The mission did actually have a Monty Pythonesque start - looking for Flat 10, we were surprised to find Flat 9 on the floor below Flat 7, which was itself on the floor below Flat 8......

So 'Lift' did have a number of meanings here - firstly, 'No Lift', which was why Ms M on her crutches was unable to carry a number of rubbish bags down the stairs to the bins. So we 'lifted' them down for her. And then, after dismantling a light wardrobe, we warmed down by 'weightlifting' with her son's dumbbells. Ms M is moving soon, to a block of flats with a 'lift', thank goodness.

Most of today's discussion with Mr T centred around Chicken Soup and the benefits thereof...largely because a few weeks ago I'd bought him some long grain rice that when he'd first cooked it, it turned to a rice pudding consistency - he'd then discovered he hadn't read the cooking instructions properly and it needed a shorter time in the pan - this week he'd mastered it and when added to his Chicken Soup he'd created a culinary masterpiece...

Miss N has been away on holiday for the past couple of weeks, so was good to catch up on how it had been - she was looking well for the change of scene! Today's Aldi task was mostly fruit and cheese related, plus an unusually difficult hunt for a Honeydew, but found one in the end at Church St Market.

A short list for Mrs S this week as she still had quite a few items remaining from last week's shop - her daughter was staying too, and was worried that it wasn't a good use of my time to head out for just a few items, but Mrs S corrected her to say that I wouldn't mind "the pleasant stroll" to the world's politest supermarket to collect them, for which she was absolutely right!

Somehow Ms Y has spent the past however many weeks sleeping on a mattress on the slats of what used to be metal bed frame on the floor - unsurprisingly it's not been a pleasant experience, so she was very grateful when I rang her doorbell this evening ready to do some bed making.

First task was to remove the old frame, which just required the slats to be removed by forcibly ejecting the plastic brackets, and then unscrewing the frame such that the pieces were more manageable to take down the stairs.

With that done, it was open the cardboard box time and get building - previous experience definitely helped as occasionally the instructions weren't crystal clear, but fortunately nearly all the pieces were marked, and the correct number of bolts were in the packaging, along with the right sized Allen key, and step by step it came together.

Once the frame was all complete, I pulled the mattress on top and tidied up the bedding and then went downstairs to let Ms Y know that she had a new bed - the look on her face was similar to that of a small child on Christmas morning, and when she sat down on the bed for the first time (and realised she was now a good 2+ feet off the floor) she was absolutely overjoyed and couldn't thank me enough for my efforts.

Wow it gets dark early these days...very much a head torch lead litter picking session this evening with the Friends of Chandos Road, where our hosts Mark and Leela were pleased to see Rebecca, Ciarán, Tendai and Nick arrive ready to get picking.

The area we focused on was near the recently planted Flower Meadow, and for which (great news) the Friends of Chandos Road have secured additional funding to expand the meadow (for which they may well need some volunteer assistance to lay turf, plant seeds etc...watch this space).

With darkness now upon us, we split into smaller groups each with a bag and litter pickers and got going as best we could in all directions. A large pile of cigarette butts occupied Rebecca and her group for a long time, whilst the other group encountered the remnants of an extensive buffet and a lot of bottle lids which needed some effort to prise them out of the ground...

Before long we had three pretty full bags of rubbish, and so called it an evening - with litter pickers returned, and Rebecca kindly agreeing to take the rubbish bags to her nearest large bin on the way home, we were thanked by the team for our efforts and headed off into the darkness.

Next week we're at the Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground to help Ange with whatever she's got planned...it might involve sand, logs, bark or wheelbarrows...