Adventures with Swedish furniture

I went to IKEA with my parents today. It was a spur of the moment thing (my mother asked me if I was interested at the gym this morning) and I went along because I wanted one of those "thingys" that hangs over the couch armrest with pouches to put your remotes and TV guide in. My parents have one, my sister has one, I felt I should join the clan.

Anyway, my mother printed out the directions from the internet. I should have known this would not work the same way it does for other people, but whatever. We hit the road and were doing fine until a road we were looking for turned out to be for bicycles only. Er ... okay. So we drive around a bit. Eventually, after a few U-turns and some guess work, we got there.

We went straight to the restaurant because, let's face it, that's the best part of a day at IKEA. We all got Swedish meatballs and fries and devoured the lot. It was great.

Then we headed into the actual store. I can't tell you a lot about it as there was so much to see that I got a bit of an information overload but it was a good bit of fun. We had a laugh at some of the interiors and tested pretty much every couch and seat (I tried out a few beds as well). I saw a lot of shelf possibilities that I would like to use in my living room. I didn't get any yet (wouldn't have fit in the car and I hadn't measured anything) but I have loads of ideas now.

While we were walking around the accessory area I bought myself a lovely oven dish (hey, I may use it someday) and I remembered that the clock in my bathroom needed replacing. I also bought a new pillow as mine is fairly well shot.

My parents bought new wine goblets, pillows, a pan set that was on sale, a TV cabinet for the TV in the attic - yes, the TV in the attic - and some cutting boards. All in all, I think we were there for two, maybe three hours and we walked forever. My feet even hurt at the end of it all!

Luckily the drive home was easier than the drive in and I was dropped off at home where the cats were waiting for me and I told them all about my lovely day. And that's when I realized that I hadn't bought the remote control thingy.

Typical.

:)