10 runners ran to a local community garden to move soil and water plants, then ran to have pizza and beer

A majestic spring evening in Stratford with barely a cloud in sight. A slight hiccup in proceedings early on, our base - The Aquatics Centre - was temporarily shut to the public. Meaning nowhere to drop bags and change! We applied a small amount logic, and distributed the weight throughout the group. Our sherpas for the evening, Alice and Tim did a a sterling job. We shall pay them in Tibetan currency (yuan) for their efforts.

Bolstered numbers this week, a hearty 10 of us, made the short trip over to the mobile garden city. A quick hello to Gabby the gardener, a skim through her written instructions...and then we all fluidly found our place in a well oiled do-good machine. Alice, Jane and Carol quickly got to watering some 80 plants or so...while the rest began the muscle-contracting task of moving 10 or so ton bags about 60 metres or so. A couple of techniques were used to good effect. The wheel barrow came into its own, a long with the more challenging option - get lots of hands on the bag, and pull as hard as possible. Either way we had finished up in no time at all, just goes to show how useful it is having those extra bodies, asides from your wonderful company - you're an integral cog. I reckon we moved 5 - 8 tonnes of soil, that's a lot of earth.

With no designated base to return to, we went and found pizza. Quite a delicious one in Westfield Shopping Centre - so that place does serve a purpose I guess. Rodney's recommendation of Franco Manca was originally treated with suspicion, but the boy done good! It went down a treat. After giving our digestive system a little interval work, we thought we'd give it a cool down...and walk in the direction of the pub. We then entered the pub, where we met Rosalind who had been patiently waiting with a novel in hand. Pints were had, information was shared, laughs were heard...a pretty damn lovely evening all in all. Next social date tbc soon.

See you ALL next week

B