Ebay it...

Well, as of this morning, all main furniture is installed in Cutthroat Cottage, and the house can finally become a home (as Burt Bacharach would put it). The DFS men came this morning with our two big fat sofas, taking off two wing mirrors en route (as well as their own) and getting into an argument with a white-van man stuck behind them, as they squeezed their rather big lorry down our rather thin lane. They seemed in good jest about it though.

The most furniture fun (yes it is possible) that me and Schwesty have had, though, is picking up our 'ebay-bought' Art Deco table and chairs from Southend-on-Sea. Londoners (especially miserable commuters) are renowned for their sullen faces, and lack of solidarity, but our rush-hour train journey to the Essex seaside was perked up by a lovely commuter who regaled us with tales of fabulous blind-dates, the pros and cons of 'Trial and Retribution' and 'Waking the Dead', why Dr. Goran is the unluckiest man on TV, and how she fought the law and won to get her African husband home. Then having met our 'man with a van' and picked up the table, we had a one-hour road-trip of belly laughs as Paul (a down-on-his-luck roadie/musician) told us his juicy tales of showbiz life - how he shamed Shane Lynch (of boyzone fame) by dropping him off at a red-carpet event in his VW Passat, how he's ended up as an usher at Vanessa Feltz's wedding, and (my favourite) the moment he knew his music career had gone up in smoke on "A Song For Europe".

The table is lovely, but the money dished out for it was worth it for the journey alone. Let nobody tell you that Londoners are a bad bunch. It just ain't true!