Lucinda was in the North. Northern Emma had gone West. Others were watching Fulham or were off work sick. But Chris travelled over, despite a very early morning next day, and another six of us set to work collecting every last bit of litter from the Cranbrook gardens, front and back, as well as a huge number of leaves which had accumulated rather earlier than usual this year

Emma mounted the mound, Jo lifted litter, Adam pulled plastic out of trees, while Kareem filled bags with all kinds of debris. And as for Kitty – what can we say about the ever-cheerful Kitty who sauntered up to GoodGym one day on the Isle of Dogs and has never looked back – congratulations to her on her golden anniversary: 50 good deeds, just in time before she departs London for the shire counties – temporarily we hope…

The original idea was to help set up the family party for our friends at the canal club, not least so Tower Hamlets had a Saturday morning task that week

As it happened, we were involved in another task https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/setting-up-a-stall-for-the-cemetery-park-summer-fair-c49d2f87-92f2-412b-8628-5a61e8b8a8dc that morning, and coincidently, Sally from the canal club phoned on Wednesday to suggest we instead served coffee in the afternoon. Synchonisity!

So five of us turned up in dribs and drabs, to find the task had changed yet again – we were now looking after the barbeque! And it turned out that special guest Sooz from Hackney was a dab hand at turning chicken, halal skewers and sweetcorn, until they were just nicely cooked through the inside

Other useful attendees were Sam, despite a late night at the Queen’s Head in St Pancras, Ilana, who’d just knocked nearly a minute off her previous ParkRun PB (despite a lack of photographic evidence), and Adam and Emma, who stayed well beyond the call of duty in order to tend the barbeque and keep everything safe and sound.

There was to be no mulching at Columbia Road this time, the mulch heap having been removed by the council after a fire, an indication of the drought conditions endured by Londoners at present. So there's a hosepipe ban, but plants still need irrigation, which is where GoodGym come in...

A very healthy turnout of 19 GoodGymers soon grabbed a surprisingly adequate number of watering cans. They boosted their daily step-count while strengthening their muscles, returning again and again from the water tap in the storage area, to the bushes and plants on the other side of the estate. Doing good while keeping fit!

Ed and several of our crew seemed to have abandoned the task, but never fear, we found them using an alternative tap, unhelpfully situated behind a fence, but more handily situated for the bushes and trees on that side of the estate

Special mention to Lucinda and Chris who were prepared to stay in the confines of the storage area in order to serve a constant stream of GoodGym “customers”. Actually, they probably had the right idea, it was a bit cooler in there…

Returning to the canal club, this time we concentrated on weeding the winding paths between the plant beds, alongside the canal. Others chopped and sawed wood. It was a crowded space for the lucky 13 of us, but we spread ourselves into twos and threes and set to work, while catching up with each others’ activities since last we met

Our reward, supplied by lovely task owner Sally, were weather-appropriate home-made lollipops, with even a choice of flavours! So we continued the socialising while exciting our taste buds, then after most people had dispersed, four of us decided that the night was still young, and headed for The Hare in Cambridge Heath Road

The Canal Club, however, is currently proposed as a site for development. It was built for residents of the Wellington Estate and its activities include toddler storytelling, baby dance classes, Tai Chi, knitting and sewing, outdoor pizza making, breakdancing, line dancing, karaoke social evenings, a science homework club, singing, refugee activities, a food bank, arts and crafts, and Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. There is a ball court and a children’s playground

This is not an empty site! If you want the council to remove the site from its accelerated housing scheme, sign the petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-our-space-e2-save-the-canal-club