My son and grandson, getting down to some serious computer work. It was my mother’s birthday a couple of days ago: she would have been 95.

Very busy the last three days, wrapping up presents and writing Christmas cards. We also ventured into the city on Saturday morning, which was surprisingly successful. We bought a large coffee table for the living room from Country and Eastern, then some other things here and there and ended up with a sandwich at a coffee bar in Mountergate at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Good sandwiches.

The Government would apparently like to close about 7000 rural post offices, though it will probably end up at 3000 so that everyone thinks it could have been worse. Of course 3000 is at least 3000 too many. I attempted to buy some stamps for cards going abroad at the post office in Castle Mall, and there were huge queues. I eventually gave up and went somewhere there were none, but not many people know about it. But if you keep shutting post offices, the queues will grow and grow. Perhaps this is what the Government wants: no travelling and no posting letters. They want us to just sit quietly at home, paying tax.

Went into the office today to internally verify some NVQ portfolios with Martin T. Good to see him again – he’s been laid low with a bad back. This morning we had some of the worst weather this winter – loads of rain, windy and pretty cold too, but it’s improved since. The heating chose that time to pack up, but I fiddled about with it before going out, and when I got back it was working.

Tonight I’m playing chess against Yarmouth. It’s about time I won a few games.