IKEA adventure
Unfazed by the new font in the IKEA catalogue that arrived in my mailbox, I went through with my plans to visit after work and buy a new mattress. The one I have here sucks. It's foam and sinks overnight and I wake up feeling extremely uncomfortable (and don't often get a good night's sleep). Of course IKEA is extremely good and fairly cheap and I love the kids section and Swedish meatballs so of course I had to go visit!The trip in to Brussels was fairly uneventful -- I'm getting used to the Namur-Brussels trains. I jumped on the metro from the central station, and found out the station I wanted was on that line! So it was pretty easy to get there. On the way there were the usual weirdos, a man who came on and gave the whole carriage a lecture (in French, I think it was about love though from what I understood), then went around with a cup asking for money. I escaped from the metro at the right station, and walked around following the signs (yes, they'd put in signs saying <-- IKEA, how thoughful!) until I arrived.
After entering, it was almost like I was back in Rhodes. This IKEA was almost exactly the same (though I guess I shouldn't really be surprised), except that all of the explanatory signs were in French and Dutch, Belgians don't seem to know how to "bus their trays" in the cafeteria, and some minor differences in products.I couldn't find any noodle bowls or woks, for example, but they sold vacuum cleaners. It, of course, being Belgium, there was an entire section devoted to dogs.
In the cafeteria I ordered the traditional Swedish meatballs. The ordering process and the serving process are quite separate -- a man took my order for a serve of 10 meatballs etc. (you could get 10, 15, or 20), artistically placed some lingonberry jam and a swedish flag toothpick on my plate, then pushed it down the bench to a lady who was busy serving other people -- but despite knowing she hadn't heard my order, and fully expecting to have to repeat myself, she managed to serve me 10 meatballs! I'm putting it down to ESP requirements IKEA has for staff. Good times.
Anyway I bought some tins for my tea, 2 mugs to complete the set of 4 this house must have had once (there were 3 when I got here, then I broke one), some brightly coloured plastic tumblers, a cushion for my deskchair, a rather bright but mostly functional rug for my floor (it's quite cold underfoot!) some very ugly but functional house slippers (waiting for my ugg boots to arrive)! And of course the mattress. I got the slightly more expensive one, because it felt nicer to lie on, and I figured I could afford an extra 60 euro for a decent sleep for the next 3 years! The very helpful gentleman (who spoke English, thank god, although I had all my French sentences lined up Just In Case) organised the delivery for me and so it'll be arriving at the end of this month (I could have had it earlier, but going to France & Finland in the next 3 weeks makes that sort of thing difficult to organise so I thought I'd best make sure I would be around).On the way out I checked out the food section (as usual). Lots of the usual stuff, but some things you can't get in Australian IKEAs:
Delicious! Well, actually I have no idea, since I didn't buy any. Also, the soft serve cones here come in proper waffle cones, none of that crappy fake cardboardy weirdo stuff!As I was leaving, after self-checking out (yay! so much easier, and no queues!), I caught this wonderful sunset!
Caught the train home, it was very quiet and dark and I read some books and listened to music. Was really nice actually!Here's a photo of the rug & chair cushion (it's actually pretty good to sit on, I'm pleased with it!)
And, this is for Nicholas particularly: guess what I found!
Hehe, excuse the rather blustered and hot look, I'd just walked very briskly home ;) But I found some! They come with a super hideous cat mask, and no I'm not taking a photo of that.Anyway, so that was my evening. Much more interesting than... what I would have done otherwise! hehe.
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