I love students. They can be relied upon for a great many things - not just getting drunk and sporting ill-advised haircuts and/or charity shop purchases, but also getting hot under the collar about political issues and waving placards that reflect this. And this is why I love them this week.

I'm not talking about the G20 protest - although that was a demonstration and a half and did seem to be made up mainly of angry students (with self-same bad haircuts and Oxfam jumper combos) as well as other people with nothing to do during the day. I am in fact talking about a protest that took place outside a Leytonstone primary school on Friday (March 27).

Without going into too much detail on the background - I'm sure everyone's heard it all before by now - the protestors, most of whom were from Roehampton University's LGBT society, had come to see off scary religious types from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, who claimed they were going to picket the school. Armed with brightly coloured banners, bearing slogans such as "No bigots please, we're British" and "Hate ignorance", they planned to face off against Rev Fred Phelps's militant Christian followers - if not the man himself, since he's banned from the UK.

But when no one from the WBC turned up, (their behaviour being considered "not conducive to the public good", I suspect they too were banned) what ensued was possibly the most mild mannered demonstration in the history of demonstrations. Unlike the mass brawl/riot/gathering of political agitators in the City today (Wednesday), there was no singing or chanting or shoving or much agitation at all. In fact, it was more like the protest that wasn't. Although the would-be protestors diligently waited most of the afternoon, or at least until it started raining, for the scary religious types (and so did I, for that matter) they were thwarted in their quest to promote equality - at least this time anyway.

And while the protest might have been grounded before it took off, it made for quite a quirky story and will, I hope, be the end of this sorry tale. It has been the archetypal storm in a teacup and a lot of people all over the world have been angry about it for different reasons. But having culminated in such a farcical manner, I can only imagine nothing else will come of it.

Finally, I am including a special added extra this week in the form of a blow-by-blow field report from my reporter's surgery, which took place in Leyton on Friday. The cafe was perfectly nice and I'd go back as a customer, but as for the surgery...well, read on if you want to find out...

Five minutes in - no one here yet. Will remain patient.

40 minutes in - still no one here. Feeling slightly sick. Cappuccino: mistake on empty stomach.

50 minutes in - still no one here. Wonder if ugly mug in paper scared people off?

53 minutes in - cafe seems to have lots of regulars but most people ordering takeaway. Poor choice of venue?

54 minutes in - plangent classical music piped out at background noise level starting to grate. Might start fight to break up time.

One hour in - still another hour of this.

One hour, 15 minutes in - orange decor and dim lighting starting to cause headache.

One hour, 17 minutes in - plangent classical music apparently on loop. Still thinking about starting that fight.

One hour, 30 minutes in - cafe now empty. No one to fight and no stories. Disaster.

One hour, 33 minutes in - having read article on Beeb website about how drinking piping hot tea with no milk may cause oesophageal cancer, suspect green tea was a mistake.

One hour, 39 minutes in - time passing veeery slooowly. Leyton, where's the love?

One hour, 45 minutes in - heard word Guardian mentioned by customer. Got hopes up. Hopes dashed.

One hour, 50 minutes in - laptop battery going. Oh well.

Two hours in - time's up. Officially an unmitigated catastrophe.