‘Shifting the Joanna’

Now there’s some jobs which I have done in my past that have involved their fair share of lifting and shifting.
So as I was awaiting the arrival of my better half and her cousin down at Albert Road in Southsea, I happened to glance through an open door to see this rather well roped and blanket covered mystery load being tipped forward and held on the shoulder of one well built removal man who was standing at the top of a very steep staircase.

I continued to view this with interest, impressed at how carefully they were negotiating it from it’s upstairs residence and back down to street level.

I distinctly heard the heavy puffing and panting from maybe one though on occasions all, of the three obviously exhausted removal men!

This was obviously a piano but one which was to prove extremely awkward; and undeniably heavy! (though at times…strangely tuneful?)

To their credit they all shared the load which was moved with great care, mainly through their patience and clear precise instruction.

Eventually their ordeal thankfully became less of a burden; due solely to their strength and conviction.
And at last their heavy instrument was placed with almost text book precision on top of a much awaited and noticeably welcomed heavy duty trolley!

From that point the guys divided themselves up sending one of the crew ahead to open up the rear doors of their van. The other two however took on the further task of negotiating uneven paving stones and deep curbs together, before finally arriving at their vans loading point.

I was very reluctant to offer anything to these guys by way of my advice from personal experience…
But it really did look like this piano might have been just a little bit too large for the size of the van?
I decided it might be best if I moved on at that point, and I really did hope for all of their sakes, that I was totally wrong in my assumption?