We joined a group of parents to help build a set of bike sheds for a primary school. Sounds easy but they are heavy, complicated, and require many hands to put together.

One unanticipated problem was the awful smell on the plexiglass sheets which had been left out in the rain (words cannot describe - but it smelt worse than the nearby Hackney City Farm).

Louise had helped disassemble the bike sheds from the previous location and was determined to see the task through. After many hours and lots of swearing the sheds were complete. We celebrated afterwards with bagels and bubble tea.

A neighbour's trees overhung Mr F's garden, reducing the light getting to his flowers and vegetables. Having unsuccessfully tried the diplomatic route to get this sorted out, he called in Goodgym to help trim the trees on his side of the fence.

Standing on a combination of stepladders, ladders and the garage roof, in an hour and a half I managed to lop off a lot of branches. Mr F tidied up at ground level, filling the council garden bin and making a pile for the following bin collection. It was good to work alongside him in the sunshine, sharing the work and a few stories.

It was only as the bed started to come to shape did Ms E's daughter comment that it seemed very low (due to having very short legs...), and would be unsuitable for her 90 year old mother to sleep in, simply because she wouldn't be able to get in and out of bed!

I'd opened the box to find a very neat arrangement where all the parts for the bed were zipped into the headboard - so with the news, weather and then an interesting crime thriller on the nearby tv as background entertainment I got to work. The parts all seemed to come together ok, but it was only when I attached the footboard and headboard to the frame was it apparent just how low the bed would be to the floor - not quite a futon, but not far off!

At this point Ms E called her mother's social worker to say the bed wouldn't work for her elderly mother, and that they'd probably have to find an alternative for her.

I agreed to dismantle the frame (or as much as I could without damaging any of the now attached fittings), and stack them neatly back in the packing box. Ms E's daughter asked if I could get them back into the headboard, as it was possible the bed could be used by someone else, so it would be nice to have it back in its original box. I was reluctant to remove the screwed in fittings, but agreed it was worth a try.

By some miracle, all the parts did fit, and with a ziplock bag to contain the remaining loose nuts and bolts, we soon had it back in the original cardboard box, ready to be taken away. Ms E's daughter will continue her quest to find a suitably tall bed for her mother to return home to.

This run was a special collaboration with the Muslim Runners.

We all met up at Stamford Hill Station and got acquainted with some nice chit chat before heading to a side street to warm up. After that, we made our way to Nightingale Estate. I appreciated that Mo helped with pacing and checking the back to make sure no one was falling behind. It made it a lot easier for me to just focus on directions.

Once we arrived at Nightingale, we were split into two groups. Nighat, Fahad, Fatima and Mai were watering the flower beds, getting rid of weeds and cutting unwanted brunches that were growing. They got stuck in and completely transformed the flower beds.

Mo, Uzma, Bunmi and I went to a separate allotment they had that was 5 mins away. We were responsible for digging out all grass and unwanted weeds from the ground to make room for more plants to grow. It was a messy and tough job but we got it done and had a great time doing it.

Once time was up, some of us parted ways from there whilst the rest of us ran back to the start point. It was a very successful day out, and Nightingale were great hosts, as always. What a productive weekend.

A GoodGym bonanza today with Hilary, Nick and Md all joining from Newham.

It was a quick setup by Sooz, Nick and regular Mas.

Sooz led the usual announcements including a quick passing mention of her birthday and announced muffins and flapjacks for the finishers!

Sarah heading to her space at the tree, and with almost more volunteers than runners, we were off.

16 youngsters made it across the line and although there was a slight hiccup with the first place finisher having taken somewhat of a shortcut all was soon fixed and complete for another week!

This week we had not one but TWO first time GoodGymers join us for the tree watering task!

Echo and Serafima immediately got stuck in and soon had the hang of the hosepipe (permitted despite the hosepipe ban because we're watering young trees planted in the last 3 years).

Hosepipe handling skills are measured in the number of fellow volunteers who get sprayed (or preferably don't get sprayed) with water during the bottle filling stage of proceedings.

With each tree receiving 15-20ltrs or 1 ltr per sapling there's a lot of bottles to fill and refill, so plenty opportunity to hone these skills.

Despite the rain forecast, we'll be back next Wednesday to do it all again.