The Great Wave Off CAN-agawa

I realised I left my sunglasses in the café, where I had been writing a report for my previous grand mission with Michelle, so I had to come back.

As I ran through the footbridge above the rail tracks in South Acton, I was picturing a long stretch of A4 and Michelle in her bright red t-shirt riding on her bike towards the blue horizon. I wanted that narrative of the previous mission to be so epic, that I worried I would neglect the story of Mr G, for whom I was about to do groceries.

Mr G was in a good mood today, his main concern was the state of his garden after the recent dry days. He asked me for a favour.

"The flowers are crying out there. Feed me!"

Mr G couldn't carry the full watering can downstairs to water the flower pots, so I have done that for him. Before going to Sainsbury's we chatted about my holidays back home and art. I learned that most of the prints on the walls of his flat were Mr G's creation and he used to be an artist. Since the age of nine, he was captivated by Japanese woodblocks, which led him to learn the printing techniques himself. We discovered that we both share the love of the incredible work of Hokusai, probably our favourite artist if we were to pick one. Mr G showed me the collection of his silk screen prints with the punk icons - the same ones another GoodGymer, Alan, must have seen the other day. It was amazing to see Mr G's craft and learn how difficult it was to produce prints before the rise of digital ways to create artwork.

I realised it was 38 minutes into the mission, so I ran to Sainsbury's. The shopping order didn't have anything new, apart from tenderstem broccoli, and a request to replace cavolo nero with cabbage as Mr G had enough of that fancy leafy green.

When I returned, Mr G apologised for talking too much earlier on, to which I replied I hadn't realised time had gone so quickly with conversations going around art, which I had enjoyed. He said he often feels lonely and does not have many people to talk to. I wished I could stay for longer, but it was already dark and I had to finally run back home and write up some GoodGym stories.