Back at our One Strawberry Lane base for the second time and it still felt like a bit of a novelty! If you haven’t seen it yet, we are back in a few weeks time- remember our group sessions are now two on and two off at OSL, the others back at Stepney Bank Stables.

I don’t consider myself a feeder but I arrived loaded up (down?) with some slabs of carrot cake I’d made an enormous batch of at the weekend, and they were truly a carrot to dangle for tonight’s session. It’s been years since we have helped at any of the brilliant Changing Lives sites and it felt really special to be back tonight to begin a series of gardening jobs at Cumberland House at the bottom of Westgate Road. Cumberland House is home to vulnerable women in our city, where Changing Lives does an incredible job of getting them back on their feet safely. I was shocked to see we hadn't visited since the end of 2018!

We’d been left a lovely note tonight with some jobs to complete but were without a couple of tools and directions we needed so instead we got on with clearing, weeding and cutting back the back garden that was certainly in need of some GLC (GoodGym Loving Care, obv) and with eight of us on the job tonight we truly gave it the transformation treatment. Weeds were pulled, rubbish was tidied and the grass was cut. One of the big novelties of the night was the chance to use a lawn mower - this is honestly such a highlight - and Lucy did a splendid job as you can see from the photos. I can’t wait to hear what the task owner thinks when she arrives back at work tomorrow.

No task on Westgate Road is complete without a visit to Summerhill Park for a fitness session and after a body part number game to warm up (kudos to Catriona for a handstand!) a fun game of Water, Wind, Fire hit the spot and unleashed loads of laughter and connection to end the night.

We are back next Monday doing good stuff with Ouseburn Trust. Remember to meet back at Stepney Bank Stables for that one! Hope to see you then.

PS Thanks to Louise for the PunSpiration, I mashed up our ideas in the end!

Monday again.. how did that happen?! I’ve looked forward to the session all day on account of it having some quirkiness and the fact I haven’t actually been outside today and been totally buried in work.

I was really looking forward to meeting Paula tonight who’s certainly made a splash at GoodGym Newcastle, chalking off three good deeds in as many days, what a way to kick off your GoodGyming! Give her a big cheer. Really nice to see Aimee back with us too following her move back to Newcastle.

With black clouds looming we took cover near Stepney Bank Stables entrance while we caught up on the weekend’s activities that included two community missions and my big 250th parkrun. Yay! Regular GoodGymers know how long I’ve counted down for that one and it felt great. The inspiration for tonight’s session actually came a couple of weeks ago when we did a leafleting session in Byker and noticed how much litter accumulated around the fences of nearby St Lawrence Park. Always the primary school teacher deep down, I turned this into a challenge and made some fun bingo boards to give a twist to the session. Teams were divided, competitive sides exposed and off we went: time to tidy up and conquer!

You’ll see from the photos that each group had nine items to tick off and they had to take a photo of each to be victorious- the prizes for this included 80s inspired sweets and sheer glory. In just 20 minutes, Tom’s team (including Scott and Lucy) had won. Kudos! Just seconds behind was Paula’s team (with Damu and Aimee) also collecting every item and perhaps the most impressive random thing of the night, a pair of Turtle pyjama bottoms! Before long two bulging bags of rubbish were collected and we headed further into the park to complete an Ekiden-inspired relay race. Once again a very competitive activity with Team Turtle Pants this time taking the victory.

What a fun start to the week!

Feeling like tasks are a little sparse at the moment, we took advantage of a quiet week to leaflet for … ourselves! Yes the task tonight was to spread the word about GoodGym Newcastle. With only 150 leaflets to post we decided to double up on the good things and do some litter picking on the way. It was great hearing about Aimee’s adventures in GoodGym York at the weekend, we love a bit of tourist-ing! Damu had stayed closer to home, getting himself a podium finish at the notoriously hard Windy Nook parkrun which is impressive.

With Beth held up at work and meeting us at the task, we headed off to Heaton through Ouseburn quickly filling a bag with rubbish, left over from weekend partying. We had some interesting discussions started by Scott about meditation, mindful movement, breath work and, well, hugging trees- very wholesome until I had a can of Stella accidentally poured down my leg as Aimee put it in the rubbish bag. (I did some deep breaths and hugged a tree to get over it and was quickly fine).

Catching up with Beth on what is likely to be her last GoodGym before becoming a Mummy, we set off on delivering leaflets and very quickly got the job done. We really hope we can get some new people along throughout the summer and hopefully this helps!

We took advantage of being close to City Stadium running track and headed down to burn off some Monday steam with some fast paced 60 second reps, everyone working hard including Beth who was in the role of top trackside supporter while I kept time and looked important. Brilliant effort by everyone to work hard on a hot evening, and a perfect start to the week.

We welcomed Aimee from Newcastle Goodgym who joined us to help tidy up the Community Garden for the Community Picnic later in the day. Aimee and Laura weeded the long bed whilst Stef trimmed the long grass around the trees and David collected all the cuttings and weeds in the wheelbarrow. After an hour the garden looked much tidier ready for the picnic.