Trust me on this, skip scavenging is your only man

Because of the times we’re in, when we heard the company next door was moving, we assumed the worst. In fact, the reason is the best: they’re moving to bigger premises because they’re doing fine, thank you very much.

We are, nonetheless, sorry to see them go, not least because their smokers and our smokers used to have friendly chats as they froze themselves out on the metal fire escapes. They also didn’t mind the men in our company jumping over the wall into their back garden as a short cut exit at the end of the day’s work.

The outward and visible sign of their impending departure is the outsize skip on the pavement at the front of our joined-up buildings. You don’t see that many skips, these days, compared to the nineties. Cranes and skips have been emigrating in response to the economic downturn, and, as a committed skip-scavenger, this causes me much grief.