Wednesday 24th November

As promised, I get a call from DFS at around lunchtime informing me that their delivery driver will be at my house within the next hour. Pleased that the delivery has matched up well with my lunch break at work, I walk home and eat lunch there - which is a nice novelty in itself.

I put the news on and entertain myself by watching the breaking coverage of the latest round of student protests in London. They're protesting the cuts to university and college funding, as well as (mostly) the fact that university fees could reach up to £9000 - a debt repayable after you graduate and are earning over £21,000. I'm usually with students on issues like this, but I can't help but feel that a lot of the protestors don't know that it's basically an extension of the student loan, which should go into improving the universities they're attending - and that they don't have to pay it up front. I also can't shake the feeling that, like the violent protests of two weeks ago, a lot of these kids are just there for fun; to shout at the police, smash stuff and dance around fires. It's tedious and stupid after a while, the fun only coming with the most hilariously out-of-touch and "boo hoo diddums" placard I've ever seen: "We'd Like To Teach The World To Sing But We Can't Afford Our Music Degree". What a sad state of affairs it is when such a socially vital degree as music goes unstudied.

An hour passes, then 90 minutes. I give DFS a call moaning that I have to get back to work - but they tell me to sit tight. Another hour passes and by now I really, really should be back at my desk. Eventually the delivery men arrive at 3.15 and proceed to wedge the sofa in our narrow downstairs corridor. There's no way the thing is fitting through the door frame, even after the men have stripped all the packaging away. Around this time, I see the driver run out of the corridor and down the street, shouting. It seems some kid has jumped on the back of the lorry and is trying to steal one of his drills. The kid is chased away - but my sofa is still nowhere near being in my living room.

We then hit on the collective brainwave of seeing how far we can open the living room window - which turns out to be surprisingly far. After one of the delivery men has climbed up on the radiator and taken parts of the window frame apart, we somehow manage to slide the bulky sofa through the gap. Relieved that I'm not going to be sending it back for a refund, I thank the delivery guys and run back to work - eventually getting there for 4.30 and spending a frankly useless last hour of the day trying to catch up.