Autumn appeared to be arriving in Hounslow. The leaves (already prematurely shedding from the long dry summer) were shades of orange, the evenings drawing darker again and a distinct smell of pumpkin spice in the air. But GoodGym work hard all year round, so this didn’t make much of a difference to the eight heroes out last night.

The task for the evening was with our dear friends at Cultivate London, and we were asked to help at one of the local schools with leaf clearing and litter picking. On paper, this was a group run, and Tish led her army (aka Chris) to the school to meet the rest of the gang who had arrived on two wheels. We were met by Romina, who supplied us with rakes, spades and a glut of black sacks and we got going.

Chris and Emily started on little pick duties, which left Tish, Jon and myself to start on the leaves that had been swept into a humongous pile beneath the trees. Michelle, Jonathan and Divy also joined during the task, and the eight of us along with Romina were busy bagging up.

We discussed some of the weeks big topics (RIP your Majesty), including the debate about the Met Office ‘cancelling the weather’ and whether anyone would be joining the queue to see the Queen lying in state. Jon also casually mentioned it was his birthday. Unbe-leaf-ably, he decided the best way to spend his 70th birthday was in a school raking soggy leaves. Happy birthday you good man!

Before we knew it, the light was fading, and the leaves had been moved from a golden carpet beneath the trees to an impressive pile of large black bags. Job completed, we helped move said bags to the recycling corner for Romina, said our goodbyes and sacked off the task to head off for part two of the evening activities.

Team Chrish set off on their run, and the rest of us in convey on bicycle. There was a delay at the level crossing, which allowed the runners to catch up with the cyclists… and then overtake as they decided to go ‘the long way’. As the level crossing stayed down, the cycle group numbers diminished until it was just me obstinate enough to wait it out for over 12 minutes. By the time I arrived at the pub, everyone had ordered drinks and started on their prawn crackers!

We were joined by Remy at the pub, and celebrated Jon’s big birthday with a fantastic chocolate malt cake courtesy of Michelle ‘Mary Berry’ Grimley. Another successful GoodGym Hounslow Wednesday comp-leaf-ted.