It's been a while since we last talked about boxes

Arriving back at the Nerve Centre we discover that — at last! — we've received some stock deliveries. The girls don't seem as relieved and delighted as they should be so, like an eedjit, I ask.

"Mary's told us that we need to shift through them quickly because there's no room left on this floor."

This is the the floor full of very large boxes; and boxes of book sale items; and extremely large boxes; not to mention SureStart packs, BookStart Treasure Chests; boxes of ***king Up books for Year Seven kids and a pile of boxes dumped on us by the Book Trust for delivery to schools who aren't fussed. Oh, and three broken desks that T.Aldous insists on our hanging onto. And some shelving. And a spinner. And a box of bookmarks featuring Larry Grayson telling us to read more books. And the old stock from Noddy and Glass Road that didn't move into the new premises. And some decrepit fiche readers. And some "reading group" books that have been being sorted out next week for the past two years. And some Italian books that somehow reappeared in the dead of one night. And some fluorescent light bulbs that are the wrong size. And a horse blanket.

For our next trick we will secrete the Albert Hall in the void of a ping-pong ball.