The surprisingly cold evening didn't stop David and Martin from optimistically turning up in shorts, whilst the rest of us sensibly covered our legs for an hour of litter picking.

We were pleased to see Nisar back after a break, talk about parkrun, and hear all about his other great volunteering work recently! Russell also returned after a short break and of course he and Andy talked at length, with Disneyland on this week's agenda for them. Martin casually slipped into conversation that he'd run a marathon in Colchester at the weekend, and spotted an unknown Goodgymer.

We tried out a different litter picking location down by the river, and whilst being stared down by an understandably angry swan, filled up two very heavy bags. Andy ventured into the bushes and produced an almost unbelievable amount of Tesco cider cans, followed by posing for a photo with a gleeful wine glass holding Sallyann.

Our task this evening couldn't go past without mention of some of the group's previous love, Beat the Street, or without a photo of a once frequented lamppost on Waterloo Lane.

With it being Fay's birthday tomorrow, she very kindly brought us delicious homemade lemon drizzle cake, thanks Fay! It's also Sallyann's birthday on Saturday, David's birthday on Monday, and it's just been Nisar's birthday. We funnily enough didn't discuss gifts, but plans for birthday food, including Moto, homemade pizza, fish and chips, and Chinese takeaway. Hope everyone enjoys!

Thanks for a great litter pick, and see you all soon.

Laurie

God it was cold tonight! That didn't stop 12 of us eager to get litter picking though. We met at ARU and I bragged about winning a prize through beat the street and meeting the mayor before being knocked down a couple of pegs when I realised I forgot my beat card. No points for me today! Something also looked a little off, Russell trying out a new fashion strategy by wearing his t-shirt backwards.

We ran a route out to get to Odeon to meet Ben (excellent star wars hoody and all), Jess and Angela. We dived into the litter we could find. It was when we hit the B&M car park we hit the motherload. Andy found a mystery key for locker 96, Jess thought Angela had left a bottle from work..., Sallyann has a worrying tendency for finding the booze bottles, and a huge amount of the usual snack packaging. Bianca won the prize for most full bag. We posed for a photo by the green wall, Laurie questioned Martin's face which she declared confused.

We braced the cold weather to run back to base and hitting some more boxes on the way. But just when we thought the fun was over, Fay whipped it out! That's right, her bag of treats to celebrate her 100th good deed last week! Amazing work Fay! and thank you for the goodies, even brought some dairy free ones for Jenny. Joel also did 250 good deeds last week but he didn't even show let alone bring me anything...Can't wait to see the new t-shirt!

See you all soon.