Saturday

I'm signing off my blog until the New Year, but I will continue with new things every day! Today's new thing was going to my company's office in Woking. I've been to the town before (to the theatre, and also to the McDonalds near the train station when I was a teenager - two signs of a misspent youth right there). I had a meeting at 9am, so was delighted to get to the office at 8.57am. Only when I opened my diary, I noticed that the meeting was earmarked for 10am. So I went back into the town centre and bought the final bits of pieces for Christmas - except for the obligatory forgotten item - but I don't know what that is yet. I also got a present to add to the meagre collection of things I'll be giving to my boyfriend (he spends lots of money on me, so whatever I get always looks pathetic). I returned to the meeting at 10am - it went well, and then I came back to my office, whereupon my boss insisted on taking me and my colleague out to lunch. We went to a Chinese restaurant called Tim's Table, which was great, and another new thing. My colleague told me that while I was out, the bloke I was meant to meet this morning called the office at 9.15am wondering where I had got to as he thought I was meeting him at 9am.

Friday

My new thing last night was turning down a side street in surburban Ruislip on my way home. Poor.

Thursday

Since I'm not really celebrating Christmas this year (bah Humbug), I drove over to my sister's house to deliver her presents after work, and make a quick exit before she actually opened them. It was so foggy last night, that domestic flights out of Heathrow were cancelled, yet some drivers still didn't find it was necessary to drive carefully. The upshot was that there were miles and miles of tailbacks on my route home, so I had to take the long way round. I was about to turn left at the lights into my sister's road when I realised that there was a "no left turn" sign. How long has that been there?!!! I've certainly not noticed it before or paid any attention to it. I took the opportunity to let it help me with my new thing of the day, rather than just ignore it as I seem to have been doing for the past year and a half. I took a right turn, and turned the car around in the opening to a building, which I'd never come acroos before, and now know to be a prison, thanks to the presence of barbed wire and guards. Would have been easier just to ignore the road signs in the first place.

Wednesday

Yesterday's new thing was the Brixton Academy - and indeed Brixton itself. I made what's now becoming an annual pilgrimage to see the Pogues live - it's now become more of a Christmas staple than having a Christmas tree. This time last year, we saw them at Cardiff, and they were superb - brought tears to my eyes for all of the right reasons, and they performed Fairytale of Nnew York with Cerys Matthews. This year, thanks to Shane Macgowan's mumbling, I didn't catch who his female companion was for the best Christmas song ever, but I think I almost cried again - and for Dirty Old Town. But then I cry at adverts sometimes.....

(This is a special shout to Untidey - a very special friend who has subjected himself voluntarily to my daily ramblings - Happy Christmas Darling!)

Tuesday

Yesterday's new thing was the Coop in Greenford. Rock!

Monday

Yesterday's new thing was a bit cumbersome. We had to get some of my mum's things for me to take to her over Christmas from where they are stored in a village in Dorset. So today's new thing was navigating from there to Yeovil through the back roads, so as to avoid the queues of Christmas shopping traffic. When we approached the main road though, it seemed that there were no cars. It was actually very quiet. So much for being prepared for Christmas.

Sunday

I was awoken by my housemate in the bathroom - the pleasant noise which often wakes me up at about 5am. Assuming it was an unreasonable hour, I turned over and went back to sleep, only to find it was 10am, the exact time I promised I would be at my Dad's. Having borrowed my boss' sat nav, that took me a new way home, which gave me one new thing today, taking me through Isleworth and Richmond onto the M3. But in the evening, we went to Dorchester, a lovely town where I went to school. I hadn't been back in the evening, so didn't know the pubs very well, so all three of the pubs we went into were new experiences. The first two were passable, but the third -called Goldies, or the Borough Arms was great, with a magnificent double act performing. We then went across the road to the Indian Restaurant where to the amusement of everyone I was with, ordered chicken korma - definitely not a new thing.

Saturday

New thing for Friday was driving around Birmingham, again for a meeting. Absolutely chocka with Christmas shoppers and police everywhere. Not sure if that's normal or not in that part of the world.

Friday

Thursday's new thing was going to the Barnsley branch of the company I work for to a meeting. That was interesting, so I don't know why I needed to make it more interesting by spilling my tea over myself and another employee. He didn't react at all, which was quite funny as I was dabbing his trousers with an old tissue I found in my bag, leaving little bits of tissue all over him. I then went to Liverpool, taking a beautiful route over the Yorkshire Moors, so lots of new things today.

Thursday

Wednesday's new thing was driving up to the wilds of Yorkshire on a wet and very windy night. I have a meeting in Barnsley tomorrow, so had to drive four hours north of London, staying in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. The staff were friendly and welcoming, which made up for the fact that I burnt my mouth when I brushed my teeth, as both taps spouted hot water, and that the lime and soda I ordered never arrived.

Wednesday

Last night's new thing actually refers to a rant in one of my first blogs when I moaned about how badly people treat newspaper reporters (Gordon Brown - you're top of the list).
I went out for a Christmas meal with two friends last night, meeting them at the Forbury Hotel in Reading. It was someone from this hotel who called me when I was a reporter, demanding that we do a food review. I might well have come across the same person last night. I arrived at the Forbury at 7pm, laden with presents for my friends, and wearing my work clothes, so I was looking to quickly get changed. However, a snooty man wearing a ridiculous neckerchief looked me up and down and asked what I wanted. He then told me that there was no booking under that name and said I should try downstairs, which I did, only to find out when I got there, that there's actually a flight of stairs leading from the hotel to the Cerise Restaurant below. It was full of the sort of people who won't budge from the bar, and laugh too loudly, so I went and got changed in the toilet. After all that, it turned out that there was a Forbury Restaurant as well, which of course was where our booking was. Now, it's not easy to sit on your own in a restaurant waiting for someone when there's lots of Christmas parties going on around you, especially when the waiters walk too closely to your seat, and fail to take your drink order. However, my friends soon turned up, and luck changed for the better. The service was ok, but it didn't matter, because the food was amazing! I had eggs florentine, salmon and creme brulee - even the sauce tasted of France. Excellent. Suddenly, it feels like Christmas and I drive home singing Jingle Bells to myself. Ah yuletide.

Tuesday

When I got home from work at about 7pm, I wanted to collapse in front of the news, but of course, my strange housemates were watching some soap on TV Coronationenders, or Eastoaks or something - I suppose you have to watch fictional lives if you never go out. Weird housemate number 1 asked me for a third of the monthly bill for the TV I don't watch and the phone I don't use which annoyed me no end. But instead of saying anything, or hitting the bottle as I usually do, I decided to use my pent up aggression to speed walk around the park near my house in Hanwell, cutting across a used car forecourt to get back onto the main road, thereby saving myself an argument and doing something new at the same time!

Monday

We woke up about 12pm today, had breakfast courtesy of our friends, and travelled back down the M1 to London. Got very close to my home when I realised I hadn't done anything new, so I did a Dukes of Hazzard-style U-turn, and explored part of Hanwell/Ealing called Cuckoo Estate. At least I'll know not to do that again!

Sunday

New thing for yesterday was going into Starbucks (yuk) in Hammersmith. I've been to the bus station in Hammersmith before, one late night when the tube was closed for no apparent reason, on a long winded route home, but never to the downstairs part with all the shops. I met a girl called Stephanie outside Starbucks, and she was patient enough to try to teach me French for an hour. The rest of the day was great, but nothing new. We went to visit my Grom in Leicester, and bumped into some other relatives in the pub around the corner - that's certainly nothing new!

Saturday

Maple Cross is bigger than you might realize. I can say that because I went to the post office there (done that before), and wondered if that was all there was to the place. But it isn't! There's a labyrinth of roads which lead slightly uphill until you can see the M25. So that's my new thing today - not quite on a par with my trip to Slough Tesco yesterday though.

Friday

Thursday's new thing? Tesco in Slough! I've reached the zenith of new things every day - not sure where to go from here!

Thursday

Now some of the new things that I do every day are a little bit on the desperate side - yesterday's new thing more than makes up for it! Rather unlike the Christmas do we had at my company last year, this year my new boss treated us to a day out at Stoke Park. This beautiful house in Stoke Poges, is known as the Great British Club, and has been imprinted on my memory ever since I saw Goldfinger as a child - it's the setting for the famous game of golf between Auric Goldfinger and James Bond. I even spent quite a big portion of the time I was there yesterday looking for the statue which had its head removed by Oddjob's hat. Our boss treated us to a therapy each - I went for a massage. The poor guy had his work cut out trying to undo the knots in my back - my muscles are like a sea scout's hanky. But it was still highly enjoyable, and with a dip in the pool, before retiring to one of the state rooms, to wish my hair was as perfectly coiffed as the ladies who lunch, we had Christmas dinner, and the day was complete.

Wednesday

My new thing for yesterday was driving home through Poet's Corner. I preferred the name to the experience.

Tuesday

My new thing on Monday was checking out some of the back streets in Southall. Bit desperate this one.

Monday

Yesterday, I missed the correct turning for the M25. How blind am I? So my new thing was not only paying to go through the Dartford Tunnel, but then navigating my way through Central London to find my way home. Not recommended.

Sunday

Went to Canterbury to do some Christmas shopping, but as it was so busy (didn't see that coming!), it turned into Christmas eating. My new thing was going to the Wagamamma in Canterbury and eating chicken katsu - the first time I've ever had a meal at Wagamamma (Japanese for "selfish" apparently) that wasn't perfect.

Saturday

New thing for Friday? The Seamaster Fish and Chip shop on Money Hill Parade, Rickmansworth. Mmmmmmm.

Friday

Thanks to the generosity of everyone who's been circulating this 40 percent off at Threshers voucher, my new thing today was entering the branch near my work. Quite an achievement that I hadn't been in before....Bought £60 worth of wine for £38, and promptly drank two bottles of it in my room while trying to avoid my miserable housemates....

Thursday

My new thing today? I threw up in a park in Greenford that I'd never been into before.

Wednesday

While the government's doing its best to make it too expensive for people to drive, and not helping out with funding for public transport, my commute to work is a nightmare. My journey involves a right turn onto a really busy road, a sudden U turn due to the layout of the road, congestion caused by schoolmums parking in the middle of the road outside a school, and a stretch of the A40. So I every morning I've been looking for alternative routes. I'd found one which means I don't have to negotiate all of these factors. And it's worked perfectly until today when there were temporary traffic lights, causing chaos. Instead of sitting motionless for half an hour, I turned left down a side street, and tried to turn back onto the road I was on. So my new thing today was experiencing new (and quite nice)parts of Hanwell. Except when I got back onto the main road, I was about 100 metres further back than I had been before.