The true beauty of GoodGym is the reflection that much like life being like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

Is that too deep for a Monday?

We LOVE helping NEST at Newcastle University as they always have a creative and diverse range of tasks for us that always offer us opportunities to show great team work. NEST is a volunteer project offering educational support to refugees in our city, and I have to say I have never met NEST students that aren't the happiest people you see all day!

It was a huge welcome to a big group of 30 including 3 newcomers tonight, all of which did a fantastic job and hopefully will be back to join us every week now the lighter evenings are almost upon us. We caught up on some great mission news, from Richard and Liz's older person mission last week which allowed someone to return home from hospital safely, to a huge clear up that happened in Harbottle Park yesterday we started the night glowing with pride!

Katy led the Simon Says themed warm up while I joined Charlotte's walking group and tried my best to not bore everyone with my injury woes which I know are mainly in my head. I heard reports that the warm up included "millions of squats" so the gang were well and truly warmed up on arrival to Newcastle University!

Task owner Bridget ushered us into a classroom at the back of the university where there were so many of us we had to move chairs around and perform some army rolls under the tables just to fit in. One side of the room looked like an interview panel and I couldn't decide which job they'd all be going for. Bridget explained that the NEST sessions are growing, with a turn out of 170 students at a session over the weekend.

How brilliant is that?!

NEST hold regular parties for learners and their families and tonight our task was to make decorations, in a brief throwback to our Christmas task there were I witnessed the most terrible snowflake-making by Peter. One side of the room were to make glorious mulit-coloured paper chains, while the other created quote cards for the NEST students to read. These are simple tasks for a group of our size that make a massive difference to groups like NEST ahead of this week's party. This chilled-out task gave everyone a lovely chance to catch up while showing off their creative flourish, or lack thereof.

We had an unexpected late edition to the group when Tom arrived at 7:10pm (late but worth the wait) taking our head count to 31!

Task done and out to the fitness session which was a fast interval session disguised as a children's game- always a winner. Excellent sprint and dodging techniques were on display and we crowned James King of the Cops at the end of the game. The energy was infectious tonight and everyone was smiling as we left.

There's a double Nunsmoor task coming up as we head to Nunsmoor Park for the Community Mission on Saturday followed by our first light task of the year on Monday at the Nunsmoor Centre so it would be great to see you at either or both as we get stuck into some hands on physical work!

Have a great week everyone, you smashed Monday!

Anji x