SPRING has truly sprung and Stacy, my American wife, cannot stop running up hills and spinning like a crazed Julie Andrews. It makes our trips a lot longer and tends to scatter the bunnies. Of course, the allergies really start to kick in during these months. I still haven't found a pill that makes early mornings tolerable.

We have been busy. Last Saturday we went to the Exeter City game where we were guests of the Express & Echo. We found ourselves sitting next to Ben Bradshaw and Nancy Dell'Olio. She wore a ring with a diamond the size of a golf ball that caught the sunlight and possibly dazzled our goalkeeper to distraction, letting that goal in. But she did look wonderful.

According to research by the Body Shop, millions of pounds are being wasted by British women on skincare products they do not use. A report has found that, despite spending nearly £6,000 on them, more than half had kept products they had never opened. One in ten said they owned creams more than four years old. I am pleased to report none of Nancy's goes to waste!

Every Sunday we find a spot in Devon where I can read the column to a video camera. You can see the results at site www.ninoradio.blogspot.com

Last Sunday we drove to Dawlish and I read to the black swans nesting by the stream before returning via country lanes and a quiet pub. My new daytime pub drink is soda and lime. It's the healthy option.

On Monday I kept up my health trip with a visit to the gym. It was on my arrival in the gym car park that mum rang. After 20 minutes of talking to her, I turned around and went home, shattered.

We hit the supermarket instead, for our first salad purchases of the year. A shopping trip apparently brings out the primal urge in all of us. Research finds our real hunting instincts emerge when we are moving along the aisles, looking for bargains.

A behaviour expert says many resort to desperate measures like stalking the guy with the pricing gun to jump on marked-down prices.

Tomorrow Stacy and I will be opening the Polsloe Party in the Park. Why not come along and say hello? Ciao.