Well you might as well wait for Maurice Chevalier

After a short time, the handsome estate agent confirmed that there was indeed a lease knocking around in the bad solicitor's office. Indeed the good solicitor was promised by Barry the stand-in at the bad solicitor's office, (Dave was at the doctor's having his impetigo checked) that the document would be put in the special legal document exchange system and sent overnight to the good solicitor's bright and tidy office in Brixton.

However, Barry the stand-in had to pop out towards the end of the day to buy a tubi-grip bandage for his leg ulcers and clean forgot about putting the lease into the document exchange system.

Barry the stand-in came into the dark and dingy Norbury office the next morning and joined his colleague Dave in ignoring the telephone ringing, preferring instead to read a copy of Top Santé he had bought at the chemist. The phone rang all through an interesting article about Gloria Hunniford's battle with grief and through the topical searchword which was quite difficult today - a lot of words on the diagonal and running back to front; it was two hours before he actually found the word colostomy nestling in the bottom right hand corner, using the m from thalidomide.

The phone rang again whilst he was making his morning coffee and seemed to ring unabated all through his lunch-hours as it was still ringing when he got back from Norbury's finest tavern and settled down with a Dick Francis.

Meanwhile, having realised that the copy of the lease was not going to arrive as promised, the good solicitor decided that there was no point in waiting to receive the Office Copy Entries from the bad solicitor's office and requested his own from the Land Registry. The cost of £6.00 to do this was more than worth it, he thought, rather than put his eager client through more delays. After all, the Office Copy Entries, should always be scrutinised to ensure that no CCJs are listed against the little flat, or that there are not multiple mortgages registered against the address.

The good solicitor's client having been informed of another day's inactivity in Norbury was further angered and worried, but simply began to pray that Barry the stand-in would remember before Friday to prove to the good solicitors that the property is indeed legally available for sale, by sending the lease across to the good solicitor's office in Brixton.

But will he, children? That's the question I put you to bed with tonight. Now settle down, you've got your glass of water. I'll leave the night light on.
Sweet dreams...