Mr T actually met me downstairs outside his main entrance door this afternoon - I asked him why the guard of honour, but he said it was because their front door was broken and he wanted to come down to let me know...he was sporting a big plaster on his left forearm, the result of a visit by the Vampire(!) to draw another armful of blood from him - this time the visiting nurse was precise, accurate and required only one shot to draw the required amount, something Mr T was very pleased about - his last experience was not a pleasant one.

Yet again, the shopping was incidental to the breadth of conversation we had across a large number of quite diverse topics both pre and post shop, and I got some carrots to take home to improve my eyesight too.

As I stood in the longish queue at the Church St Market Tesco, the cashier asked if anyone had clubcard - the lady in front of me offered hers, and the cashier scanned it under the beam and the man paying at the counter saved £5 on his purchases. The same thing happened for the next lady, and again the lady with the clubcard saved her £2. I mentioned to her she should be on commission for all the savings she was making for her fellow shoppers - she just smiled.

It was a demonstration of unexpected human generosity and full marks to the cashier for realising each of the shoppers could make a saving if they used a clubcard (even though they didn't have one) - the best of shopping related humanity in action...

When I got back from today's painless shop for Mrs S at the world's politest supermarket, her therapists were treating her in the living room - Mrs S was delighted to be surrounded by her various "helpers" on a Friday morning, and in turn her therapists were keen to hear about GoodGym and the scope of "services" that we offer, and how they could get in contact. A beneficial morning all round then for everyone in the room.

If it's possible to have a warm, but cooler evening, then tonight was it - the recent hot weather has certainly re-calibrated the comfort scale, especially when it comes to running.

We all looked forward to a return visit to Wild Green E13, Plaistow's most lovingly cared for community garden, and our host Fleur was on site to welcome us when we arrived - Hilary and Graham had run from our usual meeting spot at Freaks and Geeks, Nick from Plaistow, and Bea arrived in one piece on her bike.

Once we'd got the container unlocked, it was clear this evening's task would be watering to try and keep the young plants, vegetables and all the contents of the wooden planter boxes alive. Our biggest challenge soon proved to be having enough water to get everything done as their giant water butt was running low and it had been a while since there'd been any top up, either via mother nature or from the local fire brigade.

However, low water wasn't going to stop us and we soon had a production line running to get watering cans filled and roots watered as best we could. As Graham stood over the tank eeking out the very last of the drops, it was apparent we had exhausted this particular task, but as always, Fleur was very grateful for our efforts. We'll be back here again in September, by which time there will hopefully have been a rain shower or two to give the plants a drink.

We set off on a cooler run back to our start point, and diverted into the pub for some well earned refreshment - this time not needing to rely on the last drops from a water container to rehydrate us...

Next week we'll be helping out on the planters at Barnard Grove - join us if you can, those plants really need our help!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/maintenance-of-planters-on-barnard-grove-19198e61-72a0-4c49-8904-5a150c05553a