2) Slight cock-up on the laundering front. (To understand this paragraph you need to remember that I have a washer-drier). I (almost) invariable use the same wash program, so put the clothes in and press the start button. After about an hour I realised that the machine was running the drier program, and had been since I switched it on. Yes, I had been drying my dry clothes. At which point I remembered that last time I'd used it I had been (unusually) drying clothes. All goes to show: even if you always follow the same procedure, you should still check because one day you (or someone else) will do something different.

3) At work we have a policy of starting meetings with a Health and Safety Reminder where anyone is invited to suggest a learning point. I used this laundry anecdote at our weekly team meeting. It elicited the response "would have been far funnier if the clothes had caught fire". That's colleagues for you.

4) Several Christmas cards I received through the post had not had their stamps cancelled. Possibly as high as 20%. Is this because the volume of mail was too high for Royal Mail to process properly, or is it a way for the newly privatised company to secretly give something back to its customers? Maybe only 80% of stamps are ever cancelled but it's only at Christmas that I receive enough stamped mail to notice.

5) Interestingly, I also received an overseas postcard that had an un-cancelled stamp. Maybe the postman was too busy reading the general rant against historical events and their perpetrators to notice.

6) I had a brief look at the marble run I received for Christmas. It looks very complicated to put together.

7) I went to a skittles evening (proper English nine-pin, not American ten-pin). It was not quite an effort to go, but I could have fairly easily stayed at home. Inertia caused by not having regular events for a couple of weeks while activities were suspended over Christmas. But also probably because I'm a miserable so ans so sometimes. Anyway, once I'd got over my temporary inertia, it was a good evening - and the food was good too. Proper lasagne and decent chips (way better than the greasy chicken and chips offering you usually get at skittle alleys). And I AM THE KING OF THE SKITTLE ALLEY. I got the highest score - 65 over five rounds.

8) I also impressed others with my mental arithmetic ability. "That's 45". "How did you work it out so quickly?" "Well, there's an eighteen; that's two nines. Another nine. And if you take one off that ten and add it to the eight, that gives you another two nines. Five nines are 45." Similar with 9, 7, 4, 8, 6. Nine and six is fifteen; so is eight and seven. And the four makes thirty four.

9) Last weekend we had a short walk round Eastleigh, recce'ing CGF Sprog 2's new paper round. One of the buildings is a block of pensioner apartments. While we were wondering how to get in, a resident arrived: "Can I help you?" she asked. Quickly followed by "It's Ruby, isn't it?" Helping to perpetuate the myth that I know everyone in Eastleigh.