I walked to the mission, it was a lovely brisk 45min walk. Mrs E lives on a beautiful tree lined street, she said back in the day when bobbies were on the beat, they would make this street part of their route on hot sunny days as it is always cool. With beautiful trees come autumn leaves and for Mrs E they had started to fall into her front garden. She showed me the back garden which was very beautiful as Mr E had just mowed the lawn yesterday in between rain showers. She said that the front needed a bit of attention to tidy it up. I was last here with Clara about a month ago and we had cleared a lot of the grass and weeds. This time just a tidy was needed. Mrs E had the correct tools and a green bin only partially filled ready for me to add the leaves. Once I’d done I helped Mrs E put some of the grass cuttings from yesterday in what space was left in the bin. I said goodbye to Mrs E and walked back home for a nice cup of tea.

It was a beautiful late summer evening and it seemed everyone with a car to show off had headed to the Everton Park viewpoint. Amongst the sound of exhausts and tyres on tarmac came four panting Goodgymmers who had run from Hope Street. Run leader Liam with Sophie, Laura and Fred met myself at the lookout point and we waited for John for instructions.

It was a sapling attacking mission, the saplings were spawning of the trees and off tree trunks. We were each handed loppers and we got to work, cutting back the saplings to their base.

We got some curious onlookers. The boy racers gathered at the viewpoint pulled up beside us and asked what we were doing and what we’d be doing with the waste. They looked incredulous when we told them we were doing the task for fun and to stay fit.

We worked fast and furiously. In one hour, the five of us had made a good dent on the sapling invasion, they had been defeated, until another day…

John said the council would come to collect the sapling cuttings, ‘maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next day, but someday’.

As we walked down the hill in the setting sun… roll credits…

It was such a beautiful morning with Goldilocks weather; not too warm, not too cold. The leaves were turning golden and the grass was getting its green back after some much needed rain. Bekah, Fred and I met at the ping pong table in Princess park. We made our way to the start line. Steph was waiting on the route to take pictures and cheer us on. Aatefa joined the throng as announcements were finished and the run was underway. I jogged one lap and bowed out. I sat on a bench to wait for the others. I saw Fred cross the finish line at 26 mins past! He looked cool as a cucumber and I was amazed at his composure after running such an impressive time… then he told me that he’d only done two laps; well, you’ve got to ease yourself into these things and as I had also shortened the run, I was in no place to judge! Aatefa ran just over 29 mins, about 30secs over. She was disappointed with the extra 30 seconds as 29 had been her PB to beat but we all agreed that anything under 30 is a win. Bekah came in at 33 mins which is also a sterling effort. Steph came and joined us from her spot where she had managed to get some action shots and we headed for breakfast at one of our favourite spots; the coffee lodge on lodge lane. Steph opened a birthday card and present from Sallyann at the cafe, some lovely socks and a beautiful card designed by a Liverpool artist. After a delicious breakfast Bekah went to pick up some Baklava on Lodge Lane, Steph and Aatefa headed home and Fred and I walked back to Old Swan where we realised we were virtually neighbours! A lovely morning, perfect weather, lovely food, great company. Sticker Saturdays are the best :)

I spotted Miriam en route to the task and we walked up together catching up. We then met Tsitsi. It was so lovely to all be able to do a mission together as we have often done missions as pairs but never altogether and as it would turn out, this task really needed the three of us. We then headed for the task. Miss M welcomed us and showed us what needed to be done which was to dismantle a very tall metal bed frame. Miss M asked us to first take down the mattress and we were so eager to get going - we all forgot to take a before photo! We took the mattress down and put it into another room so we could start to work on taking the bed apart. We then assessed the best plan and best tools to use which in the end proved to be the simple, humble Allen key. After guidance from Miss M, Miriam first unscrewed the wall fixture and then quickly worked out to take down the bedframe we had to loosen the screws and then press in to release each bed segment. Tsitsi and I helped to hold the bed frame steady while Miriam started to loosen the screws. I felt all my gym training and all those shoulder presses had finally come in handy as I held the bed frame up on one side while Miriam and Tsitsi released the other side. After a bit of sheer force pulling out the side, we managed to get the top bit of the bedframe down safely on the ground. This meant we could then work quickly to take down the sides. We then moved at pace and showed Miss M the dismantled frame. Miss M wanted the slats also removing to ease with removal. Here Tsitsi and Miriam managed to quickly take off the grey covers so we could then start to pull out the metal slats. These proved trickier than we first thought as both sides had to be pushed down together and the absolute right angle was needed to then pull them out. After a bit, we managed to release all of these and put them to one side. It is always on missions that you find out some hidden talents and I learned that Miriam and Tsitsi clearly had excellently knot-tying skills - I have no idea what knots they did but it was impressive and held the slats securely together. We then put each bit of the bed securely against the wall and brought back the mattress into the room. Miss M seemed delighted and really grateful for all of our efforts. We said goodbye to Tsitsi after a selfie. I was walking the same way as Miriam and luckily so as Miriam gave me the all important update I crave which is whether pea fritters had been on the menu (something we share if we've gone to a fish and chip shop or been back down South) and started to sing "Right" said Fred, "Both of us together, one each end and steady as we go." which was the perfect pun for today's task. However this task definitely needed the three of us! As always catching up with Tsitsi and Miriam and completing a mission together certainly brought my week much joy!