When you need painting in your big old bus Who you gonna call? (Goodgymbusters)

It may have been dull and drizzly on the riverside this morning, but this did not dampen our spirits as we helped Building Futures East to renovate their old double decker bus in to a secret garden.

Inside the bus the chairs had already been removed in preparation and another volunteer group had tackled priming one side of the outside of the bus. Our task was to prime the inside and remainder of the outside of the bus ready for a mural to be painted on it.

Given the messiness of the task, we appreciated the coveralls and gloves the task owner provided.

Crystal and Rob quickly made a start on the inside of the bus, while the rest of us split into two groups to tackle the front and side of the bus.

It's amazing how much progress we made in such a short period of time, although we did manage to paint ourselves as much as the bus. I enjoyed sharing my elbow grease trick for swiftly cleaning paint off of our hands.

I can't wait to see the garden when this project is finished. Keep your eyes peeled for the open day announcement.

Our morning was rounded off with a little visit to the Cycle Hub for a cuppa and catch up.

Join us on Monday for an Ouseburn litter pick.

Shock, horror, another wet day in Newcastle! Rain can’t stop play and thankfully we were heading off to an indoor task this evening anyway. Up through Walker and into Byker the running group went led by Paul who was leading for the first time in a few months. I walked then we met Louise at the task.

We have been helping Recyke Y Bike since the very early days of GGNCL and every time is different, but tonight will be one of the memorable ones. We’d been drafted (pun intended, obvs) to help to organise donations of games and books that will be used in the Bike, Book Swap that’s taking place over the summer in and around Byker. This will give local families access to a brilliant toy, book and game exchange that comes to their doorstep for free. Louise did a double good deed tonight as she came to the session AND brought a big donation of games- many of which Elliot and Maddy wistfully looked at and wanted to play!

When the sorting was done, we completed a variety of other jobs that are small tasks that make a big difference including sweeping the workshop floors, moving bikes and helping to fold the big gazebo cover! The task owner Vanessa was really grateful that we’d done so many things to help. We are back at the end of August with a bike cleaning task which will be loads of fun.

Please please get involved this Wednesday with our leaflet drop for FoodCycle. Numbers are low and Lucy could really do with some extra hands on this one! NB: This will now start at the earlier time of 5pm.

We are back next Monday for a session with a twist- meet us for a walk and a drink for the summer social.

Firstly, a big shout-out to Antonellawho joined her first GoodGym session this evening - it was great to meet you Antonella - we hope to see you again soon!

If you've been out and about in Newcastle in recent days you might have spotted some Shaun the Sheep sculptures lurking around! These are part of the St Oswald's Hospice ewe-nique fundraising campaign and we were delighted to spot some of them during our session tonight. I thought it might be nicer to see some pics of the colourful creatures rather than the litter we were collecting!

To business! We started with a warm up in the Stepney Bank Stables car park. Charlotte kept us all safe by watching out for traffic while we had a jog around interspersed with a few star-jumps, skips and side-skips. I thoroughly enjoyed being in charge of Dan's whistle, which he warned me was the most powerful whistle in the world!

A gentle downhill jog through the lovely Ouseburn (Ewes-burn?!) Valley (with Charlotte cycling) to the Quayside where we collected seven bags of litter. It was great to hear about Aimee's mad dash to Glasgow for her Q parkrun, ready to go for her Z in Poland soon to complete her alphabet of parkruns! We also took the opportunity to pose for a photo with the Tyne Bridge in the background, looking resplendent with the Great North Run sign on display! (Good luck to Beth running it as her first half marathon!)

Back to the Cycle Hub for a fitness session. Tonight we went for a strength session just to show it's possible to do strength training with no equipment whatsoever! A circuit of squats, lunges, press ups and dips with a back-drop of the Tyne - what's not to love? We debated how many circuits to do and I think Elliot was definitely right when he said three sounds better than two! Three circuits it was then!

Back to the stables to finish with a last push up the sheep hill to the car park (see what i did there?!) A great finish to a great evening!