It was raining quite heavily when I got the bus from Old Swan and Bekah drove from Toxteth to a house near Breeze Hill. We met Mr. W and he explained that ‘Bulky Bob’s’ (the local big waste collectors) were coming soon to collect his arm chairs. He wanted them moved into his back room and some other chairs bought down from upstairs. It was a bit of a ‘to me to you’ moment when we navigated how to get the chairs down the stairs. Mr. W was really grateful and said that once Bulky Bob’s had collected he would like us to come back and move the chairs we’d bought down from upstairs into the back room so he could put some flooring down in the living room. We were really glad to be able to complete the mission despite the bad weather and we’d be happy to help Mr. W again.

With ominous skies a gang of eight intrepid Goodgymmers gathered at the bombed out church. This week we were aiming to finish the job started a few weeks earlier, which was to varnish all the picnic tables after a summer of festivities. The BOC team had been so impressed with our work last time, they'd immediately invited us back. We set to work a little anxious of the weather, as the day had been peppered with showers so far. We split into pairs and divided up the brushes, and managed to get all the remaining benches covered with only a few drops of rain.

By the time we were finishing, the clouds looked dark overhead, but hopefully the varnish will dry properly, and the benches will hold up well to future seasons.

Most important of all, this session was the first for new member Tom , who ran to the task, did an amazing job, and who we all hope to see again soon..! And thanks to Dan for leading a social pre-task run.

I had my hair done before this mission which was stupid because I ended up a brambly sweaty mess! Mr C’s house was really big, a lot to manage but the garden was tiny. It was overgrown with brambles so I got my gloves on and my secateurs out and got cracking. I’ve done a job like this before, the brambles are going mad this year. My hands got soaked pricked loads by the thorns on the brambles. I know from the other job like this that it doesn’t hurt that much now but over the next few days I’ll feel like I’ve been pricked like a pin cushion! Mr C said that his health was declining and he tried to help but I told him to take it easy. The neighbour popped her head in and offered a tub of industrial weed killer. Just over an hour into the job it started raining so I called it a day. I think I achieved quite a lot in the time but happy to go back again and do more.