A lot of things were against us tonight: the rain, my lack of common sense, a locked door... but we got the first of our sessions to spread the word about the brilliant Guide Dogs UK done and had a great start to the week.

Guide Dogs UK NE have asked us to do a series of leaflet tasks across the city to share the opportunities they have for fundraising and for fostering dogs. (All very good boys and very good girls).

Six GoodGymers assembled and marvelled at how Lucy and I could be collectively quite stupid - what happens at GoodGym stays at GoodGym- before having a good old catch up about three community missions that took place over the weekend. We warmed up with a good game of Copy Cats before heading off to Heaton. Richard led the runners while I took the walk squad up the hill to Byker. We did two good deeds in one tonight: leafleting and litter picking around the shops at Heaton Road. How very wholesome.

Activation drills then a mini sprint workout followed before heading off back down the hill and of course by then the rain had stopped!

There's no Monday session next week but we do have a big Beginners session on this Saturday with our friends at Ouseburn Trust. I'd love to get lots of you along to that, so come and bring a friend if you can.

Urban Green community missions are definitely one of favourite ways to spend a Saturday morning.

It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as first timers. Cllr Bell also joined us this morning and shared that our good deeds are making the park a safer place for the local community.

There was one final overgrown hedge to tackle and Ranger Mike was quick to get us sawing it down to head height. With teams on both sides of the hedge we soon had those trees and branches cut down to size.

The sun may have stopped shining by coffee break but it did not dampen our spirits. There was still plenty to do.

We split into smaller teams to replace the safety flooring under a swing, litter pick and clear the under growth.

Time definitely flies when you are having fun and before we knew it, our session was over. Well almost, we couldn’t leave without one final good deed…. Check out the photographs to see what that was!

You can tell Paul was back tonight by the calibre of this pun!!

On a beautiful evening in Toon, an enthusiastic bunch of GoodGymers gathered feeling chilly but raring to go. It was great to see Oliver and Carrie back for their second sessions, while Libbie was back after an absence of over three years! Newbies and OGs alike assembled and after a quick warm up we were off, with Paul leading runners and myself and Louise walking.

Super task owner Vanessa met us at Recyke Y Bike, the brilliant charity in the brilliant workshop space near Byker. There were two tasks this evening: labelling bicycle tools in the two tool boxes, and sweeping the enormous workshop. Everyone set to work and I was impressed with how well everyone pretented to know what they were doing with the tool labels. A bit of googling and a bit of guesswork meant it was no problem to this brilliant team.

Half an hour flew over and the floors were sparkling, tool boxes organised and amazingly the cakes on offer refused (!!) and it was time for the fitness session. We did loads of ladder drills tonight and marvelled at how light Oliver is on his feet- who knew?!

Another good deed done to start the week off right! Hope you can join us soon, there are two great Urban Green gardening sessions this weekend with Tanya and Louise, then we are back for some leafleting next Monday.

Wow! What a busy morning at our big beginners session with Ouseburn Trust. We welcomed FOUR new GoodGymers to our Saturday bonanza and the sun came out too- eventually!

I did a quick round up and hello to Oliver, Briony, Sam and Suze who joined us for their first good deed before heading off to meet Dave and Dale from Ouseburn Trust. The sun came out as we were given our jobs: path clearing and litter picking around the network of paths around Ouseburn.

It was a real workout today and I bet there will be some aching arms tomorrow as we scraped and cleared the paths and cobbles to make them safe and accessible for the many users who pass through every day. The local humans and animals popped by as you can see from the photos!

Wrapping up the session we finished with a three station fitness session and I treated everyone to my annoying bleepy timer for the running, tricep dipping and star jumping. You are welcome! What a huge effort from everyone today.

There is no Monday session this week but we are back with a brilliant new Community Mission at Summerhill Park next Sunday. See you then!