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Wed, 19 Jul 2006

[13:36] Ikea
This is last Fridays news but it's been a busy week so, better late than never!

Shona's parents are coming to stay in a couple of weeks and apparently we required new sheets and pillows and we definitely required a new desk lamp (to replace the one that normally lives here but that fell of the shelf where it lived....twice. There's only so much you can do with superglue). So, Shona suggested that we trip off down to Ikea in Croydon because we could obtain the requisite goods cheaply AND have a wholesome Swedish Meatball dinner whilst we were there! Keep that shopping list in mind for later.

Croydon is a fair trek away so we sallied forth around 2030 and caught the train from Waterloo to Wimbledon
I STILL can't say Waterloo without breaking into song - I'm sure it really annoys the poor bastards at the station
We caught the tram down to Croydon from there. The only difference between the so called "tram" system and the trains in that the power rail is turned into a cable and strung overhead instead of running parallel to the tracks. The track width seems to be identical. The trams also accelerate like a bat out of hell and caused me to get a little too close to one lucky London resident!

We got to Ikea and feasted on meatballs and ligonberries - energising ourselves for the shopping ordeal that was to come. For those of you not familiar with the Ikea system, they pump you in one end and you travers the ENTIRE shop. This is so that you get a chance to cast your eyeballs over everythying on offer just in case you "forget" something that you "need". Obviously once you know this it doesn't work and you just buy what you need. Obviously:

Ikea Overload
Remeber that shopping list - it had 3 things on it. Here's what we actually left with:
  1. Lamp (far left - on the list)
  2. Sheet/pillowcases (underneath everything else - on the list)
  3. Pillow (up the back and two not present - on the list)
  4. Plush Stuffed Rat (far left)
  5. Plush Stuffed Soccerball (far left, under rat)
  6. 1 LARGE red/black cup and one large blue cup (far left and bottom right respectively)
  7. Two Boxes Assorted Finger Puppets (left, to the right of the rat/soccerball)
  8. Three Scented Candles (left and not my idea)
  9. A Ping-Pong/Table-tennis set, sans table (back right)
  10. Four Novelty Ice-Cube Trays (far left and far right)
  11. Tea Candle Lantern (bottom right)
  12. Weird Spiky Plant + Pot (far right)
Luckily the impulse purchases were spread pretty evenly between us so there is no blame to be apportioned and we carried it all home equally in two gigantic Ikea carry bags (£0.25 each). I'm responsible for the "useless" stuff (ball, rat, fingerpuppets, ping-pong gear and one cup).
Good time had by all and I'm happy to report that the ball was a great idea. So far NOTHING has been broken despite near continuous indoor usage by both myself and Shona (once I showed her how much fun kicking things around inside is)!

[Posted at: 19/07/2006 21:34]

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