What better excuse to miss a parkrun than an early morning mission? That was the case today as I met up with Katie for a mission in Islington for Ms M. Extra kudos has to go to Katie, as not only did she do pretty much all of the work (see below), but it's also her very first mission! Woot!! Awesome job, Katie! 🎉

Ms M enjoys pottering around her small garden. Unfortunately, some climbing plants from a neighbour's property have started to creep over her wall, impeding both her light and her washing line (I think she cared about the washing line the most). As it's so high up, she's unable to cut it down herself, and so asked one of our referrer partners if GoodGym could help out 😎

After being greeted by Ms M, we were taken through to her back garden and asked how we felt about heights. I, personally, am very fond of heights. I am, however, distinctly less keen on edges. I felt my position on this become even more firmly entrenched when I saw the ladders to be used for this task (I refuse to call any ladder taller than me a "stepladder"). Thankfully, Katie stepped up to the job and up the ladder to take the mantle for today's task (I was the assistant to her surgeon, a position I felt very comfortable with).

After ascending the ladder, Katie assessed the tools at hand. The loppers were even less useful than a mansplainer on twitter, so Katie mostly used some secateurs (and occasionally a rusty saw) to hack through the overgrowth. As she worked, we chatted about various GoodGym things, including how to navigate through the website to find out about races and training runs, and about the "Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Socialising" Facebook group (a must for any keen GoodGymmer).

Finishing up, we tidied a few scraggly bits to the edges, said goodbye to Ms M and headed off for celebratory cake and coffee/smoothie (first mission accomplished! Woot! 😎🎉)

It was lovely meeting you, Katie: hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and that I see you on another mission relatively soon! 😄