Monday - a new car

A new car today - had it for about five minutes before a woman nearly drove into me. When I was young, it used to be that if there were parked cars on your side of the road, and the other side of the road was clear, you had to give way to oncoming traffic. This seems to be redundant nowadays, especially if you're a female.

Sunday- Minster again

New thing was turning down some back lane after picking up the car from Minster.

Saturday - Kent

New things included missing the turn off to Canterbury because I was singing so passionately to the Levellers and nearly ending up in Ashford or some such place. Lots of shops in Canterbury after discovering a new ride and drive (because I'd come in from the other side of town to usual), and then in the evening going to the village of Minster where we patronised all of the pubs and had a fantastic (but expensive) meal in Mister Tandoori. Ended up at someone's house until the wee hours of the morning.

Friday - intermittent deafness

New thing was accompanying my two colleagues to the Metropolitan pub in Uxbridge where we enjoyed a meal, lots of beer, and listening to the high-pitched screeching of two women whose conversation could have been an entry into the Town Criers Championships.

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

They've all merged into one thanks to a crazy busy week at work. I always promised myself that doing something new every day would stop this from happening. I've grouped the three days together as nothing interesting happened at all. A bit like in 1951.

Tuesday: Walked up some random cutting in Maple Cross on my way to work.

Wednesday: Visited a house in Rickmansworth to collect some plates which were advertised on freecycle. Very nice lady and useful plates which presumably would have gone to landfill otherwise.

Thursday: Drove my colleague's five-door version of my own car. Left him a note to tell him which pedal was which. He was not amused.

Monday - historic Cirencester

New roads lead to Cirencester, a beautiful town. Had a meeting, then quickly looked around the town centre. What a lovely place; I'd been totally fooled into thinking it was a horrible place by the name all this time....

Sunday - pyjamas

Didn't get out of my jimmyjams all day, so new thing was driving along a residential street near Denham train station after I'd dropped Mabel off.

Saturday

No chance of a lie-in as of course I was wide awake at 7.30am. New thing of today was driving along a back road to Amersham.

Friday - Maple Cross Community Centre

I was having a nose around the community centre as my new thing of the day, and was fairly politely told that "no, there's no yoga here, it's a pub", by some of the natives.

Thursday - Belfast

A 5am start for me as I had to catch a flight to Belfast from Heathrow. After my meeting, I had a couple of hours to kill before my flight home, so my new things included going inside the Europa Hotel (at one time the most bombed hotel in Europe - bombed 33 times by the IRA between 1974 and 1994, along with the Opera House next door), various shops and a restaurant. The other new thing was sitting three rows behind Tony "Time Team" Robinson, AKA Baldrick from Blackadder on the flight home.

Wednesday - Marge's nature walk

I drove to work this morning, as I went to the gym beforehand, so felt a bit bad drawing up outside my house. It was such a crisp beautiful autumn evening that I decided to forget how dangerous it is to walk along my road, and headed for the woods and open fields.
My new thing was following a footpath which wound its way round the fields, just bypassing a housing estate. The footpath looked really inviting with brown and orange leaves which continued beyond the main road. Except once I got nearer I got my bearings and realised I was quite near work on a road that I'd used 100 times before which meant that the magic was gone, and the phrase "the other man's grass is always greener" popped into my head.

Monday and Tuesday

Various things around Northolt, and also about the gym - went into the sorolium!

Monday and Tuesday

Various things around Northolt, and also about the gym - went into the sorolium!

Sunday

New thing today was a petrol station off the A299 or something. Too "tired" to do much except go to bed at 9pm today!

Saturday.

Lots of new things today - first of all Dane John Park in Canterbury for the "Produced in Kent" foodfair, where the headline act was HOBO JONES! (see September 6th when they supported the Levellers in Yeovil!). We formed the band's front row, and had a lovely chat with them during the interval. Other new things included getting the train to Whitstable to meet Mabel's friend Two metre Peter and his girlfriend. Lots of new pubs and a fine evening out. Drank too much and needed to go home early though, much to my shame.

Friday

New thing for today was accidentally putting a box of bread sticks in with my washing. Oh, and eating the all-new Wispa bar which transported me to new realms of pleasure.

Thursday - Maximo Park

"I'll do graffiti if you sing to me in French". I love this band! So today's new thing was seeing them live (and their warm-ups, Theoretical Girl and Good Shoes) at the dire, dire, dire Brixton Academy (not new). Because the last time I was here - for the Pogues, I was downstairs, standing, I didn't appreciate the true shiteness of this venue. Not only are the staff brusque and mardy, but this time, we were in the nosebleed seats where the bouncers shone a light at you and shouted in your face for standing up or smiling. The sound quality was pretty poor too, but Maximo Park were extremely entertaining, and I think most of us - girls and boys alike - probably went home a little bit in love with frontman Paul Smith. They opened with "The Coast is always changing", went through most of their fantastic two recent albums and finished up with "Graffiti". More new things after the gig included random Brixton back streets (good idea!) and Brixton Railway station.

Wednesday - cheese twists from Tesco

Er -that's it.

Tuesday

Went to Breakspear Arms somewhere between Ruislip, Harrow and hell. Ventured in, but decided against getting a drink.

Monday

Rubbish. I had a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall moment, thought I saw a wild plum tree and leapt into a hedgerow to check it out. It wasn;t. And because I'd left my bike in the road, it looked like I'd been hit by a car, which would have been a much more interesting new thing.

Sunday -very early hours

Was still at Strongrooms until 2.30am, so new thing was being driven through new parts of Hackney.

Saturday - pieced together from witnesses

The Strongrooms in Hackney where I polished off their supplies of cider. Always a good night when you have to apologise to people and can't remember leaving.

Friday - gymtastic- haven't lost any weight though

Up at 5.55am to go swimming AND running- so my new thing was the gym at LA Fitness after thoroughly exploring the "new thing" possiblities of the swimming pool all of this week.

Thursday - somewhere along the A40

Had a meeting in Oxford this morning, so came through somewhere near Wycombe that I'd never been to on the way back.

Wednesday

I just about got my new thing in today, before the clock struck midnight and I was turned into a pumpkin!

Had to fill up at the Shell Garage in Park Royal as I was dangerously low on fuel - has there always been a Vue Cinema next to it? Never spotted that before....

Tuesday - from O so healthy to O'Neills

New thing today was meeting my kinda cousin Sean, and his friend in O'Neills in King's Cross. And also going into the wrong pub two doors away before that.

Monday -more steam

The steam room at the gym (it was the sauna in the previous entry).

Sunday - Terracotta warriors, not

Failed to get into the queue to see the Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum, so wandered some of the back streets in the area aimlessly as my new thing.

Saturday - her majesty's secret service

Went to Windsor for the day - not wholly new in itself, but saw loads of the town that I'd never been to before. Walked around the Great Park (that's the name, not my description), the historic centre (including taking a picture of Nell Gwynn's Chinese Restaurant because the name amused me so much), and in lieu of the castle, opted for the town's charity shops.

Friday - a pub surprise surprise

The Green Man pub in Denham where I got a pint of bitter, despite having asked for a bitter shandy. I think this might be Cilla Black's local, although had she been in here tonight, she would have been the only female. Apart from me. Maybe that's why I didn't get shandy.