Ikea Ordeal

The sky from my window this evening - I love it that it's not dark at 6 pm any more.

I'm so glad to be home after our expedition to Bristol Ikea. My husband doesn't remember ever going to Ikea. I warn him about how big and confusing  and tiring it could be. I tell him about flat pack furniture, and cheap and cheerful and the culture of streamlined wood in the Scandinavian countries and what Swedish Meatballs are.  He just says he loves going shopping with me. We put the address in the Sat Nav, I write my short list - a round rug for my room to go with the new curtains which haven't come yet, a swivel desk chair to replace my broken-armed one a and a footstool to go with my snuggle chair.

And I try and re-frame my pictures from wrung out shopping ordeal to possible satisfactory outing.

I suppose you could say in the end it was a satisfactory ordeal. I came away with a pack of tea lights, lime green paper napkins, two water glasses, some hand towels and pillowcases and a turquoise rug which I'm not sure about.

 My husband patiently pushed the trolley around while I dithered in the aisles of the Market Hall but he perked up hugely when we reached the tills and the sight of rows and rows of  clear plastic boxes full of brightly coloured sweets and chocolates and fudge and marshmallows. 

While I paid for all my unnecessary purchases he lifted the lids of each box and smelled their contents....till I stopped him and showed him the red plastic scoop instead to dig into the rainbow candies..... and he filled up a paper bag with pure sugary glue...

He ate some of them in the car going home on the slow back roads avoiding the traffic jam on the M5....I'd already lost the will to live - especially after the most horrible fish and chips lunch ever..... which I barely ate.....and felt wrung out with the pointlessness of trying to help my husband not to cough and spit..... or swear at himself and other drivers in the high falsetto voice he uses more and more now.....

Probably won't be going back to Ikea for a while....unless it's with homemade sandwiches and no list....and a more resilient heart.