Sunday

New things today started with a farm shop called the Darling Buds of May nursery in Headley which I thought was a lovely name and seemed a much nicer destination than Tesco when we realised we hadn't got any vegetables at all. Strangely it was very quiet, but there was a nice farmshop with a selection of vegetables, but not much in the way of dairy products. There were other interesting things on offer, such as presentation baskets, garden equipment and also a cafe. I then had a tour of New Greenham Park is owned by Greenham Common Trust which redistributes the rent to local charities, organisations, environmental and social projects. It's an incredibly historic industrial estate with lots of businesses housed in units that would have provided storage in the days of the American military when they held missiles at Greenham Common. Apparently, this 150 acre site is the largest in West Berkshire.

SAturday

Sorry - started crying about my racial abuse at the hands of a bunch of youths and forgot to continue with Saturday's new things! After work, Mr SN and I went to Hamstead Marshall to the White Hart Inn where there was a beer festival and a band called FUBAR playing who were good; although while we were there, all of the songs they played were from adverts!

Saturday

New thing today was heading to a jumble sale at the Methodist Hall in Lambourn ( a bit bad that I'd never been in here before considering I used to cover the village as a reporter!) Had a very funny day at work (at 2nd job) where the fire alarm went off, necessitating 20 mins outside in the pouring rain, then a woman coughed in my face, then a child pressed one of the panic buttons (although not hard enough for it to go off, fortunately), then a guy won £200.10 on the fruit machine (note the important 10p which made me laugh), then I got racially abused and went home before my colleague put about £500 worth of food in the bin...

Friday

New thing was going to the house of the man who collapsed at the funeral to see if he was ok. He was. I am sure I did something else that was new but I can't remember what it was!

Thursday

A big photoshoot in Bury St Edmunds, so new things included a good look at the MOT testing bay here. After my meeting, I drove home via Haverhill as I thought it would be a more scenic journey and was right! I stopped off in Haverhill to get ma mere's Mother's Day present and then stopped off again to see if I could check my work email in Bishops Stortford but was put off after driving through the town owing to the number of police hanging around the roads.

Wednesday

An eventful day and a very emotional day starting with a visit to Camp Hopson (the funeral directors department, not the store, which can be emotional for me in its own way!), followed by a funeral at St Nicolas Church http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=12505 . The service was lovely, with beautiful tributes from the family who are a talented lot who sang Mozart arias, wrote poetry and told of her amazing life, of which I only knew the half. A truly amazing woman - apparently she was even immortalised in a fiction book about the 2nd World War, such was her powerful character!
We then headed to the wake where one of the funeral goers collapsed (oh the irony) necessitating a call to 999. They took me seriously this time and were there within 5 minutes, without telling me off! Poor guy was ok in the end, fortunately, but a bit of a worry. I also took five minutes to visit the new Helen and Douglas House which was opened last week by Bruno Brookes http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=12471.

Tuesday

New thing started with a LONG car journey to Crawley Down where I think I have probably left my car before when flying from Gatwick. Headed to the Renault dealer for a photoshoot, but accidentally went to the service centre where a very helpful man set me right. The dealership itself was really nice; well laid out, clean, lots of parking and friendly staff. After the shoot, I headed towards East Grinstead where I was going to have a gander. However, I didn't have quite enough money for parking. To my rescue came a very kind woman who gave me hers which still had about an hour on it. Instead of heading to the shops, I went to Wetherspoons to see if I could check my work email, so I hid in a corner there and then drove home. Later in the day, I finally watched The Big Chill - I DO love the 80s!

Monday

A new shop and an existing shop that I'd never been into were my new things today. What was astonishing about both experiences is that we're supposedly in a recession, but they were hardly pleased to see me. The first shop is new and is called Shakin the Tree, which was beautifully laid out with lovely gifts. However, the woman in the shop was very concerned with moving things around and didn't ask if I needed any help, despite my lingering near the wedding gifts. I then went into Bradley & Willows Jewellery Shop and there was no one there. I was going to enquire about wedding rings, but since it was empty, I left, although when I was closing the door, a woman's head popped round the corner and asked if I needed any help. Since it was only her head and not the rest of her body, I assumed she was busy, so will buy our wedding rings elsewhere. Perhaps I should be in retail!

Sunday

New thing today was a lovely walk up to Donnington Castle built in about 1383 and reached by us at about 1334 just before lunch.
A beautiful spring day and the walk through Shaw-Cum-Donnington takes us past a pub I've never even heard of before (and I am proud to say we didn't stop here either!). We then carry on up Castle Lane to reach the ruins of Donnington Castle, where there is a nice view (although the sprawl of Newbury is kind of disappointing too) of the town.
During the Civil War the castle was seized by Royalist forces after the first Battle of Newbury. Colonel John Boys was put in charge of its defence and he constructed a series of earthworks in the shape of a star around the castle, which cans till be seen.
In fact, when we were up there, there were quite a few families and couples observing them and taking photos. You can see how the ruins have deteriorated over time and graffiti dating back to the 1930s is clearly visible, which gives it a sense of time and history.
The castle apparently successfully withstood a Parliamentary siege in July 1644, and the second Battle of Newbury was fought around it.
Can't believe we didn't come up here and see it before now!

Saturday - the boring bits

Got up and drove to Mortimer in beautiful sunshine on a wonderful spring day for a jumble sale at St John's. Stopped by the post office which was filled with good things, smelt fantastic and even the staff were nice when dealing with my parcel! Went to the jumble, picked up some books and then spotted another jumble sale across the road with a much bigger selection where we came away with more books and antique board games!

Saturday

The day didn't get off to a good start when I found about the death of a lady who I spent some time with about 4 years ago. Her name was The Dowager Duchess Suzanne St Albans and she was a charming woman with the most incredible life. I am sure I only know some of it, but I know that she spent her early years in Malay as her father owned a rubber plantation. She lived all over the world, was at least bi-lingual, was married to a descendant of King Charles II (I think), worked as a journalist in North Africa during the war (Algeria I think) and wrote numerous books. I read a couple of them; Paradise and Pestilence; and Mangoes and Mimosa about her life abroad. Both were written with her quirky, but brilliant sense of humour. She was one of a kind, generous, amusing and talented. She was also a fabulous artist and these are just the talents I am aware of.
Her funeral is this week and donations go to the Alzheimers Society. She will be sadly missed.

Friday

New things started with a new office for a meeting that I'd been dreading, but actually went very well in the end. Then as the traffic along the M40, A404 and M4 (ALL of my route home!) was diabolical I thought I would drop by Maidenhead to see what it was like. I realise going into the bank and a handful of shops along the High Street probably wasn't representative of the town, but I didn't think it was as nice as I had believed in the past. Quite amusingly, I went into a carpet shop and a guy came out of the back to see if I needed any help. "Yes, please. I'm looking for a hall runner", I said. He said: "oh OK then" and then scurried back to his office which I thought was funny...

Thursday

New thing today was Monty Bojangles' cola cubes!!

Wednesday

New thing was going upstairs at the new cinema to see if Ponyo was on because Mr SthgNew didn't believe me when I told him that the listings said it wasn't on! Very nice up here, airy and spacious - reminds me of the lovely cinema at St John and Wellington in Toronto albeit on a much smaller scale!

Optimisation

New things were missing the pancake race in Newbury Market PLace as I got there at 12.10pm and it was all over having started at 12pm! Flip!

Then went to a shop in Acton that I'd not been into before. It used to be carry Acton Cash and Carry but was called something like Buy n Save, or Eat n Rub or Salt n Pepper where I bought some bahclava and am quite pleased it still sits here in front of me, not entirely eaten...

I then went into an office I'd not been to before, and then the most interesting part of the day was meeting a guy called Greg Jarboe who talked to us about search engine optimization. Fascinating. I've not put what I learned yesterday into practice as I don't really want my wafflings to appear in any searches....

Sunday

Started the day with a glass of bucks fizz in bed which is definitely a first! Thanks lovely OH! I then took him to Welford Park to see the lovely snowdrops (although this did cost £10 - which just about wiped out our takings from the boot sale yesterday! I now see that it was for charity so will be shutting up about now....).
We had a lovely walk, and there were hundreds of people there wandering around the grounds and admiring the carpet of snowdrops in the wood. We also paid a visit to the adjoining church St Gregory's where my attention was caught by a headstone which read "Jasmine Blight 21 May 1913 to 21 July 1991 first television announcer" which was interesting.
Later we headed to Reading for a quick couple of drinks at the Pitcher and Piano before a lovely and very traditional Chinese meal at the Shanpan restaurant for Chinese New Year, and a quick after drink at the Three Guineas at the station where there was an Irish band playing called FreeMacguiness. Cheers!

Saturday

Did a boot sale at St Nicolas School. Did not make my millions but had a good declutter!

Friday

Marmite biscuits from Fudges

Thursday

Took a walk to the other side of town for my first massage since returning to the area with a nice chap in the St Barts area. I feel a lot less stressed and that's even after the library tried to charge me £15 for late items.

Wednesday

New thing today was going to the Udder Farm Shop in East Stour to buy some vegetables and some Dorset Knob biscuits which are not how I remember them! In fact, it reminds me of the disappointment I felt when I revisited Farleys Rusks, thinking that I liked them as a child. YEUCH!

Tuesday

New things included getting totally lost in Bristol, ending up in Keynesham by accident, but taking the opportunity to check out the charity shops there, as well as a couple of the other shops.

Monday

My new thing today was listening to my new 6Day Riot Have a Plan CD - wonderful stuff. So happy and summery.

Sunday

A shop in Newbury town centre that I'd not been into before; then the prawn salad and posh strawberry yogurt from Waitrose!

Saturday

New thing today was trying potato chips in Waitrose.

Friday

New things were checking out the absolutely brilliant 6Music and also going to the Pumpkin Cafe at Newbury station.

Thursday

I went to the lovely Haywards Heath and stopped by a charity shop - such a funny place. Since it's quite well-heeled some of the people can be quite rude. I walked back to my car and was about to leave the space when a woman pulled up with the intention of parking in my space but without allowing me to leave first much to my amusement. I then went to Windsor where I went to some new shops that I'd not been into before (after going to a new car park too!), including Waterstones where I picked up a book by someone I went to University with!
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/simon-lelic/rupture.htm

Wednesday

Swimming at the Kennet Centre in Thatcham and also purchasing a cheesecake smoothie drink BEFORE I went swimming. Ahem. Had a good swim, but got easily intimidated (as ever - story of my life) and when some Thatcham youth sneaked under the lane marker and barged in front of me when I was plodding along, I decided to get out..

Tuesday

New thing was going to yoga class in Hungerford. The traffic near my house was horrendous so I didn't think I was going to get there, but glad I did in the end. Great to do some stretching, but the least said about my ridiculous antics the better ie picking up a roll of pink wallpaper from the cupboard instead of my yoga mat, and then snoring through the relaxation bit....

Monday

I was early for my meeting, so swung by someone's house to say hello and collect a couple of borrowed items. Bizarrely, I'd never been inside before, so this was a lovely and interesting new thing! Then after my meeting, I went to some new shops in Beaconsfield which is one of those places which is beautiful but not too friendly; good for charity shops though.

Sunday

New thing was a lovely drive around a couple of Newbury's churches - St Mary's Speen and one in Greenham. The embarrassing thing is that I didn't even know they were there and they are both beautiful.

Saturday

Planters chilli peanuts!

Friday

New thing was an office behind the scenes..

Subway - Kennet Centre

New thing today was Subway in Newbury for a very enjoyable tuna sub.