Mr T had been in hospital for over a month, and his wife Mrs T was preparing for him to finally come home. In order to do this, he needed a new bed made up, and three of Richmond’s finest had agreed to take on the task of moving furniture and building the new bed.

Sam, Chris and I arrived at Mr T’s and the boys cleared space in the spare room for the new bed to fit. The giant box then came up the stairs (featuring a few ‘pivot, PIVOT’s) before we got emptied it out and worked out what oh earth we had to do with the bags of screws and dowels, and the slats of wood that lay out before us.

Armed with screwdrivers, tea and Finnish nougat, we put our brains together to put a bed together. There was also a cameo appearance from Rascal the cat, who did a great job of supervising (and getting in the way a bit).

We also discovered that erecting a bed had more innuendo that an episode of the Great British Bake Off!

Innocent comments made included:

• ‘I can’t find the hole’

• ‘You’re too tight, Lucy’

• ‘Chris hold your nuts’

• ‘I can’t feet it going in? Is it in yet?’

• ‘ You need to be harder Sam’.

All of which were referring to Chris’s inability to locate the pre-made perforations for his screw to go in, Lucy going overboard with the wrench or Sam’s struggle with a tiny screwdriver.

Two hours later, the bed was made, with a new set of drawers underneath, and the mattress placed on top. Two hours, three humans and a cat… unlike the one hour it would take two people to manage, according to the instruction sheet!

Mrs T was most pleased, and with a final meow of approval from Rascal, we finished the task. Although we were bed bound and missed the Richmond group run, we had done our own pine work, and made a big difference for a man coming home after a month in hospital!