There was a leaf perched on top of his head.

He was sitting at one end of the train carriage. Middle aged, slightly podgy, blue business suit and on top of his dark, side-parted hair was a solitary autumnal leaf.

It was easy to imagine how it had got there. Walking to the station gravity had tugged the leaf from a branch and gently floated it down onto his head. So gently that he hadn’t noticed.

Everyone else in the carriage must have noticed. But no one said anything. Not the smartly dressed couple sitting next to him. Not the young woman sitting opposite him. Not the trendily dressed man with the iPod across the aisle. Certainly not me standing halfway down the aisle. How could we?

The leaf was gone by the time we reached London Bridge. I don’t know whether gravity had taken hold of it again, or whether a casual touch of the hair had dislodged it. I do know that I didn’t hear anyone say anything.

“No thank you” I said as I unzipped my rucksack.

At least she looked slightly embarrassed as I took everything out of the carrier bag she’d put them into and transferred them to the rucksack.

Wales have been playing well this tournament, a close loss against South Africa and then four good wins. France have taken their customary unpredictableness to a level that somtimes approaches insanity. If we get the France that lost against Tonga then we should win easily. If we get the France that beat England then it will be a close match.

Wales have only made the semi-Finals once before and have never been in a Final. Forty minutes to go until kick off. Fingers crossed.

She was wandering round the One-Stop, looking for the wine, chattering constantly to herself, her mate and her dog.

Only in Croydon.

I voted Yes.

I don’t think that AV is a great system – it’s no more proportional than FPTP. But it’s what’s on offer and it is slightly better than FPTP in two respects.

It helps to mitigate a situation where a candidate is elected to whom the majority of the electorate are opposed. e.g. a Labour candidate getting elected because the right wing majority in the constituency is split between UKIP and Conseratives. MPs that are at least tolerable to the majority of their constituents must be a good thing.

And it helps us to more accurately judge the support for medium and small parties. Under FPTP many people don’t vote Green, etc., because they see it as a wasted vote, and hence we have no idea how widespread the real support for these parties is. Better knowledge about what people really support must be a good thing.

I think we’re going to lose, and that we’ll be stuck with FPTP and (with a Lib-Dem collapse likely) a strengthened two party system for another generation. That seems like a bad thing.

Clothes fall into two categories. Those that generate fluff and those that attract fluff. The only way to maintain sanity is to maintain two separate wardrobes, two separate laundry baskets, two separate washing machines and even two separate irons and ironing boards. Every day has to be either a fluffy day or a non-fluffy day. Only with this level of discipline can the fluff generating clothes be kept away from the fluff attracting clothes.

Something to think about when contemplating your Christmas jumper.

Cards written, half of them in the post, need to buy more stamps tomorrow.

Tree bought, carried back from Purley and assembled. Decorations up. (It feels wrong to be putting up decorations before Christmas Eve – I know nearly everyone else puts them up early these days but it still feels wrong to me.)

First variation of the edible sprouts recipe tested, a moderate success.

Two work Christmas parties to go to, need Film Noir/1940s Jazz fancy dress for one of them

What have I forgotten? Presents. Bought so far: None.

Tomorrow. Central London. How bad can it be on a Monday morning? Don’t answer that.

Good: Balliol is shown with an appropriate higher education icon, whilst Trinity is shown with an appropriate primary school icon.

Bad: Trinity seems to be located in the middle of Balliol’s front quad.

If Michael Sheen is looking for his next real life role then he need look no further, the similarity is much greater than with Brian Clough, David Frost or even Tony Blair.