Well it was a gorgeous day this morning which slightly softened the blow of getting up at seven thirty on a day which was neither a school day nor a going on holiday day. Surely the only reason to get up before 8 at a weekend.

Rushed and darted over to our store, rushed round the corner expecting to be dazzled and aghast at the giant skip spectre looming on the horizon. Only to find it had not arrived at its promised 9am time. And an hour and a quarter later, it had only just tipped itself off the lorry to place itself heavily on the street outside.

I need not have worried that we would be inundated with volunteers itching to get started as we waited and waited but few made an appearance. Seems that the prospect of preparing for the skip was rather more attractive than actually skipping the stuff. But I must strive to only appreciate those that did show up and help - for after all, who would want to on a blue sky cold as ice Saturday morning..? - rather than churlishly cursing those that didn't for how far does that get me? No distance at all. So.

And actually, the skipping itself was fleeting. I'd had a vision of a skip that filled my skyline but it was only a measley 6 foot deep by 14 foot wide fellow. Barely big enough to take our scrap wood. Let alone all our dismissed and discarded furniture. It's just as well I filled all the domestic bins with our props last weekend or it would have made even less of a dent in the proceedings.

We attracted an astonishing amount of attention from innocent passers-by as we darted twixt store and skip laden with wood shards and large flat pieces of stuff. And one innocent bystander ended up taking a few small wood shards from the skip itself. He was a maintenance assistant it seemed so welcomed the scraps.

Anyway, tis done. We could fill another skip next weekend. But we have a less hazardously full entrance corridor now and a fraction more free floor space so I guess we have achieved something wonderful.