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

It was awesome to welcome along a team in sky blue from the fabulous Claremont Road Runners tonight as they popped along to GoodGym Newcastle in place of their usual Monday night club run to see what we are all about. It was so great to see how quickly you all "got it" and got involved and we'd love to have you back any time! Thanks Nina for organising this mini mash-up. Click on the link to find out more about this fab local running club.

While we were famously getting our mugs on telly after ITV filmed us last week, GoodGym life went on and we did what we do every Monday, meeting up at Hotel Indigo, with a quick catch up, warming up with a silly game and heading off into the night to do good deeds. It was an extra-special night as everyone's favourite Route Master and all-round top husband of mine Paul was celebrating his birthday. For those who didn't come tonight, you missed CAKE. And there was loads of it.

For my 50th Good Deed tonight we had a brilliant new task at Byker Community Association organised by ace task forcer Dan. We had one big job to do: sort out THE ROOM OF DOOM by helping to clear out a cupboard, forming a human chain to transport piles of random stuff to a waiting skip. The human chain is always a firm favourite of ours as we passed down everything from a spirit level, a mannequin, loads of out of date drinks and in Paul's words, "something rank, I don't even know how to describe the smell". Task owner Rowena was delighted with our help, as the cupboard was cleared in under 20 minutes.

YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!

Rowena gave us a fabulous background history of the centre and told us all about the brilliant activities that bring the community together in Byker in the famous wall. The clear out that is currently taking place will allow the team there to create a reading room where they will host beam-back bedtime story readings for children in refugee camps. How life-changing is that? It was great that we were able to make such an impact and I know we will be back.

I changed my original plan for the fitness session tonight when I saw the tables and chairs set up in the main hall that were begging for some fit competitive people to play a game of musical chairs on them (with a fitness twist, obviously). All manner of competitive game play ensued with moments including Emma grabbing a chair from under Sarah (literally), Nick jumping into chairs in absolute ninja fashion, and an edge to Charlotte storming into winning seats we have never seen before! The fitness forfeits were also creative and fun, my favourite being Dave's step ups on the chair while he waited his turn to come back in.

In the end, it was Emma who was victorious, declaring "I HAVE NEVER WON AT MUSICAL CHAIRS IN MY LIFE!" leaving me a little sad I didn't have a lolly or something for her.

Three top elements achieved: heart rate up, out of breath and laughing our heads off.

I've shared a great live video on our Facebook page that was posted on Byker Community Association's FB of everyone during the task that I hope you all enjoy.

It's another new task next week as we trot off to help out with a huge kitchen clear-up at Newcastle Cricket Club. Get involved and you might even get to play childrens' party games by way of exercising. Sign up Here

Have a great week,

Anji x