Welcome to Gary for his first GoodGym Manchester/Stockport session.

This evening, we were mural making as part of the Plastic Shed bus station mural. With most of the lids added by local children and visitors during the half term open shop, we were able to fill in some of the spaces left to add.

Our task was to fill in the river surface, with a slightly lighter blue than deeper water, but not too light... henceforth known as Goldilocks blue (although there were splashes of dark blue added in for good measure). Once lids were in place and Caitlin gave the all clear, we secured them using drills and screws, with some lids easier to secure than others.

As Lily Allen's new album played in the background, we got through all the boards required, including saving them from falling under the weight. The mandarin duck and well camouflaged dragonfly were particular highlights.

Very impressed with Gary's GoodGym tattoo and hope to see you all again soon either in Stockport or Manchester. The grand opening for the bus station mural is Saturday 8th November from 10am so get along if you're free.

Caitlin and Jamie have both been very busy moving and mural making for a variety of projects across Stockport and beyond.

To help them out, we came to do some therapeutic lid sorting, sifting the dirty ones, to be washed, from the clean ones that are ready to use.

We had lots of blue, red, and black lids with more colours waiting in the wings. We piled the boxes high, with ~80-90% thankfully looking clean.

We had a mix of 90s bangers and chit chat about how early is too early for lebkuchen and Christmas themed chocolate.

Once our designated boxes were sorted, and 100 minutes had flown by, we washed our hands and said our goodbyes. We'll be back in 2 weeks for actual artsy mural making so sign up soon!

Long day volunteering at the Manchester Half for Hannah, Gaynor, Uzondu, Hazel, and Ben.

It was early start and after arriving, we individually signed in, picked up our hi vis and lunch, and made our way to the start line to help out where we could.

Hazel got a box seat for the start, while Gaynor and Hannah were on duty to collect discarded jumpers and coats, some quite expensive by the sounds of it, to be donated to Cancer Research UK shops. There were so many bags! Several vans-worth. Uzondu and Ben, meanwhile, were in the "toilet run" ensuring people queued off the road, enabling the waves to congregate and pass through without issue. All of us seemed to be on hand to signpost where runners should go in addition to answering questions from spectators.

Come 11am, once the runners had gone and the sacks of clothes moved, we merged to board the Broom Wagon! With another group, we were to tail at the back, encouraging runners who were struggling near the back. With only a few runners struggling close to the cut off time until about mile 10 it was quite smooth, with some of us jumping out to walk/run alongside while encouraging the participants onwards. We were a little bit taken aback by the volume of plastic bottles and gel packets on the floor visible from the bus, and no surprise the council had their large roadsweepers out in force.

I think for the last section of the race, we were all out jogging or walking, helping where we could so participants could reach the goal of the finish line. It was really heartening to see them reach the line in what was often an emotional point for them.

Certainly earned the free packed lunch after that day.