With Paul off conquering the West Highland Way, Frances led a small but perfectly formed group of 12 (including newcomers Jasmine and Sanne) to the Single Homelessness Project in Highbury to help them shift some woodchip. This is a great London-wide charity working to prevent homelessness and help vulnerable and socially excluded people to transform their lives, with several sites in Islington.

After some initial confusion over the precise location of the required shifting, we located the pile and got stuck in, with half the group forking and shoveling the woodchip into bags, and the other half forming a chain to take it through the house and into the back garden.

It looked like a daunting task at first, but we made steady progress, and with the end in sight we took a quick poll and decided we would stay until the job was done! In the end we only needed an extra five minutes or so to get the woodchip firmly forked, bagged and its rightful place.

We had time for a quick photo before Steve Coman led us on a speedy route back to the Emirates and we had some chocolate digestive thins to celebrate.

Paul will be back next week, and we'll be off to Thornhill Square Gardens - details here!