Shelf Help

You'd be forgiven for thinking as you walked into Hotel Indigo tonight that Andrew was sitting there knitting, and that's because he was.

This whole new knitting obsession is a common "thread" between tasks at the moment as Charlotte is being encouraged to take up knitting by her fabulous coach. The knitting is so "in" right now that Andrew even took his knitting needles to the pub tonight for the after-task social. Check out the photos!

After a weekend filled with Community Missions and LOTS of running, we had a quick catch up of everyone's achievements while Charlotte led the walking group up to Newcastle University. The main catch up that wasn't directly running-related is that Andrew has been making everyone cry today following the publication online of his brilliant piece about overcoming anxiety, which you can read here We are so proud of you Andrew, thank you for sharing your story in such a positive and open way.

We welcomed 4 new runners and walkers tonight thanks to a group joining us from Zero Light Newcastle as part of their volunteering and wellbeing drive- a massive thanks to Cathy for organising. We'd love to see you all again soon, you were all awesome.

Sweetie-themed warm up done and off we went to Newcastle University where tonight we were helping out NEST- the university society that supports education for refugees in the city. Task owner Bridget gave us the lowdown on tonight's tasks:

• A mammoth shelf-building session

• Blowing up footballs

• Putting together book bags

• Wrapping books in paper so as not to be judged by their covers

• Sourcing photos for picture dictionaries

The commitment shown tonight presented in sheer grit to get the job done by Peter and actually climbing INSIDE the shelves by Aimee. There's never any giving up from this bunch. Some awesome drawing and wrapping seen from the book "club" too while I was super impressed with the speed and efficiency of the photo sourcers and the immediate production line from the book bag group. Dave and Peter also did some rapid football inflation making sure everyone knew that it was extremely hard work.

Time was tight to get the shelves finished but everyone piled in and in just 40 minutes 5 sets of shelves were completed. What was brilliant to see was that a member of NEST actually stayed after his learning session in order to take part- and brilliant he was too. Bridget said the tasks we did this evening saved her and the NEST volunteers around 7 hours of their time which can now be spent on other worthwhile things.

Amazing!

We made a return to one of our favourite games for the fitness session showcasing all manner of cheating and dirty tricks as we played a game of dishes and domes, finishing off with a triple finisher including the dreaded wall squat. High energy, loads of laughing and the evening came to a close. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed watching the tactics in the game! A group went off immediately to the pub for the weekly social where Evan provided a mammoth Rocky Road for everyone to reward themselves with.

There's another new Community Mission this weekend if you'd like to spend your Saturday morning doing a good deed for Newcastle parks, and we are back to [Newcastle Cricket Club] for the group run next Monday.

Happy running, walking and knitting!

Anji x