Last week's fact about Mongolia went pretty well, don't you think? We were quite happy with it, so we thought we'd try out another. Did you know that Samoa is the last place on Earth to see the Sun every day, seeing as it's right next to the international Dateline? No, neither did we.

A brief history of Budgens

Let us take you on a journey. It's 1872 and John Budgen has just opened his first shop in Maidenhead, selling a variety of groceries to olden days people. Now zoom forward 133 years to the present day. We've landed on the moon, invented the TV and eaten some cheeseburgers, and Budgens is now a large chain of community food retailers serving very modern people, like you. What's more, they've even started selling our smoothies in those big one litre cartons. Fancy that.

A brief article in the Sunday Times

Just like when your woodwork teacher put in your report that you were 'most improved', it's always nice when people say kind things about you. So we were very proud to see that the Sunday Times had written an article about us lot in their business section last weekend. Not only were they quite generous with their praise, but they also supplied some of the business world's sharpest minds to tell us what to do next. Sadly, going home to have a lie down and watch the Godfather box set was not on the list.

Other highlights from the media world this week included Chris Moyles saying on Radio 1 that strawberries and bananas was his favourite recipe and a spot on Swiss television that none of us understood. But our Jerome's hair looked good. You can read more here and you can watch it by selecting A Bon Entendeur from the drop down video menu.

Bored professor + quiet news month = spurious equation time

If you believe everything you read, yesterday was the worst day of the year. Apparently a professor put together an equation that calculated that we would all be brimming with depression and anxiety. Of course, Mondays aren't generally our favourite day of the week but overall we found that yesterday wasn't too bad. It snowed a bit. We drank some tea and went home at the usual time. And we worked out that we only had seven more days before an end to all that January detox pain.

But how was Monday 24th January for you? Did it stink or did you have a particularly nice jacket potato for tea? Drop us an email at doomsday@innocentdrinks.co.uk and let us know whether it was as bad as predicted. We'll send a case of drinks to the three people who had the most rubbish time.

Job time

January is nearly over and if you haven't managed to stick to any resolutions why not make a life affirming change* and apply for a job working with us here at Fruit Towers. For a full list of what we have available have a look at our jobs page and see if there's anything that takes your fancy.

*unless of course you're already a nurse/charity worker/panda breeder

Our favourite fact of the week - Mongolian farmers sing to their animals in order to make them produce more milk and stuff. In fact, there are more Mongolian songs about the love of a good horse than the love of a good woman.*

Unbeetable

Cor blimey luv a duck, things ain't half busy around here. But it's all worth it. People seem to be enjoying the stuff we're doing in 2005, especially our New Year's Detox recipe. Fulsome praise has been pouring in from the Daily Mail - "...an excellent intestinal cleanser..." (that's our recipe, not the Mail itself); The Independent - "... packed with nutrients and good for the immune system..."; and The Sunday Post - "... the first-ever beetroot smoothie..."

And you've had some kind words to say too. Someone called ZA said "I was dreading drinking it because I thought it might be weird. But, it was the best one I have ever drunk." Which just about sums up what we think too.

European union

2005 is going to be exciting for us, as we have now expanded our reach into Europe. This week we are having a quick look at what our Jerome is up to in Paris:

Our drinks are now on sale in Colette. For those who don't know, Colette is a very 'now' shop in a fancy bit of Paris, renowned for selling posh clothes, records, nice stuff for your house and lots of other things.

You can get our drinks at the water bar, where you can order one of 200 different types of water. Jerome says that you will always spot someone famous in Colette. Pop down to 213 rue Saint-Honore?L to see if this is true, or visit http://www.colette.fr

Bleu Canard is another smart place where you can get our drinks. It's a little restaurant that does a bit of take away as well, and is located close to Place de la Madeleine. For those who of you who used to skive off during French to go and play on the fruit machines in the minicab office, its name means Blue Duck

Safari, so goodie

Some of our more adventurous readers may have been on safari before. For those who haven't, safaris are holidays where you spend most of your time in an old jeep waiting to spot big animals that are usually hiding in the grass. Then at night, you camp around a big fire and wet your pants whenever you hear a strange noise. But if you're lucky, and you go at the right time of year, you can sometimes spot rare beasts indeed. Like the smoothie carton that the Schimmel family found in this boat when they were in Botswana recently. We'd like to thank them for sending in this picture.

And we like to encourage more of you to go away. Go on. Off you go. And if you take a smoothie with you and get a good picture of it somewhere far away, we'll send you drinks and put the picture on the site, a bit like those things they do in Hello! Magazine. What's more, we'll reward the best three photos with a copy of the awe-inspiring "The Travel Book" by those nice people at Lonely Planet.

Don't worry, you've got until the end of the year to send them in...

PS in last week's news we forgot to mention that Jill was the lady who popped the woolly hat on her little Buddha's head. Thanks Jill.

* we nicked this from "The Travel Book" by the people at Lonely Planet

If it's your birthday today, then we'd like to wish you many happy returns. Did you know that you share this special day with none other than Rod Stewart and Pat Benatar? No, we didn't either until now. And we're sure your mates will be equally impressed by this amazing fact.*

Waarom niet naar Holland gaan?

You would never have guessed it from the title, but we'd like you all to go to Holland. Or at least, if you're in the area, to pop along to the Horecava tradeshow in Amsterdam. It's on from today until Thursday this week, and if you know of anyone who owns a cafe?L or coffee shop over there, then it'll be right up their straat. There you'll be able to catch up with the lovely Ynzo and Henk Jan who are going to tell all the nice Dutch people about our drinks. And if you're really lucky you'll be able to learn your aardbei from your banaan.

Whilst on the subject of travelling, our takehome cartons are certainly living the jet-set lifestyle. If you happen to be flying long haul Club World with British Airways, you will have the pleasure of being served one of our four recipes. They are under strict instructions to report back if they spot any celebs along the way and to bring back autographs on some posh napkins.

Helping hand

Some of you may already be familiar with our very own registered charity, the innocent foundation (http://www.innocentfoundation.org) We aim to fund Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that work to bring nature and communities closer together. In light of the recent tsunami and its devastating effects, we have decided the best way for us to help its victims is to fund long term sustainable projects, rather than to add money to the emergency relief effort.

We have decided to commit at least 10% of the foundation's money this year to help rehabilitate and rebuild communities in the areas affected. As assessments are already underway to find out exactly what these communities will actually need - housing, irrigation, livelihood resources and so forth - we're looking to begin working with these projects in a few months' time, long after news crews and reporters have left. If any of you know of any NGOs working in the affected areas, please do send us in their name and wherever possible, their website. If you would like to make a donation to the innocent foundation, please send in a cheque made payable to "the innocent foundation." 100% of every donation goes directly to the foundation.

Beetroot surprise

We weren't teasing, we promise. There we were, getting you all excited about our new year's detox recipe - beetroot, apples, pears and ginger - only to keep you hanging on for a bit longer. The teasing is over and you'll be able to find it in the shops from this week.

New year, new job?

We've all been there. Amongst the giving up of chocolate, smoking and watching reality TV, we've all made a promise to ourselves that we're going to find ourselves a lovely new job. Well, obviously not us here at Fruit Towers, but you know what we mean. If you check out http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/us/jobs/ the job of your dreams could be waiting for you. There are lots of vacancies, and think of it this way, if you manage to stick to one of your resolutions, then you can treat yourself to that chocolate bar/handbag/computer game you've been denying yourself so far this year.

Cakes, mates and some hats

Sometimes we have so much news to share we have to try some very tenuous links, so please bear with us. Firstly, we were very lucky to have this special cake made just for us by a nice man called Gowan. And from what we hear Gowan likes nothing better than to make some other homemade delights for his running mates.

Talking of mates, we think it's time to hear about that special mate you have in the office. Yes, that's right, we're opening the first office mate competition of 2005. We'd like to hear about that special someone in your office, but as always, please try not to make them too heart-wrenching, as Father Christmas didn't answer Row's plea for some waterproof mascara and man-size tissues, so there's only so much she can take. Entries into officemate@innocentdrinks.co.uk by the end of Friday 14 January.

And finally ...

We don't think we've seen any of our office mates wearing a hat so far this year, but we loved how someone put to use a bobble hat they'd bought with one of their drinks. Sorry, we did say they were tenuous.

*=amazement cannot be guaranteed

Hello and welcome to 2005. It's been pretty good so far but we're not going to get carried away; there's still a fair bit to go. Anyway, we hope 2005 rings your bell, wherever you are.

The newest in new

There are many things that will keep you healthy, wealthy and wise in 2005. One of them is a big box that you keep under your bed containing some broccoli, ?’5000 in used ?’20 notes and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Of course, we can't all be lucky enough to have such a box, so we wonder if you might settle for our New Year's Detox seasonal smoothie instead? Ingredients include beetroot, pears, apples and ginger, so it's not really one for the faint-hearted. You can read a bit more about it at www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/seasonal and you'll find it hitting the shelves later this week.

Supergran - the end credits

So the fun is over. But the good work is just starting. We've sold all of the little bottles that were wearing little woolly hats and have donated thousands of pounds to Age Concern and Extra Care to help keep elderly people warm this winter, along with our friends at EAT. We'd just like to take this opportunity to say thanks to everyone who knitted a little hat and sent it in, and to everyone who bought one of the special behatted drinks. Someone's Granny will be staying nice and toasty this winter thanks to your help. More info at Supergran (and thanks to the nice lady who sent us in the chick hat in the picture).

Supergran - the end credits

To help you get 2005 started on the right foot, we have dotted a few of our patented Portion Trump Cards throughout the news (some above and some at the bottom), to remind you what a portion of fruit or veg actually is. You can find more insanely useful stuff like this in our little under-a-fiver book called Stay Healthy Be Lazy, which is all about detoxing without making too much of an effort. Click here to have a look at it.

And finally ...

We got a nice surprise* when we got back to Fruit Towers today, as there were four new people here, ready and waiting to start their new jobs. Olivia, Nicky, Andrew and Stuart all seem to be very nice people and they all have dark secrets in their lives, examples of which follow shortly:

Olivia - was once ejected from a pub with Prince William

Nicky - falls over a lot

Andrew - his friends call him Viv

Stuart - can wiggle his ears without any noticeable facial twitching

* it wasn't that much of a surprise as we'd kind of told them what day they should turn up and start work