Monday, September 08, 2008

On Shaky Psychological Ground, Or Weekend Recap!

What a weekend of contrasts last weekend was! Like night & day. Or in this case, Winter and Spring, insanity and sanity.

Friday night and all day Saturday we were plunged back into the depths of Winter, cold and with torrential rain. Saturday it rained all day without letting up at all. So consequently I did the only logical thing (read: insane thing) and decided to visit Ikea.

Because I don't drive a trip to Ikea is two train rides there, and two train rides back. Either end of the journey requires a bit of walking also. So, the customary flaw in this plan is always the carrying of the purchases. It often works in my favour though, because it stops me buying my own body weight in tealights and things with unpronouncable names.

I had planned to go to Ikea this weekend and get some storage boxes to start organising my yarn stash and all my art materials, and start making the spare bedroom into the neat office/studio space it is destined (in my head) to become. Do you see where this is going? Torrential rain, train rides, walking, carrying bulky items, insanity. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Also, in my insanity I thought that it was such a miserable day that Ikea would probably not be that busy.

Oh, the crush of humanity. I am fine with crowds, I can cruise around people with strollers without breaking my stride, within a small bubble of zen like space. However, by the time I got to the cutlery I was ready to cut someone with a budget priced and unpronouncable kitchen knife. I even passive aggressively stole one of the 'for instore use only' catalogues because, well, somehow they owed me. The torture they put me through.

You would think that lugging a huge bag of bulky storage boxes home on public transport and on foot, whilst wrangling an umbrella, would be fun but surprisingly not. Once I had recovered, I did sort of enjoy having a quiet night in putting things into storage boxes. On a Saturday night. Which frankly, seems like another kind of not quite sane to me.

Sunday dawned sunny and mild, and ended up being the first Shorts Wearing Day of the season. Yay. The sun'll come out tomorrow! Bet your dollar bottom. Once I had done a bunch of laundry, admired some stacked (and filled) storage boxes, gone to knitting at the pub in the afternoon, and cooked some dinner it was like the trauma of Saturday was a distant memory. With only the In Store Use Only catalogue to remind me otherwise.

7 comments:

M-H said...

Hmmmpf for Saturday. We decided to go and look at sofas in Crows Nest in the car. Baaad mistake. Between the fire that closed Victoria Rd, the rain and all the idiots that had decided to rush out and get last minute Fathers' Day pressies, it took us most of the day to do make one trip. *And* the shop that we'd planned to visit had disappeared.

Anonymous said...

I've been to Ikea three times in the last two weeks (saga!) and all times just paid for delivery, and once I got a taxi home. Life is simply too short to spend much time at Rhodes train station.

Unknown said...

Next time, call me! We live pretty close to Rhodes, and I have to pop in to Ikea soon. I could pick you up from a train station nearby, take you to Ikea, then we could go back to your place via the pub.

Easy ;)

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh, the shorts n first hairy legs of the season! My fave time of year...

The Other Andrew said...

M-H, maybe the stars had aligned on Saturday, badly!

Amanda, at some point I want to get a few larger things and I think delivery is really going to be the only option. I can't see me getting a desk on the train, for instance!

Lara, IT'S A DATE. I still need to go back and get more stuff in the next few weeks!

The Other Andrew said...

Andrew, we love shorts weather!

Michael Guy said...

NO FAIR! You are getting 'shorts weather' and I'm losing 'shorts weather'...

er, I bought 100 tealights this weekend. So there's that.

Good on you for the organizing thing. Wanna visit CHI-town soon?