I like that it's Mondays, because it starts the week off so well !

It already feels like a long time ago, but two weeks ago we were battered by Storm Brendan and forced to make a very last-minute cancellation. Tonight we were lucky enough to get the job done with a return to Newcastle Eagles Community Arena where we go along to monthly to help to keep an eye on- and hands on- their brilliant community gardens. Thankfully we weren't under threat of a storm this week, just a bit of baltic weather to remind us we are still deeply into North East winter!

These days, marvellous Task Force-r Maddy is a one-woman recruitment machine, and four of the five newbies that came along were thanks to her! Big well done to all of the fantastic five who came along- you all got stuck in and did a brilliant job.

We caught up on the Community Mission on Saturday that took place at Nunsmoor Park and a general catch up on the brilliant things we have been doing to help GoodGym count down towards 8000 good deeds in January- or should that be count up?! We are really proud of every contribution we have made. We celebrated the fact we have still done nice things in officially the longest month of the year, by telling everyone the good bits of January during a follow-my-leader warm up. Maddy won this too, with a very specific description of how and where she broke Dry January.

Off we went to Newcastle Eagles Community Arena with a little squad of walkers leading the way and brilliant Task Owner Neil waiting to meet us with the usual stash of tools, high vis and much to Dan's delight... A WHEELBARROW! We were working at the section of the gardens at the front of the building to complete some weeding, clearing and tidying up. Thankfully this was a task filled with moving, squatting, carrying, sweeping (and in Darren's case, rushing back and forth with the wheelbarrow to move the weeds) and we managed to stay wrapped up and warm- Paul even producing a secret coat he had carried with him to the task!

This is so therapeutic!

35 minutes flew by and we could really see the difference we had made. It's always so satisfying in jobs like this to stand back at the end and admire our work. It was freezing tonight so we moved quickly on to a double fitness session: 5 short burst "as many as you can" exercises then a big team relay in which some very impressive sprinting was displayed with top effort by all.

Kudos!

We have something new planned next week as we run to help Guide Dogs Newcastle with a big leaflet drop. I am waiting for a few final details for that one so keep checking back in the listing. Check out the Community Missions taking place this weekend too! Get involved if you can. Good things and great tea and coffee as always.

Have a great week knowing you started it the best way.

Anji x