ALL sorts of things are possible and have been suggested – what are you going to do? The fire and rescue service suggests that you could go round making sure that smoke alarms are fitted and working so that you can sleep snug and safe in your bed at night

ALL sorts of things are possible and have been suggested - what are you going to do?

The fire and rescue service suggests that you could go round making sure that smoke alarms are fitted and working so that you can sleep snug and safe in your bed at night.

I noticed that a company proposed everybody spend some time sorting out their pensions for future security.

You could go and climb a mountain or swim the English Channel.

Some bold ladies may follow what is supposed to be tradition and propose to their beaus.

Yes, that once every four years phenomenon is almost upon us - February 29.

Leap year means that we get an extra day and some people have been trying to make us believe that it is something really special, but I reckon it is something special for the wrong reason.

This time round it falls on a Friday so if someone asks me what I am doing on the "special" day my only answer will be: Working as usual. And, of course, like millions of others I won't be receiving an extra day's pay for this little extra in my year of toil.

There are winners but mostly losers I think. The AA reckons that the extra day will see British motorists forking out an exorbitant amount on an extra 66 million litres of fuel for the extra 640 million miles that will be driven on the 29th. But that means the taxman will be laughing all the way to the bank, raking in an extra £83.6m on the day.

Back to the losers, on average there will be an extra 5.500 speeding tickets given to motorists and 1,600 breath tests administered.

The list could go on and on.

n Being a night owl, I was in my usual position plonked in front of the TV as Tuesday became Wednesday.

On the box was a horror film called Underworld which was a bit of a shocker. But it was nothing compared to the shock which Mother Nature had in store.

Sitting back in a comfortable recliner with my feet up at four minutes to one, at first there was the sound of what appeared to be a muffled ghostly Tube train and then the shaking began.

As my surprised brain tried to determine what was going on and why the recliner was jumping about, it was all over. My wife sleepily called downstairs to ask why she had been woken up by the bed shaking. I declined to turn that into a joke.

Looking out, I saw a light go on in a neighbour's house but the others remained in darkness.

So that was it - my first earthquake was over. I watched Sky News for a while as the latest on the shocker rolled in, then went to bed with a thought flickering in my mind.

It may have been two days early, but perhaps after all 2008 would go down as a leap chair to remember.