badge of honour in the photos - hope you managed to get them clean!) as we picked and sorted. Before long it was time to bag up and count up how much we had saved from polluting our waterways. Dan worked out we got more than 6 kilos of waste, which is pretty good going in the time we had. Every little helps when it saves plastic getting into our water systems and aquatic life.

We made use of a nice well lit tunnel to do our fitness session, inadvertently creating an unofficial guard of honour for everybody that passed through - I think they appreciated the cheers! We knocked out various different lunges, jumps and leaps, which certainly worked up a sweat.

We saw off the evening with stretches, and for some, a warm up (and clean off, hopefully!) at the pub for food. There are a few fun missions coming up such as this one to drop off old trainers in Osterley and bashing and weaving on Chiswick eyot. Next week we're off to help Wild Chiswick in the allotments - see you there!

Acton Junior parkrun's roster was overflowing with volunteers today. So much so that there were 5 (yup, five!) tail walkers who included Kash. She was disappointed that today's Run Director, Joanna, didn't assign her the orange tail walker hi-vis with the leopard's tail. Maybe next time...

Most of the ice around the course had melted by the time the runners got going, so the black ice warning cones, placed during the course check, were redundant. They looked like they were randomly placed for the children to slalom through and dance around. They left marshals Steph and Sevan a bit confused too.

There were more confused people on the course too as 3 adult men showed up after the start and asked if they were late for the start of today's parkrun. They may have been young at heart, but Sevan explained that today's event was for children only and they should head to Gunnersbury Park next Saturday. Not counting the 3 men, 45 other young hearts enjoyed today's free, organised parkrun, whizzing past Harvey who recorded their times and Alan who dished out finish tokens to the happy finishers.

The pre-shop chat with Mr G took longer than usual this week, and not just because we caught up on his activities over the festive period. We took a look through his cupboards and fridge to see which of his regular items didn’t need a top-up, as well as discussing some possible new items as part of Mr G’s New Year resolution to eat more a more healthy diet.

In the end, the list consisted mostly of familiar items with one healthy recent addition (salmon fillets) offset by a much less healthy treat.

Mr G was particularly pleased that I managed to get a new battery for his doorbell which now works perfectly, confirming the diagnosis made by the Stream Team just before Christmas.