A fabulous group of keen runners met promptly at 6.30 pm on Monday to run to our task! We were all looking forward to our second week at Pagoda Arts Centre, helping them prepare for their Chinese New Year celebrations. We completed a lovely 2km run through the Chinese Arch and recieved some enthusiastic cheers from passers by.

It was the night before the New Year, but unlike the night before Christmas, lots was already stiring at the centre on our arrival.

After being joined by the rest of the group we had some quick introductions and the all important safety briefing!!! The task owner, Zi Lan, gave us our directions along with some education about the three core symbols of the Chinese New Year celebrations; longevity, good fortune, and, prosperity. We were then given free reign in hanging and decorating lots of lovely artwork and decorations including setting up the display on their main feature wall!

We split off into groups, with various people measuring, planning, hammering and decorating and others assisting in moving and organising items that needed to be stored away for the festivities.

After a lot of planning, hanging and organising, we all came together at the end to finalise the main feature wall. It was lovely to see the wall finished by the end of the task and even better to complete it as a team.

I was delighted that most of the runners were happy to go back to the suitcases the long way, resulting in a total of 4 kilometers run together. A great success all round!

This Monday we were back helping Mulgrave Street Action Group with their Urban Space Community Garden. After our litter picking efforts last week, the area was now nice and clear and ready for the next step - digging up all the pesky weeds! Our first challenge was actually identifying the weeds and minimising unnecessary plant casualties. Khan had far too much faith in our weed spotting abilities and was surprised when further clarification was required. As Bekah rightly pointed out though, the definition of a weed is not set - a poppy could be considered a weed in a field of sunflowers! After decanting all the required equipment from the shed, we were ready to get cracking with the gardening…or so we thought….It turned out the pile of binbags we had formed was merely a collection of plastic aprons! Very handy for a painting task I guess, but not so much for collecting weeds in. Luckily eagle eyed Chris spotted a roll of bags camouflaged amongst the pile and we were able to crack on with the task at hand. Whilst the majority of the group started tackling the weeds, some of the stronger members got to dumping all the litter bags from last week and the contents of a green bin (which unfortunately passersby had been using as a general rubbish disposal place) into the skip. As 8pm approached, the garden was looking much clearer with plenty of space for the new planting planned for our next visit. Khan was very pleased with the result and grateful as always for all our help. After taking the all important group photo we headed on our way, looking forward to returning to the garden in a months time!