Wednesday

Picked up an item from a fellow freecycler in Rickmansworth. New think was walking into his garden; can't count the road, as the last item I collected from freecycle was about two doors away!

Tuesday

New bits of the Isle of Wight (and Portsmouth - yay - no sarcasm key on my computer). Joe's Cafe in Ryde where a snooty waiter just stopped short of making fun of me when I asked what the soup of the day was, because it was written on the wall.

Monday

Parts of Haywards Heath in the morning, including driving past the Priory Restaurant because I am intolerably nosey and wanted a gander at it as it was on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares a while back. The to Patshull Park in Shropshire.

Sunday

Undercover of daylight, agents Mabel and Marge went to Bletchley Park. Not only a beautiful mansion house, but of course the codebreaking epicentre of the allies' Second World War, known then as Station X. Thousands of the best minds in the country gathered here during the war to crack the Enigma code, saving thousands of lives by shortening the war. What's even more astounding is that they managed to keep the operation a secret until the 1970s. A fantastic day out, as there's the CHurchill collection, a toy collection, and based on the rebuild of the Colussus machine, a forthcoming computer museum. There's so much to see that our ticket allows us to return, which we definitely will. The we topped off this amazing experience with Ikea in MIlton Keynes :(

Saturday

Watched the film Greyfriars Bobby, which is the same story as Hachiko in Japan. Also went to a pub in Heronsgate called the Stag.

Friday

1343 hours, comrade Marge embarks on her new thing of the day – a side street in Rickmansworth called Goral Mead. Although it sounds like a fungal infection, there’s quite a sizeable housing estate down here. I may have found a girlfriend for the camper van, even if she is quite a bit older than mine – a J-reg type 2.

Thursday

It was heading towards 8.30pm last night when I realised I hadn't done anything new today, so I went to Tesco and bought spicy mushroom pate and more English Provender Company sauces (thanks Adam for the comment - I think my perusal of the website has probably made me more discerning!) Also got home and then watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (or "My Big F" which is what is seemed to be called at the cinema in Yeovil when it was on). Seemed to recognise a lot of the actors and locations as it was filmed in Toronto.

Dreamt I was being chased by the Wu Tang Clan and one of them was just a headless and bodiless pair of legs.

Wednesday

New thing was walking around the centre of Hereford today, looking for the local paper, which I eventually found in WHSmith, where I was served by the genkiest assistant ever, which was nice. My other new thing on my way back to the office was stopping by the beautiful village of Burford where I stretched my legs with a walk around the stunning parish church - more like a cathedral actually. On my way there, just by chance I was listening to the Pogues song "Young Ned of the Hill" - part of the lyrics go:

"A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell
You who raped our Motherland
I hope you're rotting down in hell
For the horrors that you sent
To our misfortunate forefathers
Whom you robbed of their birthright
"To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight"

which is interesting (to me anyway) because in 1649, the church was used as a prison for the Levellers (the freedom fighters, not my favourite folk-rockers). About 300 of them were imprisoned in the church. The three who were shot at dawn Cornet Thompson, Corporal Perkins and Private Church are commemorated on a plaque and are buried in the churchyard.

Definitely better to have stopped here than at the M40 service station!

Tuesday

An absolutely delicious new thing for today - buying onion chutney from Waitrose made by the English Provender Company. Funnily enough I used to write quite a few stories on the company as they are based at New Greenham PArk.

Monday

Grrr. Despite leaving my house at 6am, I was late for my 10am meeting in Manchester. I then got lost in Salford, enabling me to sample the best of the city as my new thing, but totally failing to get to my appointment at all.

Sunday

I climbed the Pulpit rock again down at portland Bill, something I hadn't done for about 20 years. In fact, my dad directed us through a housing estate to get there, which wasn't there before, so that was my new thing. Had a fantastic time staring at the amazing waves rolling in.

Saturday

New thing was the lovely village of Par in Cornwall to pick up my new Camper van! Driving the van - a whole new thing on its own (mainly because it took me until Exeter to realise that reverse and first gear were the other way round, a service station and adventures in the car park of Morrisons in Yeovil where a load of humourless locals stared blankly while I tried to manoeuvre the van out of a small parking space. HOWEVER, I did get my first wave from another T25 driver, which truly, truly, made my day!

Friday

A new road in Wincanton because I directed Mabel to take the wrong turning off the A303.

Wednesday - Charley Boorman

New thing for today was new parts of Renault London West - both inside and out, which also entailed meeting the wonderful adventurer/actor/TV personality/motorbike fan Charley Boorman, who was very friendly. Got to see the bike he rode too, and he explained to me why it was red and had leopard print on it, and also that his next series entails travelling from Ireland to Australia. I need to change jobs.

Tuesday

Slough train station (front entrance), as well as a new route from Slough to Gerrard's Cross.

Monday

New thing was trying to be too clever and looking for a short cut to get to Morrison's in Acton where they sell my dad's favourite teabags. My "shortcut" took twice as long and I ended up passing lots of the same roads twice.

Sunday

New thing was going for a walk around Chalfont St Giles (I've checked this time as I always get it confused with Chalfont St Peter). We walked off some of our beer, gin and junk food excesses with a lovely walk through the village (which is also known as the location for Walmington on Sea for the Dad's Army film!) taking in Milton's Cottage and a pub rather pleasingly called Merlin's Cave, which we didn't actually set foot in, another new thing, and Tesco in Little Chalfont where I got annoyed with an advert on the front of the local paper for a local solicitor's divorce service ("Bunny Girl to Bunny Boiler?")and stormed out!

Saturday

Didn't get a hug from the millions of people wandering around Trafalgar Square offering free hugs (flashmob? Who can say?), but new things were going to the Texas Embassy, which I discovered was a restaurant after hunting out my passport, to meet Deev and his folks. Mucho funo. T'other new thing was going to a pub that I'd walked past lots of times but had never been in - the Sherlock Holmes Pub in Northumberland Avenue, complete with Sherlock Holmes study and constant costume drama footage in the corner.

Friday

Match Bar in Clerkenwell ahead of going to Turnmills (on the guest list,don't you know), to see the brilliant Nick Warren. Such a nice guy, and his set rocked too!

Thursday

Unless I dreamt the whole episode, which is possible as Mabel needed a lift to the train station at some ridiculous hour of the morning, today's new thing was descending down a side street called Link Way in the village of Denham. I was quite pleased at first, as it seemed that this was a secret road which would take me back onto the main A412, but it turned out to be a dead end. Link Way, perhaps not the best named street in the world?

Wednesday

After being mocked mercilessly by by colleague Thomas who poohpoohed some of the new things I'd been up to of late, I couldn't mark down an Ealing comedy as a new thing, so had to venture up to the village of Heronsgate to find a back street, while complaining to myself about all the 4x4s that I had to give way to (no question that they would let me past, of course), and the fact that this little expedition was costing me £1.10 a litre in diesel costs.

Tuesday

Lunch at "Food Halls" with the boss, as well as a foray into the car park behind it in Gerrard's Cross, a town which makes me feel like I've gone back in time 40 years. I had the Croque Madame which is always a lot more ladylike to order than to eat.

Misc

I lost my notebook for a few days, and did nothing new of note - think I bought some new biscuits and watched a few films. Will start 2008 properly.

Monday

"When Eight Bells Toll" - a film with Anthony Hopkins - it's obvious that I'm ill and haven't been out!

Sunday

"Whisky Galore" - another Ealing comedy!

Saturday

"The Lavender Hill Mob" - one of an Ealing comedy boxset that I got for Christmas!

Friday

The brilliant film "Castle of Cagliostro" and new bits of Lulworth!

Thursday

Tchibo in Yeovil. A distinct and sudden downward trajectory from yesterday and the days before.

Boxing Day

Went beating in the woods for the local shoot, including the world famous DJ Nick Warren. The other new thing was seeing the family's lake and also going to Carters' Pub in Polseath.

Christmas Day

One of the best Christmases I've ever had! New thing for the day was walking the Goads' dogs at Daymla Bay, and playing on a Wii for the first time ever!

Monday

St Wenn in Cornwall to my sister's boyf's house! So welcoming and Christmassy! We then went to a pub in Wadebridge - a town I'd never been to before.

Sunday

Tra's friend Tom's house in Sherborne. So nice and Christmassy!

Saturday

A fantastic shop in Woodstock Road in Oxford who gave us a sweetie cos we didn't take a carrier bag, then Mabel's brother's house in Swindon.

Friday

Uxbridge shopping centre. Rock. Then a pub called the Agricultural in Angel to meet the third of three sets of friends today! Then new parts of Uxbridge as I got drunk and it was foggy and I got lost.