The original idea was to help set up the family party for our friends at the canal club, not least so Tower Hamlets had a Saturday morning task that week

As it happened, we were involved in another task https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/setting-up-a-stall-for-the-cemetery-park-summer-fair-c49d2f87-92f2-412b-8628-5a61e8b8a8dc that morning, and coincidently, Sally from the canal club phoned on Wednesday to suggest we instead served coffee in the afternoon. Synchonisity!

So five of us turned up in dribs and drabs, to find the task had changed yet again – we were now looking after the barbeque! And it turned out that special guest Sooz from Hackney was a dab hand at turning chicken, halal skewers and sweetcorn, until they were just nicely cooked through the inside

Other useful attendees were Sam, despite a late night at the Queen’s Head in St Pancras, Ilana, who’d just knocked nearly a minute off her previous ParkRun PB (despite a lack of photographic evidence), and Adam and Emma, who stayed well beyond the call of duty in order to tend the barbeque and keep everything safe and sound.

Stress is prominent in our society, and now it’s affected the trees! The parched summer we’re suffering is no fun for our barked friends either, who are shedding their leaves before the schools have gone back. They know a thing or two about survival – one of the plane trees on the site is 280 years old – but the leaves are piling up and blocking the paths of St Matthew’s churchyard

So a squad of Goodgymers – some arriving earlier than others – converged on the premises to help Lady Andrea address the situation. A special welcome to new recruit Arina, who’s just joined her boyfriend in London, and was soon converted to GoodGym, after Mile End ParkRun on Saturday

We picked up, swept, gathered and bagged, all while catching up with news of padel and tennis, job hunts, shakshuka, pubs, poetry and property

Within an hour, we’d filled more large bags than I could count (but it was more than twenty-five). Just pity the man from Veolia who comes to empty the medium-sized rubbish bin and is confronted with our leaf-bag mountain. At least he’ll have a nice tidy church garden to look at…