I've done my international postage. I noticed that the last posting date for Kiwiland is next week, so did the wrapping last night and went to the post office first thing this morning to send them. I'm sure I haven't sent things as early as this in previous years, and they've arrived in time. Did you know that "surface mail" and "air mail" are now called "economy" and "standard"? How confusing is that?

They have self-service machines in the post office now, which are much more fun than talking to counter staff. You put your parcel on the scale, press some buttons, and if you do it all correctly and in the right order it prints out a stamp for you as a reward.

Last week I was doing first aid assessments on three evenings. Two were reasonably local but the third was miles away - a round trip of almost three hours and over 100 miles. Though part of that was because the motorway junction had been closed for repairs on my way back so I had to take a long detour. I don't know why the Highways Agency couldn't have put a warning about this closure earlier so I could have taken a shorter detour. There are enough matrix signs - most of them saying "Red X means lane closed" which is somewhat pointless as there are no facilities to display a Red X over any of the lanes on that part of the motorway.

One of the assessment sessions was for a cadet unit. I was on my own there, as the other assessor pulled out at short notice owing to illness. There were seven people to assess in less than 90 minutes. As each assessment takes about 15 minutes that wasn't going to work so I changed things round a bit (I was on the only assessor so I could do what I liked!). I ran the first part of the assessment as a group exercises and got the cadets to work together. It worked quite well - the cadets all knew what they were doing, and everyone got involved. Overall I was impressed with their first aid skills and their teamwork, helpfulness and politeness.

Last week my car had a puncture, which was a bit of a pain. Actually it wasn't that much of a pain. I'd noticed the tyre was looking a bit flat, so pumped it up while I had a spare half hour on Saturday morning. I noticed a nail sticking out of the tyre, which explained why it was going flat. A trip to Thick Fit and they sorted it in about 40 minutes (new tyre, as nail was on the edge), and while they were doing that I popped to the butcher for some meat for the week and to Waitrose for a couple more Christmas presents and some beer (which just magically fell into my basket).

I don't know why tyre fitters ask me if I have a preference over the manufacturer. When it comes to beer, I know that I would prefer Old Speckled Hen or Old Hooky to Boddingtons or John Smiths. But when it comes to tyres I have no idea of the relative merits of Continual as opposed to Michelin.

One of my colleagues had a more dramatic car problem. He was jump starting his girlfriend's car, but left his in gear when he started the engine. Car jumped forward and hit the other car. Damage was slight, but we all found it rather amusing. Actually, that's not true. We found it hilarious.

Today we've been to Winchester to look round the Christmas market (and bought chocolate, curry sauce and beer - though not all those were for Christmas). This evening we have the first of the Christmas celebratory meals. Still a bit early for Christmas, which is perhaps why it is advertised as a Winter Ball. A bit early for winter, too, really.