So, after seven years our cheap Ikea bed is pretty much ready to retire. When we bought it we got the cheapest frame in the store and the cheapest matress to go with it. The matress got replaced about three or four years ago by a slightly more expensive one (not from Ikea) which has now pretty much also had it. So, this meant we needed to take a trip to Ikea. Rich had to come with me as I told him I wouldn't be able to manage the bed boxes by myself (and I was right!). So, I managed to leave work early-ish on Friday (it was half five, which isn't bad as we are supposed to finish at half four on Fridays). Off we went to Ikea. We found the bed department, and found the bed that I had picked out in the catalogue (that's right, Rich didn't get any choice) and of course you have to go to the desk to get a print out of the bits that you need. Which we did. We got into the market hall to pick out an undersheet (which you have to get as Ikea beds aren't the same size as anybody else's beds!) before I realised that the display model which we had the parts for wasn't the actual size that we wanted. D'oh! Back to beds to do the order over. Lucky that a different assistant was at the desk!
Then off to the warehouse to collect the parts. Which was fine until we got to the matress pad which was "temporarily oversold" (why can't they just say "out of stock"?) and then, even worse, the matress was out of stock too! Trauma. Ikea charge for delivery, so I didn't really want to go back another time for the matress, so we ended up getting the most expensive matress that Ikea do! I suppose it will be worth it in the long run!
Had an amusing experience on the way home from work on Friday. I still had my stick as my legs were still a bit wobbly, and I was standing on the tube which was really crowded, and nobody was offering me a seat (my pet peeve, not being offered a seat on public transport when I'm out with my walking stick). Anyhow. This woman got on the stop after me, and shoved past (almost knocking me over, but hey) and positioned herself right in the alley so she'd get a seat if anyone got off. Which they did at the next stop, and she raced for that seat! Anyway, I got a seat a couple of stops later, so that was fine. But I noticed that when she got off (same stop as me) her backside was covered in chewing gum which somebody had left on the seat that she was so determined to get. Karma? I think so!
Our office is going to be like a ghost-town on Monday. The two partners are both out - one on holiday, one on a course. One other colleague is on leave... me and my assistant are out at a meeting all morning... it will be quiet.
I was very happy to see yesterday that the tadpoles in our garden pond are really getting big and fat now! Soon they will be turning into tiny frogs! I saw a big frog in the 'frog pond' last night. The frog pond is a small pond away from the fish pond which gets totally colonised by frogs and toads in the summer. I do like frogs, and we sure have a lot of them every year!
Here are some photos of the wildlife in my garden!
This is Jaws. He's the biggest fish in our fish pond!
This is King Frog. He was the biggest, most colourful, and most photographed frog in the frog pond last year!
This is one of the baby foxes, taken a few years ago now, so he's probably one of the grown up foxes now!