‘‘Twas three nights before Christmas and all through Mr R’s house, only GoodGymers were stirring but definitely not this dead mouse

A drizzly, grey Friday morning saw Zoe, Mark and I meeting at Mr R’s flat in Gipsy Hill to clear out some furniture, in preparation for his return from hospital.

Mr R’s occupational therapist met us and showed us in, before explaining the task in hand. It was classic GoodGym fodder for all three of us: humping and dumping sofas and chairs to make way for a hospital bed. Despite looking like an awkward and heavy job, with three flights of stairs to negotiate, we managed to knock out the removal work in record time as all three of us are seasoned professionals in this art.

The rest of the time was spent cleaning the flat, which was no small feat. Mr R had been away for some time so we were treated to the sight of several dead mice and their copious amounts of droppings! Never ones to be dissuaded, we swept, bagged and dumped multiple bags of rubbish so the flat looked much clearer and indeed liveable.

The final stage had me sweeping the communal stairs and emptying the hoover bag (for probably the first time this year) before we parted company, in the immortal words of the great Chris Rea, ‘driving home for Christmas’.