The evening I met up with two of my favourite GoodGymmers, Abi and Latoya, for a mission in Barnet for Mrs P.

Mrs P is scheduled to have her electric cooker collected by the council tomorrow, but isn't able to move it out of her upper floor flat by herself. GoodGym were asked if we could remove this for her, ready for collection.

After introducing ourselves to Mrs P, we followed her up the stairs for introductions to the cooker. However, before becoming more intimately acquainted with this kitchen appliance, we first had to get to it by moving a tall fridge in the hallway to gain access to the kitchen. While Abi and Latoya were doing this, I occupied myself by pondering the meaning of life while also clearing the stairs in anticipation of the cooker's inevitable descent (multi-tasking is a gift of mine 😎).

As I'd managed to position myself away from anything even remotely heavy, my next job was to hover and take an occasional photo while watching Abi and Latoya navigate the cooker down the stairs. Part way down, disaster struck! The oven was protesting its eviction in the strongest possible terms by slicing open Abi's fingers!

With the cooker balancing on the stairs while Abi went to clean her wound(s), I stepped up very literally by going up the stairs to take her cooker-carrying place. At first, the oven was more interested in scaring me off than in killing me off with gangrene: Its scare tactics included staining my hands with a particularly unctuous coating. Although I complained loudly at this indignity to my person, I did not give up!

Feeling desperate with the end in sight, the cooker made one last assassination attempt by cutting my fingers open this time. Frankly, the oil was more off-putting than the attempt at death by 1000 cuts, but Abi and I swapped places anyway so she could have her oven-ge on the cooker by putting it firmly in its place on the curb.

Cooker evicted, Latoya and Abi moved the fridge from the hallway into the kitchen while I washed out my cuts and moved some of the previously displaced items back onto the staircase. We then made our goodbyes to Mrs P and meandered up to a local tube station 😎

Great working with you guys & I'm sure I'll see you both soon!