Today I met up with Kapil for a mission in Islington for Mr and Mrs T.

Both Mr and Mrs T have developed some mobility issues as they've gotten older. Although they've taken several steps to make their garden easier to manage (fake grass and decking), leaves from some council-planted trees still fall into their backyard, causing a slip hazard. GoodGym were asked if we could help by clearing up some of the leaves.

Islington as a whole often feels like a patchwork of alleyways designed to confuse the lay visitor. Luckily, Mrs T had already provided us with detailed instructions regarding how to get to her home, along with a recommendation to ring her when we arrived. We did, and were duly guided to her garden past a stacked heap of squirrel-friendly monkey nuts (this has no relevance at all to the mission, but I really wanted to include a picture of the monkey nuts 😄).

There isn't much to say about the mission itself: Aside from generally developing/refining our raking and sweeping skills, Kapil learned the hard way that stiff bristles are better than floppy ones, I learnt that some people can have decided preferences on the jam/cream order debate without ever having tried a scone (Americans 🤷🏼‍♀️), and we each learnt both that "big 'n' thick" black bags are the way forward and to never use a rake on fake grass.

Over the course of one and a half/two hours, Kapil and I filled 9 black bags with leaves, enjoyed a tea break with fancy biscuits, and had a general UK/USA observation exchange (apparently, most of my US holiday was atypical 😅).

Mrs T was happy with our work and very thankful for our time there. After checking to make sure that we'd cleaned all of the nooks and crannies of the garden, she sent us on our way with a lovely seasonal greeting and a tin each of delicious looking biscuits.

It was fun working with you, Kapil: Hope that you enjoy your holiday to South Africa! 😄