But I have got pretty much all of my Christmas present sorted.

The sign at the petrol station told customers to "use both sides" of the pump. I'm not sure that this is physically possible.

The 'assistant' in the Jason-and-the-golden-fleas store wished me to "have a nice day". Seeing as it was gone 5.30, I thought it was a bit late for that sentiment.

I like it when a plan comes together. Especially when I have limited control over the timings.

When CGF came up on Friday she texted me to let me know when she left Eastleigh. I walked down to the town centre to buy pizza, figuring that I would be on my way home when CGF drove past so I could get a lift up the hill.

And it almost worked. I saw CGF drive through the town square (which is really a roundabout) twenty seconds before the pizza man gave me the pizza. Smalltown is very small. You can observe pretty much the whole town centre from the pizza shop

Actually this occurred a couple of weeks ago, but who says this blog has to be accurate time-wise?

I bought some shirts last weekend. I wore one of them this week (well, actually all of them - on different days) and noticed that it didn't have a breast pocket. Now this could be one of the least interesting observations ever reported except for two points.

1 At work the following day one of my colleagues (quite independently) noted that his new shirt had no pocket
2 When I wore another of the new shirts, it did have a pocket. Yet the shirts had been bought from the same rack in the same store at the same time, and cost the same amount. What's that all about?

I slipped over at work - turning too quickly on a slippery surface (though, obviously, I didn't realise it was slippery at the time). No major damage done but, thinking of the health and safety advice we get drummed in, I thought "I'm going to raise an incident report about his".

It took ten minutes to find where the incident reports were kept. "Were you injured?" it asked. Well, a bruise is an injury so I replied "yes". Besides, although I was 99% certain I hadn't broken anything I didn't want to forego reporting such an injury if it occurred. These incident reports first go to the line manager. My line manager wasn't sure what to do (we are a fairly safe-working group of people) so checked with his boss. He came back a few minutes later: "you've got to go to Occupational Health". "But I haven't really injured myself." "It doesn't matter. You've still got to be checked out by Occupational Health".

So off we go ("we" because I had to be escorted by a colleague) for a half-hour wait at OH. The nurse looked at my arm, gave me an ice-pack and decided I was "fit for normal duties" - which, of course, was what I had been doing 30 minutes previously.

Later in the morning I had to take my line manager down to show him the site of the incident. The following morning I had a call from an "incident engineer" (or something equally important-sounding) to check I had no additional injury. The incident had also reached the attention of the head of department, as he sent an email to his underlings advising them to warn their staff to beware of slipping. The next day I had a call from someone else to check on my injury and advise me that the incident was being investigated and I would be contacted by the investigating officer. I also received a visit from the aforementioned head of department.

Part of me thinks this this is an awful lot of time and money to spend on a bruise. But then again, it could have been more serious - and might be for the next person who slips there - so good that the company is taking health and safety seriously.

The irony is that I was only walking that route because my usual route involves walking along the roadway and, as the sun was low, I thought "visibility is poor; I'll go the long way round so I can walk on a segregated walkway".

I've just worked out my spending from yesterday. The total I spent on Christmas presents had the same figures for pounds and pence. I find that quite pleasing. Yes, all my Christmas presents for £12.12!!

CGF suggested getting me a set of overalls for Christmas. Giraffe prints and furry overalls. I don't think they are overalls, somehow.

Friday evening I made cheater's toad-in-the-hole for dinner. In one of those freak-accidents that I probably couldn't have done if I'd tried, one of the pancakes slipped out of the pan and down the side of the cooker as I prepared to flip it. That second sentence should tell you what cheater's toad-in-the-hole is.

I went to a small exhibition about the proposed possible wind farm that might be built on land south of Smalltown. It was really all about trying to address some of the questions that had been raised by the council's planning department (or one of them - although it is a small wind farm, it covers three local authority areas. I wonder what happens if only one or two of the councils approve the plans).

One objection had been raised from the South Downs Park on the basis that it would spoil the view from the South Downs. Note: the view from the South Downs, not of the South Downs. There were some adapted-photos to illustrate the problem. Yes, OK, on a clear day you might just about make out some less-than-matchstick-high wind turbines in the far distance. But if you look in the other direction you can see the Hampshire police headquarters, which is pretty much the ugliest building in the whole of south Hampshire.

Personally, I think the turbines are quite graceful and relaxing to watch and I'm slightly disappointed that I won't be able to see them from my window. Another visitor to the exhibition had said that they helped with her yoga.

I had a chat with the anti-wind farm brigade (in the interests of balance). They did admit that there was a place for wind farms - such as in Canada and the plains of California (I think they said California. Are there plains in California?). Though this, of course, could have just been extreme nimbyism.

Their main objection was that wind power is unpredictable - and they do have point. This means that a) you still need other forms of power generation to be able to fill the gap (which won't be used to full capacity when the wind is blowing) and b) you can't forecast when the other forms of power generation can be turned down.

Maybe the answer is to use electricity more wisely. Do we need to power all appliances all the time? Many appliances are used only for a short time each week; could they have a battery that can be recharged when the wind is blowing? They just need to know when this is (not difficult - send a signal through the electricity supply. That technology's been around for decades; it's how Economy 7 knows when to switch on and off).

There are probably lots of reasons why this wouldn't work. Expense being quite a major one. People's expectations (of having electricity when and where they need it) being another.