Lorna and Lucy (aka The L Team) arrived at Ms J’s on a cool Tuesday evening with the task of moving some furniture from her flat, to make space for a new hospital bed.

We rang the buzzer to be let in, with no reply. Luckily, someone had followed us up - and it happened to be Ms J’s daughter, D. At first D appeared a little ambivalent, ‘I thought they’d be sending us two strong men, it’s a big task you know’... The L Team were here to show real girl power, and although we didn’t look it, we were sure we would be able to complete the job just as well as any male could!

Up we went to Ms N’s sixth floor flat. D showed us the sofa, which would need getting rid, and then to the bedroom, and pointed out the bed which was no longer needed. D explained that Ms J had had this electric bed for years and years, but it had to go. She looked at us a little unsurely, as we assessed how to move the great big bit of metal and wood.

First things first, we shifted the very old and very well worn mattress out into the corridor. So far, so good. Then it was onto moving the bed. We turned the furniture onto it’s side and carefully manoeuvred the narrow hallway and took extra care not to ruin any of the new paint work that had been done on the skirting boards and the door frame.

Easy.

D looked impressed at how effortlessly we had made that look. Next job was to head to the lifts to bring it down to the ground floor. Lorna and Lucy carried the bed frame to the loft shafts, and here we found a spanner in the works...

The large bed was much too big to fit into the little lift. We would need a to dismantle the frame into smaller bits to fit it in, and there was no way we could bring it down six floors down the narrow stairway safely either. There was also no way we could just break it up either, as the metal was firmly fixed to the wooden slats. We joked to D that at least we knew the bed was well made, and she went off to fetch some tools.

D arrived back with a pair of spanner’s, and The L Team started to attack the metal bolts keeping the bed frame together. Unfortunately, only one of the spanner’s was the right size for the metalwork on the bed, so we took it in turns to unscrew. Lorna was the real spanner Queen, and before we knew it, we had released half the screws (with only one injury to show for it).

Unfortunately, half wasn’t enough. The other half were still bolted in tight, and although we tried, the metal wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. So we moved onto the next side. By this point, I think we had proved to D just how strong women can be, and when it came to the final screws being knocked off, she was getting involved and before we knew it, the bed frame was broken down enough to fit into the lift!

Lucy took the lift down with the bits of bed, and ran back up to join Lorna in loading the mattress in (a much easier task). Back on the ground floor, D showed us where to leave the unwanted goods for collection in the morning. There was one small set of steps left to get past. D demonstrated the technique of giving it a big shove down to the bottom, and we took it in turns to release our emotions out as the mattress and bed frame rolled ungracefully down the stairs and then was left by the waste area.

One job down, one to go.

The sofa was a much easier task, and it didn’t take long to move into the corridor, then into the lift along with all its cushions. A final roll down the stairs, and the three of us dumped the settee in the recycling bay.

The L Team demonstrated girl power at its finest, and the job was complete.