Ms A's discharge from hospital is 3 months overdue and being prevented by the lack of a bed at home. Luckily, there was a new bed ready for assembly. Cue GoodGym to get the task done.

Ivo and Anne were greeted at the property by a member of Ms A's support team from the hospital who gave access to the property and then busied herself cleaning the kitchen while the bed assembly ensued.

Boxes 1-4 were opened, emptied and their contents laid carefully on the floor. Mild panic at the lack of any instructions or worse, any nuts and bolts, proved unfounded when the critical items were found encased within the wrapping of the bed's platform. (A folding, preconstructed platform - I've not come across one of those before in all the bed assembly tasks I've done!)

From there, it was reasonably plain sailing. Ivo interpreted the instructions, proving very adept at distinguishing a 4 inch bolt from a 4 3/4 inch bolt, and soon there was a recognisable bed.

Progress ground to a halt, however, when the 'arms' and cylinders, which lift the mattress and allow access to storage below, resolutely did not move and remained in the open position.

With visions of Ms A having to sleep at a 45 degree angle, balancing on her head with her feet to the ceiling, we couldn't give up. Finally to our relief, Ivo's suggestion of 'pure brute force' proved to be exactly what was needed (the instructions didn't mention this) and the bed platform eased into it's horizontal position. And stayed there..... until we let go ...

Thankfully the deep, luxurious mattress was weighty enough to keep the arms and cylinders in check and there was a perfectly normal and very comfortable looking bed to admire when we left.

Goodgym Hackney were out in force to get a new month of good deeds off to a flying start. Particular shout out to Evie, Indi, Lucy, Dimitrios and Andy who were joining us for the first time. Great to meet so many enthusiastic, friendly volunteers.

We were back at Stoke Newington Common to help our friends at SNUG (Stoke Newington Common Users Group) plant new hedging. There was a wonderful selection of trees and roses to plant, including dogrose, elder, spindle, hawthorn and blackthorn, although without their leaves, it proved hard to differentiate between some of them.

With so many volunteers (SNUG were out in force too!), we were able to split into two groups, working at two locations on the Common - one by the bus stand to create a hedge between the common and the pavement, the other along the fence by the railway line to help mask the metal railings. The climbing roses were particularly well suited for this job.

Holes were soon being dug, plants selected, supported and protected with canes and tubing, and pressed firmly into place to help them bed in.

After a good hour and a half, we had run out of space and canes. So we gathered up tools and unplanted hedge plants, and made our way back to base camp where SNUG very kindly shared hot drinks and home made cake, which was very much appreciated by all.

SNUG have already been in touch to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part. They were thrilled to see so many GoodGymmers and are most grateful for all GoodGym's help.

Anne and Gosia visited Ms R to help her out in moving a table and chairs 🪑🪑. We both thought Oh, that should be nice and easy one 🍰 to end the January challenge with. Well one could say we couldn't be more wrong 😆.

We arrived around 17:10 and used a buzzer at the door. Ms R welcomed us warmly and let us know that the table is located in the room just ahead of us 👀.

When we entered the room we quickly realised that the furniture move is not really a true essence of this task 🕵‍♀️🕵‍♀️. What caught our attention was a massive pile of rubbish 🗑 and "things" lying all over the floor with chairs located at the top and a table completely buried just at the very bottom ⚰️.

Ms R explained that the fire inspection crew let her know that currently it's not safe in her house, as there was an another table and a chest of drawers standing too close to the garden doors and making it not possible to leave in case of an emergency 🔥. There was an entire chain ⛓️ reaction situation there which led us to a conclusion that we need to move most of the stuff away to be able to do "anything" with this problem.

We exchanged meaningful looks with Anne and knew what's coming our way 💣.

We started small, shyly suggesting to bin some things, in time the choice started to get easier 🙊🙈🙉. We designated bags or boxed were we put a certain category of things e.g. medicine 💊, clothes 👕, toys 🧸, letters/docs ✉️ for further selection. With the rest - we were picking all up and quickly filling bin bags, one after another; getting rid of incl. old food, sanitary pads, tissues, old newspapers. This way we spent around 1.5h.

When we finally made space, only then we proceeded to the furniture move. We kept struggling along the way because of the remaning clutter but - as it also turned out - some of them were glued to the floor with ... puddles of spilled honey 🍯🫣. Slowly but with a determination we placed tables and chairs in their designated places.

Ms R was then able to open door to her garden 👩‍🌾. She showed us a shed where we eventually placed one of the tables, recycling bin, bags with clothes and few other things. This actually helped us a lot in making more space in her living room.

Ms R seemed to be very happy with the outcome, kept saying that She can believe it!. Well we couldn't either 😆😆😆.