Rain, rain, go away

When the heavens opened shortly after 6pm, it was assumed tonight's turn out would suffer. But no, not with the GG TH crew.

From 6:30pm, runners started to arrive at our gorgeous hotel meeting spot, safely tucked away in a warm, dry room, securely storing belongings and admiring crisp white bed linen.

We left for our task meeting point at 6:48 and arrived at 6:53. Impressive! We were speedy, we were a bit drenched and we were very happy to see our fellow GoodGymers.

Two teams, two tasks

We kicked off with a quick hello from Sam, our Area Activator in Southwark who was joining us for the evening, and reminding us about the upcoming rounders social in the middle of June. Sam then led half the team to the task to the Parkview Estate where the team spent over an hour watering (yes, they still needed it, despite the rain) new trees and plants, lovingly planted by...us and committed members of the TRA. The task was led by Catherine and young son Liam, who always loves picking GoodGymers brains on many different subjects.

Meanwhile, over at the Cranbrook Estate, the team of 8 were busy cutting back hedges, trees, gathering leaves and litter aaand...putting up bunting. Of course. It was a busy old 75 minutes. Luckily the rain stopped fairly on during the evening, and we were able to enjoy this decent gardening workout to a backdrop of the sun peeking through the clouds as we approached 8:15 and the end of the task.

A small group made their way back to the Hotel to gather belongings, while the rest of the team headed straight home, glad to have made it out on this damp Monday night, reconnecting with multiple communities, putting fitness to good use, and ending the day with a sense that the week had got off to a good start.

Until next time.

It was a decent sized group in the end who gathered to meet Lizzie and Simeon from the Trees for Streets team.

The sun put in appearance; the Museum Gardens looked beautiful, the project interesting, and then brought beautifully to life by Simeon and Lizzie.

Why trees on streets matter

We started with an explanation about Trees for Streets: why we were there; the role of the lowly tree, and how more of them can benefit our beautiful borough. We learned about how the scheme is one of sponsorship, in partnership with the council, and how multiple households can club together for a tree to make this doable and affordable for all.

All a-ward!

Then the serious business of the leafleting strategy was revealed: divided up into two wards, using our local knowledge of house-filled streets, we were divided into teams, along with highlighters and maps and dispatched to five areas of Bow and Bethnal Green.

We blitzed road after road, chatting to interested residents along our way. Those who headed further East managed to get a bit more running in, ending up with a decent step count for the day.

Mine's a flat white

We arrived back at base at 8 (some of us, who insisted on squeezing in "just that last half a street" a little after). And so the remaining leaflets were carefully laid out in team piles on our weighing bench where our flawless, highly sensitive adjudication system ascertained the thinnest pile was indeed Team Stepney, consisting of just a two-man effort of Johnny and Leo. What work. The lucky team won a £20 voucher for the lovely Chiringuito summer meeting spot, to help fuel a future Flat White Saturday for the boys.

The after-party

We posed for some winning team pics, savoured the last of tonight's Cadbury's Heroes, before bidding farewell to Lizzie and Simeon, with some of the thirsty leafleters heading off for a post-task beer.

Well done, team. Massive congratulations on finding the perfect streets, covering multiple miles, turning out on a warm, free August Monday to get on board with this splendid scheme.

Until next time.

Twix and chats

Our incredible team of 20 rose to the multi-sport challenge of a busy task and run this evening.

We met in the gorgeous Museum Gardens, eating Twix fingers and chatting, while we waited for the team to assemble.

Multi-sport options

Our tribe tonight was made up of club runners, joggers, walkers and cyclists, complete with a plan for everyone to enjoy tonight's picturesque route.

Chris was navigating the route and front-runners this evening; Sara and Fiona our cyclists who doubled-up as splendid route navigators and backmarkers for the walkers, while our Beth backmarked and led the walking team. It worked a treat! We all arrived at Meath on time, ready to be greeted and briefed by Joanna and Tunde from Friends of Meath Gardens.

Multi-task tasking

A small team joined Joanna and Tunde planting new trees in the far corner of the park, while the remainder of the team focused on a multi-task task: collecting litter, and pulling up weeds from around the new young trees, scattered around the park.

And did those kids get a haul: from hula hoops to mattresses; beer bottles to Red Bull tins, no trash stone was left unturned. Bags and bags were filled, as we enjoyed chatting to park-users and Meath residents as we went about our trashy task.

The stash

And then it was 8 and we were posing for our triumphant final pics, and our donation handover: yes, a multitask of tasks, this evening saw us gather any unwanted menswear and un-used tech for the Care4Calais crew, Tulio (and Joanna) for our temporary Bethnal Green residents who need a hand with some of the basics atm.

...And the shout-outs

To our Chris, Sara, Fiona and Beth, who led the sports activity. Well done for top teamwork and giving us a Group Run that saw us pottering along Bethnal Green streets, towpaths, and parks, without a single hitch.

To Sara and Ivy, who brought clothes and phones for this evening's donations!

To Harry, who brought you this week's spectacular pun.

Next week, we become Team GB...

And so 'till next week, folks, when we become I am Team GB as we head to Victoria Park, to once again join the phenomenal rangers team - sign-up here.

Until then, have a great week.