Tonight's task was a special one! Back to Stepney Bank Stables and our fabulous host had some great tasks for us including cleaning the bridles, grooming and massaging the horses, preparing snacks for their supper and giving their home an early spring clean. Pampered ponies - you wouldn't get a better, more relaxing, spa experience at a Champneys!

We had 3 new people tonight - Weronika, Iline and Elena joined us for their first ever mission and Tom made the switch from Greenwich to Newcastle, joining us for his first Toon-based task! It was great to welcome so many new people.

Special shout out to Tom, Jack and David who got themselves ready for their close up with ITV news who were filming us tonight - fingers crossed our fellas get their 15 minutes!

A slow start to Sunday and misreading the weather forecast meant it took some real self motivation for David and I to take our turn at the litter pick relay this week! We changed our mind three times about our intended route, eventually deciding to combine shopping with a litter pick just as the rain preceeding Storm Herminia started to come in. It turned out that this was an excellent route, as it toon almost no time at all to fill our first bag walking through the park. Then, bin bag number 2 turned out to be essential, filled almost entirely with bags of dog sh*t as we drew closer to the marina - yuck! The wind and rain definitely got stronger and colder during our walk, so we've got all the heating and lots of blankets out at home now to try and thaw ourselves! We'll try to get out again soon, as there's still plenty of rubbish to collect along that route. But we may wait for the next storm to pass before venturing outside again! Hopefully it warms up a bit for the Stables tomorrow 🤞

Walk, ferry, walk, pub, walk, beach, litter picker, plastic, trash, sand spick n span. Done!

Needing to get out the marina and feeling like we'd be slacking on the litter relay, David and I picked a somewhat sunny Sunday to take the ferry across to South Shields and do a beach clean. We were joined by fellow GoodGym-er Aimee who cycled all the way to us in the cold (and only fell over once!) Getting to the ferry was some effort with all the ice, but we made it safely, and only got a tiny bit lost on the other side looking for lunch on our way to the beach. Feeling very pro with a litter picker each and even a bin ring, we were immediately rewarded with an adorable 3-month-old puppy, and some beautiful scenery. Litter picking itself was a bit of a challenge initially, as even the sand had frozen in some places, and it can be tricky to differentiate between frozen leaves and plastic! But once we got our eyes in, there was no stopping us. Plenty of tiny plastic bits, a few wrappers, one abandoned and frozen t-shirt, and a weird amount of tampon applicators were our trophies for the day and provided plenty of entertainment for the day! Because we'd eaten first and the ferry was finishing early due to the ice, David was sad we wouldn't let him watch the football, but we all felt very proud of ourselves and happy to have spent a sunny (albeit icy) day on the beach. We even managed to get home without falling over and treated ourselves to a Baileys hot chocolate as a well deserved reward ☕️