Sometimes I can barely remember what I did last week and the weekend of the 2/3Feb was one of those. I read recently that the brain requires a certain amount of sleep each night in order to transfer memories from the short to the long term store, otherwise they are lost. I am not sure how true that is but I can vouch for being more forgetful than most when failing to get a good nights sleep. My regime during the week is to go Monday to Thursday departing from home at around 05:45 and getting back at 19.00, although these last few weeks work has been even more demanding than usual. I normally work from home on Friday but not recently, the result is a general lack of sleep which cannot be good.
On the 31 Jan my wife and I decided that I would drop by Ikea and pick up a body form mattress topper, this is not a great description as it sounds like a sanitary towel for a 60 foot menstruating woman... Anyway, whilst there I was meant to pick up a couple of toilet brushes and a couple of winter duvets. You would not believe the difference it makes but of course it would not be a straightforward trip. Needless to say we guessed the size of our bed and duvet covers and therein lay the first problem.
As I was going to use the Ikea near Sterrebeek I was keen to get in and out before the inevitable rush hour traffic set in and the place was choking with mad people trying to get home. I naturally got straight in and decided to pretend I was a salmon and go up river against the flow of the traffic. Like most, I would imagine, I don't like the way they get you to follow the set route and never have a straight path through all the displays. I mean I just needed an express route, I did not want to joust with pushchairs or follow wandering nomads as they walked in their zombie like state looking for inspiration, I was a man with a mission and I had done my research too (on the UK site, which would prove to be a slight inconvenience).
I found the bedding department and after waiting for another customer to discuss the physics of mattresses with the assistant and shift, I then quickly checked the mattress toppers out and discovered and noted the required details for our 200 x 160 product. I then shifted target to the duvets.
Now we have had somewhat thin and feeble duvets for some time now and have never really taken the opportunity to change them, but after reminiscing about the cuddly and warm feeling of previous ownership, I managed to persuade An of the requirement to experience a more comfortable duvet. Now the UK have a TOG rating, which I believe runs from about 5 to 16 or so, the higher it is the heavier and warmer the duvet. I was kind of hoping that this was an international standard but no, the system in Belgium (and it may not be purely Belgian) was a number between 1 and 6, again the bigger the number the heavier. I think this is a case of kilometres and miles but I am not sure. SO I selected a nice heavy duvet and guessed that the size would be ok, we have two single duvet and in fact there was only 1 size so no real problem there.
Having done my research I then started zombie dodging my way to the warehouse, gabbing a couple of toilet brushes on the way (not as weapons you understand). I found the mattress and decided to go through the self-scan, quick eh? No, not when you have people with the technological dexterity of a blind elephant who has a leg in a caste. It seemed to take such a painfully long time for them to work out how to operate the equipment and scan their goods, there was an older couple, a heard of 25 somethings and someone who just couldn't care less. I took maybe a minute if that to scan, pay and move.
I already knew that the mattress topper would not fit in the boot of my rather nice car, the one I had decided was not going to be used to transport cargo, the one I had deliberately chosen not to have folding rear seats. Anyway, I had to get the mattress across the back seats of the car and, funny old thing, it was too big. To be honest it took just a small adjustment of moving the passenger seat forward and hey presto I only had to magic it in between the parked cars. Once I had squeezed my giant tampon into the car I got underway. I would be just the right person if I encountered a fuel spill or a small flood. I actually made pretty good time and was home about half an hour later.
As soon as I was home I unloaded the car, without being smacked in the face by the large tampon, it was spring loaded in the car. I decided that it would be best to measure the bed and duvet covers before risking unwrapping the stuff, just as well. This was when I discovered that the bed was in fact 200 x 140, I could have gone for the sanitary towel for the slightly smaller menstruating woman and avoided being smacked in the face as I got it out of the car. Cue another trip to Ikea the following day. The duvets were not a problem and lets face it you can't go wrong with toilet brushes...
On the Sat we hit Ikea before the bulk of the zombies turned up and returned the extra large tampon and were given instructions on where to find the slightly smaller (and cheaper one). We were given a plastic 'gift card' as they don't do refunds. Inconvenient but not a problem. We went to the aisle as directed and, WITHOUT CHECKING, picked the product off the shelf. We did check the size and take it from the location as described. We whipped it though checkout and noted that the price was considerably lower, we realised the error and then had to go back to returns, where they issued us with yet another plastic card. They could not just simply credit the existing one, too easy. To add insult to injury they then said WE should check before going through. The correct product was in a completely different location so it was an easy mistake for THEM to make!
Anyway we now have a very warm and comfortable bed, it was not bad to start with but now it is positively luxury.
The bit about the zip comes later, that was the start of a hectic week at work and the mini-dramas that unfolded, but more of that next time.
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