There’s something satisfying about returning to the scene of a GoodGym a week later to finish a task off! We headed back to the heart of Shieldfield tonight to complete a leaflet drop that told residents about the Oceans of Kindness exhibition at Shieldfield Art Works. And the lineup tonight was also almost completely identical. The weather was definitely better, and unlike last week I wasn’t completely stressed about the route given we’d done the lions share of the work last week.

A rare weekend of no GoodGym had passed so there wasn’t a great deal to catch up on so we quickly said hello to new GoodGymer Max, caught up on another brilliant weekend of racing for Louise, and got cracking. It’s a colourful walk up Stepney Bank and on such a glorious evening the pubs and bars were overflowing too. I loved hearing about Damu’s volunteering day at the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon yesterday which had left him with no voice and a sore hand from cowbell ringing.

With just 100 leaflets to distribute tonight we headed straight to the streets on the list we hadn’t covered last week and in just 15 minutes the drop was done. Very cool! As there had been zero running so far, we headed back to the square that featured in a lot of last week’s history/golf chat ready for a running challenge with a twist for this week’s fitness session. Think Race across the World but with free travel, no motion sickness, stuff to find and instead of a hotel guest book at the end there’s just me.

Two teams were set off on an out and back challenge of 5 parts to find and photograph the following:

Something green

Two things that begin with L

Two different post boxes

A street that contains a letter from your name

Two different types of wildlife

Team Aimee/Louise was victorious, winning the glory of this unique challenge and feeling smug to start the week. Look at their winners photo! (On reflection the street names bit was ridiculously hard and I’m still feeling guilty about that, so I’ll do better next time.)

Louise is leading a Stepney Bank Stables session next Monday while I am working away. There are always lovely things to do to guarantee a great start to the week.

We were back tonight helping Shieldfield Art Works to spread the word about their upcoming Oceans of Kindness free exhibition. This was the perfect Bank Holiday task as we could crack on at leisure without needing to have someone let us in (or out!) of anywhere.

Fresh from a brilliant performance at yesterday’s Gateshead Half Marathon, Louise was resting her running legs along with Michael and I who had chosen to walk, so in the end Aimee and Damu also chose to stroll rather than run! On that note, let’s start with a huge cheer for Damu, clocking up his third good deed in three days. Well done!!

We were planning to get approx 120 leaflets out tonight in the Shieldfield area, ready to return next week to finish the job with another hundred.

It’s well documented that I have zero skills in the way of navigation or map reading so I explained a rough route before we even set off tonight, but the plan to stay together definitely helped. We set off up the hill towards Shieldfield and got cracking.

I had a vague memory tonight that there was something historically interesting about Shieldfield and used Google to unlock the memory- incidentally Damu has a different method to remember stuff that you must make a note to ask him about- and it started what became a list of facts about the area, including that King Charles the 1st once played golf on the green here. Louise then shared some facts about Queen Victoria and we discussed the origin of the term "Alderman". The time flew by, my historical knowledge increased, the leaflets were posted, and amazingly nobody got lost.

Finishing off with a circuit style fitness session that did not involve golf, and we were all wrapped up with a big chunk of the evening still ahead (plus enchiladas in Michael’s case) to enjoy. Our walk back had lots of chat about Aimee’s recent West Highland Way adventures and a cool group photo taken by a friendly member of public passing by. We will be back with more dodgy map plans and the rest of the leaflets to get out next week. See you then!

I visited our lovely friends at East End Women foodbank to drop in a bag of donations from myself, Damu and Anna. They were hugely grateful. I detoured to collect leaflets for Monday’s session too so it was a very satisfying trip.

I promised this evening would be a satisfying one and it really came through with the goods!

It was a back-to-back task after also being at Stepney Bank Stables last week but we love to support them and this is one of our favourite jobs to do. It was great seeing Rob back for his second session tonight without the promise of a quad bike and cake like last week! Also interestingly tonight I was the only female GoodGymer at the session, and I don't think that has ever happened before!

It was a simple but satisfying job for us tonight as we were tasked with cobble cleaning at the top stable yard. Not the most glamorous of jobs and definitely a proper workout as you use tools and broomsticks to clear debris from deep between the cobbles. Hopefully you can see the difference in our photos- a member of staff stopped to praise our efforts too. This is one of those jobs that the regular staff and volunteers just don't get the time to complete and really makes a difference.

We finished off with some hill repeats tonight, a super workout to get legs moving, lower backs loosened off after the task and hearts pumping. Another great start to the week, and we even missed the worst of the rain.