Andrew

'You're going to give us a hand, aren't you?' says the man in the woollen hat at my door.  'Of course', I say.  'It's a small one, but it's actually really heavy', he says.  He is wearing a camel skin jacket with a sheep's wool collar.  He takes his hat off.  He is bald.

'How many flights of stairs?' he asks.  I tell him it is two floors up.  He let's out a whistle.  'Any acute angles?'  I tell him I don't think so.

His companion arrives from the van.  He is unhappy about having to pay for parking.  I give him a pound.  'It shouldn't take more than twenty minutes', he says.

I take the bottom right hand corner.  The three of us heave, ho, push and lift two steps at a time.  'To me... To you', the movers say to each other.  It has to be upended to fit through my corridor.

We complete the mission with three minutes of parking to spare.  'Do you do this all day everyday?' I ask the man in the camel skin jacket.  'Yes', he says.  'Not usually up stairs though'.  On the landing, picking up a blanket that had been laid for protection, I ask him my question.  He gives me an answer.  I thank him for his help.  'Enjoy it', he says.