ikea gave me a free £5 birthday voucher

london 4.34pm 16C cloudy tuesday 2019

 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

these are the 3 free items i got from the birthday voucher of £5 which ikea gave me to spend. that metal object is a garlic press £2.50, and the red thing is a dish washer with a inbuilt soap dispenser £1.75. and the turquoise cup 70p is their signature cup. i have a white one , which i found long ago , and i bought this one just to bring it up to the £5 total.

the garlic press is one that i really want, because i broke mine,  which i bought cheap from a charity shop long ago. that old garlic press was actually a combined garlic press and a cherry/olive pip remover.  you can tell that it belongs to a bygone age, as no one i know removes olive/cherry pips. i broke it by trying to press ginger on it, instead of garlic. i realise now that for ginger it is best to grate it. or just use a knife to crush it, and then cut it finely.

i enjoyed choosing these items, though the journey there and back was quite a bother. the ikea i went to was near wembley, north london, and i forgot which tube station to go to, i should have got off at hallesden tube station, but instead went one station further to stonebridge park station, and that was a mistake. because  the bus 224 that i took had to go pass hallesden anyway but not before going  a long circuitous route through housing estates.

tfl told me to go to neasden and then walk 15mins to ikea. i did not fancy walking, and i know of another way using buses from a tube station. i had a vague recollection that it is hallesden, or stonebridge park and choosed stonebridge just to try something new. after this, i will not advise anyone to choose stonebridge park. haha.

i was thinking whoever uses ikea must have their own transport. there were lots of people buying huge amounts of bulky stuff, and i was thinking they must have got their own transport, as i cannot imagine anyone using public transport to carry all those things back. 

 

ikea homes through 4 decades

london 3.13pm sunny 15.3C friday 2017

i went to a meetup of ex members of a east-west club at montague pyke, the pub, and i found out that it is next door to this house that ikea has taken over for 4days to show their furniture over the 3 decades that they have been trading in uk. so there was the 80s living room, 90s , 00s and one in the attic showing the 10s . that top room has a woman dolled up like a android… i thought she was not real, actually… until she started moving… i think if she stayed still, i would still be fooled and not sure how to react to it. some might even be tempted to stick a pin in her… just to find out… oh wait, maybe that is why she moved… haha.

though the furniture is quite timeless, actually and the only way u can tell it is the future is the different tvs in there. haha.

the house is rather interesting, i have never been inside these and often i wondered what they are like when i am on the street looking up at them. there are a lot of stairs to climb haha. each floor is one large room, they might have been large bedsits each. 

i think i prefer my flat, where it is all on one level. it would be a bother if u forget something that is on the top floor just when u are heading out to the street on the ground floor. their ground floor had been eaten up by half the space taken over by the montague pyke pub to give them a entrance/exit into this street, like a backdoor , because their main entrance/exit is on the other side of the building.

from the outside you can see the house has been changed, so that the ground floor height is reduced to allow an extra floor to be added without making the house taller. and if u compare it with the house next door, the 3 windows have been replaced with 2 large ones. this house have been altered quite extensively.

 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

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actually if u look at furniture, have you noticed that they are more or less the same shape? perhaps they have to conform to our bodies and our bodies dont change in shape nor do we lie differently over the years. the materials changed and that seems to be the only change over the years. i bet if we go to 2050 we will still be able to recognise furniture. it wont be so weird and different that we wont know which end to sit on …haha.

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this is the back view , that roof you see is the passage from montague pyke pub. it continues past that wall to the main room , a very high ceilinged auditorium which was the cinema in the old days. i was very surprised that it is so low that i could not see it over that wall. there is no sign of the montague pyke building from here. amazing isn’t it? the whole area is so open, lots of sunshine, no tall buildings blocking the light. if u look here, google map shows the terrain very well. zoom in to the montague pyke area and u can see the whole building stretching from one end across what must be gardens into the back end of 19 greek st. 

fun day at ikea

london 2.27pm 16.8C drizzle wednesday 2016

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

bought this knapsack at ikea for only £2, that is because they gave me a £5 voucher, and it was reduced from £10 to £7. it was an impulse buy which just goes to show how well tested is the concept of giving freebies to people to get them to come to the store, and then they will be tempted to buy something. i thought i shall just go and buy their £1 meat ball meal, which i did, ( quite nice too esp when its normal price is £3.80… and i thought i shall use the voucher to buy me their frozen meat balls, but it was not applicable to the frozen foodhall, nor to the restaurant.

then at the front of the store, near the restaurant they put all these reduced priced items. and i saw this ikea knapsack; such a lovely colour… and i looked at my old gym bag that i have been using all this time; and it looked so torn and stitched up on all sides because the seam has ripped and coming apart, and i thought i suppose i should buy it. cant really wait to find a knapsack in the recycling bins really… though i did find one a few days ago but it had dog shit on it and that stopped me from picking it up. i guess i should have realised a little bit of dog shit should  not really be a deterrant for a determined recycler. haha. anyway that opportunity was gone.

so i thought i better buy this then. and it is very nice. i am glad i bought it. it fits so snug on my back and looks so cheerful. and has very nice touches , like a detachable bag inside to keep all the loose bits.very clever. 

Congratulations!

Here’s what you’ve won…

You’ve won a Doughnut

isn’t it nice, there is a lucky draw if u enter the bar code in the receipt, and i got a doughnut. haha. well that is nice because i went to claim the krispy kreme doughnut offer but i did not read the offer properly. it is only applicable if i buy a dozen doughnuts first, then i can buy 12 plain ones at 79p. well i was allready wondering how i am going to eat 12 doughnuts , and now i have to eat 24… too many!! haha. not to mention buying the first 12 will cost £10 at least. but this free doughnut i got is just great, now i can still have a doughnut without having to eat so many of them. haha. 

added 7.31am friday 15.7.16 i have a confession to make, i still like the traditional doughnut best of all.

found a chair

london 1.09pm sunny 17.3C saturday 2015

my friend brought back this chair which he found on the pavement near my flat. 

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what do u make of it? it has screws that look like ikea, i googled it but can only come up with this , that the seat is rush chair, on a site that repairs them.

recently my neighbour gave me a nightstand. its this ikea hemness.  its allready assembled, though in the past somebody has to assemble it. it looks very complicated to do,as this video shows.

talking of all kinds of things

london saturday 2015

i got an email from ikea, telling me they are giving all ikea membercard holders a free meal. a free main course and dessert, during this period from mother’s day sunday 15march – friday20march.

well i am looking forward to eating a meal there. my branch of ikea is wembley. and i have never eaten their meals, even though i heard so much about their meat balls. haha. though i am more attracted to having either the fish and chips , or more likely the lambshank. it is not often i eat lambshank. but whatever it will be rather pleasant to decide when i get there.

i will be going there on monday, because i can get free coffee on weekdays with the members’card; but also i am hoping the weekdays esp monday will be quieter. . it would be nice to bring a friend along who is also a member, but i dont know anyone. the plus side to going alone is that i can go whenever i like and dont have to hurry to keep to the arranged time.

mother’s day… simon was telling me is his mum’s birthday too. so i said well isn’t that good, u need only buy one present and make it do for both. but he said not with my mum, she will blow a gasket if i do that. haha.

thankgoodness i dont to bother with it;  not that i have a mother living to buy a present for.

i am rather absentminded about presents, i forgot my father’s 80th birthday too.

that is a rather special birthday with the chinese.

remember?  i sent a email notifying some friends who i lost touch with of my new mobile number; well i got replies from them, and that is nice to keep up with their news. one of them replied and among other news he tells me he is going to malaysia in May for his mum’s 80th birthday.

time really flies, i can remember his mum when she comes to visit him in london, must be a long time ago; she likes to come  on her own as his father dont like travelling. she is a very nice person. so it is a chance for her to enjoy a holiday from being a carer to him.

 and now she is 80… all these signs of time passing which means we are getting old too… i asked him to take note of all the changes that must have happened in malaysia, and to tell me of it. i have not gone back for more than 10yrs.

his father is now suffering dementia. and that must be a big change for a start.

i was at the library and read an advert from morrisons about £1.98/kg shoulder pork. so i went there and found two with no skin. that way of presenting the pork i have not seen before. usually they wrap a skin round it to make crackling when roasted and that means there is a lump of fat below the skin.

but i think they realise there are some of us dont want to roast it, because for the first time i see these two packs with no skin. and i have cut them up to freeze in separate small portions and they are very lean. hardly any fat at all. so i am rather pleased about that…

i  find that area , camberwell, where the morrisons is a very ethnically mixed atmosphere, with a hustle and bustle that i really like to see.

shops crowded with people all doing their own thing, i do like to see that. i dont like places that are deserted and lifeless.it makes me realise i am truly a city person, as i like the crowds. there is a noodle shop there with a sign on the window saying all you can eat for £6. well in chinatown one dish may cost £6. 

there was a large sign advertising lycramobile outside this shop where the bus stop was, and it says 1p/min for calls to nigeria. and free calls and text for all lycramobiles to call each other in uk.

if i like to call my family overseas i would certainly go for these mobiles providers. and make sure all my friends have the same provider so we can all get free calls in uk. maybe that is why they are everywhere being sold in london. lebara does similar cheap overseas calls too. but since i dont call family in malaysia, it is better that i go for the sainsburys sim card instead. though the sainsburys dont do free calls to fellow sainsbury phones. ah well, cant have everything i suppose. haha.

just some observations

London
I have a happy life, and so there isn’t anything to rant about. And that means not much to write about. Haha.

The paradox of life. When u are happy with your life, there is not a lot of things to say about it. We all know that it is boring to hear another person say how happy they are and how their life is so wonderful.

Whilst we all seem to get pleasure to read of others ranting about their lives, or about something that happened to them which upset them. Well, perhaps not so much with pleasure, but certainly u get a lot of people ‘liking’ something when it is something that is upsetting the writer.

When I write about things that happen to me, it is with bemusement, or joy, ( when I find something that someone had thrown away which I like.) Or when people’s behaviour puzzles me.

I have been reading this book by will storr, ‘the heretics’ and it is such a good read and gives me further insight into people, or confirms my own views, that I find it a great read, and don’t want it to end.

My friend from Bournemouth has come and gone. It is for 3nights this time. (his national express fare is £20 return this time and even then it was for 3.30am start, and 11.30pm return.)

He came to attend the heritage exhibition in Olympia. The one where someone presented a paper about how they found from the dna y chromosome that England and wales have a million people descended from Romans.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9888402/One-million-Brits-descended-from-Romans.html

They concluded this from discovering linkages in the dna to Italians. And so they jump to the conclusion it must be the romans. Someone did mention that the roman army was not only made up of Italians. But I guess like will storr would put it, we concoct stories that pander to our own prejudices. Haha.

My friend is very keen on discovering his ancestors. And had been coming back from the exhibition every day with loads of brochures which he gives to me for some reason. Haha. I have told him I have no interest in it. But by now, we should all realise that people don’t listen. Haha.

It just means more rubbish to throw away in the recycling bins.

And he had been coming back with sweets too. They give them out and he had been taking them. So much so that at the end of the exhibition, one stall holder gave him a whole bag of these sweets . He ask me if I want them. I said no and I suggest he brings it back to give to his friends. He said he will give it to the salvation army in Bournemouth.

Well, it must be nice to get so caught up in a hobby… researching your ancestors must be rather fun for those who want to know about their ancestors.

It bores me rigid.

But to each his poison, I say.

I read that 1 in 3 don’t save any money at all.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=188043

I think u might have to take that with a pinch of salt. This is because u are penalised if u are on benefits if you have savings. So many people save but not in a bank account, so that no one knows and they wont tell anyone about their savings either. Even if you are not on benefit, it pays not to have any savings. This is because if u have to go into a old folks home, u will be penalised for having savings.

And horsemeat found in ikea meatballs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/25/horsemeat-found-ikea-meatballs

This technology of identifying dna is uncovering a huge horsemeat racket that may well have been going on for years. In the past no one can tell where the meat comes from and so it was the perfect con.

Maybe now we can legitimise horsemeat and arrange for horses to be included as another meat source. Maybe we can even have horse farms…

Added.4.40pm

London
I have discovered a tv channel called movie mix, that shows movies that I have not seen before.
Tonight at 9pm I found that they are showing a movie called Django. I clicked on it thinking , what! is it related to this oscar nominated film Django Unchained?
Well it looks like it is the first one. So tarantino’s Django Unchained is a sequel, or a prequel, or something. Haha.

The movie mix channel is not listed in my tv guide, nor in the online tv guide. Strange isn’t it? So I cannot go there to find out who made the first Django.

added. discovered that i can add movie mix to the list. so here is the link to that movie

http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail.asp?id=149468292

The trouble is , it is on at 9pm, and that slot is always taken up by good stuff. Like tonight my favourite bbc2 death in paradise is showing. So I shall see Django after it is over then, at 10pm. added. correction, the death in paradise is tomorrow. 

Movie mix is channel 32 in the freeview.

added.11.30pm. its a ridiculous movie, dubbed badly in english. haha and quite laughably silly. not sure what the original language it was in. i did not see it to the end. instead i switched to bbc4, about chivalry and the 100 yrs war . that was interesting.

i have noticed that films are never as good as i think they will be and i lose interest very quickly. books will always remain my favourite entertainment.  

wandering around london

London

Thursday 10.1.13 

I went to ikea again for the free breakfast. Didn’t planned to go today, but I was up by 8am, and thought well I have nothing planned and I do fancy a cooked breakfast, so off I went to catch the tube.

And I know the route very well and got to ikea at about 10.10am.

And afterwards I was at a loose end as to what to do.
I thought of taking the 112 and let it take me to its end destination, brent cross… but the idea of seeing another shopping mall did not appeal to me.

So I took the bus back to the tube station. This time though instead of taking th 112 back to Stonebridge park station, I went to another bus stop where two buses have routes going to harlesden station.

It turned out to be a better station to go to, to catch the train back to central London. More buses ply this route.

I could take it to Lambeth north station where my gym is, but I did not fancy going there just yet. And I was pondering which stop in central London to get off. Well, I wanted to piss, and so remembered there are free public toilets at oxford st, in carnaby st , and in marshall street, near brewer st.

When I arrived at the carnaby st toilet, I saw a turnstile, it seems u have to pay, but there was no sign as to how much.

I was going back up the stairs when a man came down, and I suddenly decided I shall go back and see if I can use it. The turnstile was a bit loose and there was some give which provided a small space to allow me to enter so I did. There was no attendant.

After I finished pissing, I tried to go out and the turnstile refused to budge. The man told me to press a green lighted button and that releases the turnstile. Glad he was there to tell me otherwise I would be lost what to do. I wonder if others have this ignorance of how these public toilets work.

Hmm, I did not realise they are making the carnaby st toilets a paid one. The broadwick st, (at the north end of brewer st), toilets are still free I think.

Added. 27.3.13 found this article that says a private company is running the toilets now. and they have been closing (link) the free toilets and charging 50p for the others. 

 

Anyway I went to a gay sex shop in soho to get the gay magazines, boyz and qx, which are distributed free and took them to soho square to read them and to eat my snack and chocolate hot drink which I brought from home.

I see in the magazine that nudityclub is having a free charity night, on 11.1.13. Or rather they are asking members to donate £3 for the terrence Higgins trust charity and for non members to pay £5, including a £3 donation.
It is a nice place, where guys can be naked and play and dance naked.

I went last year intending to just pay £5, but got persuaded to buy a £5 annual membership and pay £3 donation. It was not worth being a member as I did not go to any of their subsequent nights. The entry fee for members is a pricey £8 that is why.

So this time if I do go , and that is not certain, I shall just pay the £5 donation.

I went on to Chinatown and bought frozen mackerel 1kg for £3.25. And also they were selling their thai red curry paste. brand name is maesri, 1kg for 50p . Usually they cost £4. I think because the sell by date is 26jan 2013.
Similarly, they have this chinthe Burmese bamboo sooot pickle for 50p. Again because it sell by date is jan2013.

But I don’t mind as actually u can still use it after their sell by date. The shop cannot legally sell it after that date, hence the cheap price. I bought 2. It is a good buy as curry powder250mg is already costing £1.35 now.

I think it makes a good laksa dish eaten with vermicelli, or flat noodles.

Then I decided to return home as I have to put the frozen fish in my freezer, instead of going to the gym as I originally planned.

(my bus was actually waiting at the bus stop with its hazard lights on, so I did not have to wait for the bus, it was waiting for me haha.)

Back home, I went online and saw in one of the blogs I follow, that there is an ice carving exhibition and demonstration in canary wharf from 11jan(tomorrow) and over the weekend.

It sounds interesting, so I shall go to have my breakfast at ikea tomorrow and afterwards I have somewhere to go. I have not been to canary wharf so it would be nice to go there and have a look at the place as well as go see what the ice exhibition is all about.

I sent an email to a friend who lives in Harlesden and ask him whether he might like to join me for breakfast at ikea, if he got a ikea family card, or join me to canary wharf for the ice thing.

It would be more fun to go with a friend I think.

Last night, I got a call from a friend of my friend who lives in poole saying he intends to visit London and ask me if he can stay at my place.

Well, I said he can.

Only later I realise I forgot to tell him that I don’t have my heating on and so he should bring along some warm fleece. Hope he likes cold and not want to have the flat heated up.

I think as long as they don’t want me to heat up my flat for them, I don’t mind them staying here.

I am so used to not having the heat on that I am reluctant to warm it up even for guests. That is why I don’t invite people to stay at my place. They ask, and they can stay as long as they are aware of and accept my no heat policy.

U might say I am a awful host, haha. But I figured that if the guests don’t make too much demands on me I would be more willing to host them again next time. But if they give me a lot of inconvenience or costs, I wont have them next time.

Haha, that is the plain fact of it. Many people might not want to say it so bluntly, but there you are. That is my view. U will be welcome as a guest if u give me the least inconvenience and expense to host you.

London

I went to ikea for their free breakfast again. This time I arrived at the tube nearest my flat at about 9am.

The tube train took me to queens park and terminated there. And to continue the journey I took the overground train which was the next train arriving there.

In the past, it was not an integrated service where the oyster card for the tube is accepted for the trains as well. But since they made the whole system run on the oyster card, we can take any train or tube.

So I arrived at the bus station to ikea at 9.40 am, just in time to catch the bus.

It was a shorter queue this time for the breakfast. I enjoyed the meal, much more than the last time. Maybe because I put some mayonnaise on it. There was vinegar sachet as well, which I thought was ketchup and poured vinegar. I must have improved the taste.

Since I had already seen the products last time I went, I did not stay long and left at about 11.30am .

I thought of visiting crouch end, to see what their charity shops have to offer, and I found out from the train map inside the carriage that I could change at Willesden junction and go to gospel oak and change there for the train to barking, which stops at crouch hill.

It was only when I neared crouch hill that I realised it is not crouch end. I asked a woman who was also leaving the train there whether it is near crouch end, she said yes.

I thought I could walk there , but a bus came along so I took it and glad I did. Because it was a up and down hill route.

Crouch end itself was a disappointment. The charity shops were limited in stock and pricey. And I fail to see what the attraction was to living there. There are no supermarkets, and so things were pricey and it was miles to the tube station, Finsbury park.
It is a posher area than Finsbury park I suppose.

Whilst I was browsing in the charity shops I realised that I have everything I need. I wanted trainers, and I found two pairs.

I was looking at the shoes they have on sale in the charity shops and branded ones are priced about £12 a pair. So I am rather lucky to have found those reebok trainers.

So really there is no need to go haunting the charity shops. Also I realised I have still held on to the habit of visiting charity shops but I am really realising now that my charity shopping days are over. I prefer to find things in recycling bins for free now.

It was a pleasant way to spend time. I seldom go to north London so this was a way to see it and realise there is nothing I miss by not going there. Haha.

The overground train is really very nice, the carriages are joined by flexible joins and so there are no doors. You can walk from one end to the other. And this I did to try to get away from those people talking on their mobile phone. Though I was unsuccessful because I was moving from one chatterer to find they were scattered throughout the length of the train.

I am following a blog by carly-dee in yacantgohome.wordpress.com who is a fantastic talent with poetry and I was thinking when I was fleeing the chatterers and finding them everywhere and being made to listen in to their gossiping; that she would certainly be able to come up with something wonderfully expressive of my feelings. Wish I can write poetry like her. A poetry expressing my futile attempts to get away from all these people talking inanely in their mobiles and gossiping and forcing all of us to hear them dishing their friends haha.

I was comparing it to the peace and quiet of the tube when it is underground and no one can make calls. Such bliss.

And I was thinking they are introducing it in planes and imagining it must be hell for those who have to listen to someone talking continuously throughout the flight with no way of getting away. They might have to hand out ear plugs with the ear phones.

a visit to ikea

London
7.1.13 Monday

I decided to visit the ikea near Wembley.
Arrived at the tube station nearest my flat at 9.09am to Stonebridge park, and went to the bus stop there, arriving there at 9.55am just in time to catch the 211 to the ikea. It is a short ride.

There is a free bus shuttle laid on by ikea from that station at 00 and 30 on the hour. But I get free travel anyway so did not risk waiting for it as it might not be operative. It says it does not run during the school holidays and I am not sure if it is the school holidays now or not.

Anyway an asian elderly couple were waiting at that stop and they told me the 211 goes by ikea.

They were going there too, though they told me they were going to brent cross.

I did not see them at the breakfast queue.

It is a free breakfast, free coffee too. (coffee,tea is free mon-fri).

Breakfast was a 6 portion plate (normally £1.50 for ikea card holders) consisting of one egg omelet, mashedpotato, beans, one bacon strip, 1 sausage. Or u can ask for the 9 portion at £2.20, with 2 sausages, 2 egg omelets, 2bacon strips.

The website mentioned the 6 portion was free, but the old woman ahead of me who got the double portion did not get charged by the cashier. So maybe it being Monday, and first day of the offer, the cashier was not aware of it. I daresay from now on they will charge the difference.

The 6 portion one is quite filling enough.

There was this man ahead of me who was filling his coffee cup and milk and drinking it all before refilling it again. I laughingly said to him u must like the coffee very much.

He said he just came from the airport, on the night flight from Thailand, and he was hungry. I said surely they must have fed u well, he said no.

Later I saw him again with another tray of food. And again filling up his coffee.

He saw me as he was leaving and waved, and when he passed me, I said don’t tell me u went back for second helpings! He said u can queue again, they don’t check.

The queue later on in the morning was very long.

I said, that is really generous of ikea to do it.

He said have u read their profit report?

I said no

He said they are the 3rd most profitable company…but they have opened the first time in Bangkok, and it is not doing well.

I said I cannot imagine the thais would want to assemble the furniture. They are so used to being served and having everything laid out for them, by which I mean those who are rich enough to afford ikea prices.

And he said they can also get good quality workmanship to make furniture on order, and cheaper too so it is hard to see what would attract them to ikea.

He said he knows people working for ikea there and they said it is new, give it time. So maybe they will succeed there too. But I cannot imagine how the thais will cope with the instructions to construct the furniture.

I said maybe the ikea style will appeal to the yuppy types who are well travelled and aspire to international designs. They will have the money too, but surely having to assemble the furniture must put them off.

I see now at the ikea store all the furniture is displayed in the showroom and everything look so perfect, but we all forget that the whole thing comes as a flat pack and have to be assembled. That is a bugger to do.

I myself don’t really know why people are not put off by having to assemble the furniture.

I am put off by the very thought of having to assemble it.

Anyway, since I am not buying any ikea furniture new , that wont happen. I find the ikea furniture in the recycling areas.

I found a poang chair, and thought it would be about £50 new. But having seen the prices in the store, I realise that even though the chair frame is about £35, the cushions can range from £20 to leather ones for £140.

And the one I found is a light coloured leather cushion. So my find is more of a bargain than I thought. I should think it would be £175 when new. And to think that someone just threw it away… that is how I got it. Granted the cushion is very flat… and lost its bouciness. But still ok to sit on.

(that is why I don’t buy these things. They don’t last. For that money, I would expect the cushion to last a lifetime).

I found a collapsible single ikea chair bed as well. And the frame cost £60 new. And the bed mattress is £50. It is quite a thin mattress. There was no mattress with the one I found. I just use ordinary cushions.

The sofa beds of other designs in the showrooms are laid out so they readily allow u to open them and see how it works but not this sofa chair. The sofachair on show is completely covered by a chair cover that enfolds it right down to its legs. I wonder why they don’t want customers to operate the chair.
It has a real smooth movement that opens it out as a bed. Quite lovely to do and see.
I thought it would be a selling point to enable customers to play with it and see how easy it is to open out as a bed.

Maybe they are closing down that design type and so do not want to advertise it too much.

It is a very good design and the movement to unfold the chair to a bed is very smooth and do not take a lot of strength to operate, but maybe it is expensive to produce. There are little wheels that support the bed as it opens out, the mechanism to return it to a chair is very smooth even though the mechanism looks very complicated but it must be well balanced to be able to do so without any effort.

So maybe not so profitable for them to sell. It is all metal and costing only £60, with mattress that is about the same cost.

There is a double bed of the same design but again all covered by a wrap. And it’s cost is not much more than the single bed. I would imagine more people would go for the double design than for the single one.

It is interesting that this type of sofabed is not featured in their 2013 catalogue.

I saw their unscented candle being sold at the mark down price of 49p and actually took it to the payment counter with the intention of buying it . The tills are all at the end of the long meander through the factory.

Before the tills, u are walking through a huge warehouse like space with shelves and shelves towering over u of the items in their flatpacks.

But when I got to pay at the self service till, I found that it only accepts debit or credit cards, no cash; so I have to abort the whole thing, even though with the ikea family card they give me 10% reduction on top of this reduced price.

And I was told I have to go to the manned tills to pay cash. when I saw the manned tills and the long queue there, I decided to put the candle back and leave. I can always come back another day.

There were scented candles. Only the set of 3 green candles of rising sizes was reduced from £7 to £3.50. The other ones of different colours presumably giving out different scents are not reduced.

I think the scented candles might be a better bet as I want the smell to hide the mustiness in my flat.

So maybe just as well I could not buy the unscented candles.

When I got home, I tried to light up a candle and see if I put a lavendar oils on it, whether it might scent the room, but I found there were no matches in my flat.

Considering simon smokes, we should have matches galore in the flat, but there was nothing to light the candle with. He normally leave his lighter hanging around the flat, but , as is usual when u need something it is not there; today it was nowhere to be seen.

So I will have to wait to find out whether putting oils on the candle will scent it and the room.

It was very pleasant to go to ikea for a free breakfast and coffee and to sit in their sofas in the restaurant reading the metro, a free newspaper that they distribute at the tube stations every morning.

I shall go again, maybe on Wednesday and this time I shall bring along my debit card.

The free breakfast offer lasts till 11jan and before 11am.

there was a showroom featuring the two bedroom flats that ikea has acquired in east london near the olympic site which they are using to rent out.

It shows how to furnish them with ikea products.

Walking in the space i thought it is rather a small flat, 50sq meters, or about 600sq ft. but by clever use of shelves and furniture they make it appear quite roomy.

But i could not help comparing it with my 2bedroom flat and realise my flat is really very large. no wonder i am so happy in my flat because there is lots of room to move about and i dont feel cramped whereas walking in that space i felt a bit cramped. the second bedroom is small, and can take only bunk beds, though they put a double decker bunk bed there , meant for kids.  

The living room has to share with the kitchen, which really makes the living space very small. i am real glad i got a separate kitchen and living area. and my living area is double the size of that in the showroom.

To be fair, they were trying to put in as much of their products in that small space and they succeed and what is more make the space seem roomy. i only felt it cramped because i was able to compare it to my flat.  

I was browsing wordpress to find what other bloggers have to say about ikea, and this one is funny.

http://underachiver.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/ikea/

She mentioned the pencils, jokingly saying that must be the reason why ikea is so popular; and it is true u can get them free, and I like pencils. It was only by accident that I saw them, they were by the toilets. i took one, and they write really well, the lead in the pencil making the words come out very clear. 

She mentioned their funny system of buying things there. I did not know u cannot just pick up the furniture from the showroom, u have to note the name of the furniture and then go to the warehouse and pick the flatpack yourself and then try to carry it through the tills. And then try to carry it back home. And then have to assemble them. truly, it must be the free pencils. haha. and the free coffee/tea. 

stream of thoughts

London

I got an email from ikea. I joined their family ikea card long ago , even though I am not a family, there is only me haha and I live quite a long way from the ikea branch in Wembley, and what is even more funny, I don’t buy stuff from ikea. Double haha.

and it says I can have a free breakfast before 11am from 7-13jan. Oh, so that is why I joined. I shall go as I have not been there for some time, and it would be a pleasant way of spending the time, and get a free breakfast to boot. They also give card holders free coffee too. Rather nice I think. If I live nearer I shall go more often.

It is at their Wembley branch. I like the poang chair that I found a few winters ago, and now I see it is on sale for £49. Well I don’t need another one, but it is rather nice to know that the one I found cost £79 new.

They have big fat candles for 50p too. Pity it is not scented candles. I wonder if I were to drop lavendar oils on it will it scent the room? I don’t like lighting candles in the flat as they are a potential fire hazard, but if they can be used to scent the room, that would be a good reason to have them.

With winter here, we keep our windows closed esp at night, and it does tend to get a bit musty inside.I open the windows even in the winter in the day as I am a fresh air fiend.

My flat is an old one, and the carpets have not been cleaned for years. Luckily I don’t have pets otherwise it would stink even worse. As it is , it just smells old. It does not help that my boyfriend , simon , is a smoker. He opens the windows when he smokes and try to breathe out through the window or blow the smoke at it, in the fond belief that it will disperse the smell of the cigarette smoke but of course it does not. I can still smell it. But fortunately it does get dispersed if I leave the windows open but I guess some of it lingers on to add to the general mustiness.

I may have to remind him to smoke in the kitchen where the cigarette smells wont be noticed amongst all the cooking smells. Haha

I know people burn incense, or buy those commercial air fresheners but I don’t like to spend money on them. The incense burn down to a lot of ashes that can be rather a bother to clear up. I prefer to just open the window and let in the fresh air. Haha.

This winter is so mild, last night it was 9C.

This morning I went to visit a shag buddy. We have known each other for years. It is nice to have a few shag buddies though he is the only one I have kept for so long. Haha.

I got a phone call just now from someone with an Indian accent saying they got a notice from Microsoft to check on me as they have found that my computer is slow. How do they know that, I wonder. If I were a bit paranoid I suppose I shall be worried that there is someone can get into my computer. But I am not paranoid and I don’t care who gets into my computer as long as they don’t disturb me.

Hmm, I certainly am not going to follow his instructions and let him access my computer that is for sure. Even if he is really from Microsoft. so I told him it is working fine (even though it can get quite slow sometimes) and not to bother and thanks anyway.

I doubt Microsoft is so kind hearted to pay for this service, and anyway I have a feeling that microsoft can gain access by remote to my computer from the internet via my windows program and fix it from there.

The funny thing is I have stopped using internet explorer as my preferred browser, I am using google chrome now. Sometimes I get a warning before I log off saying an upgrade is needed to fix the internet explorer. But I don’t bother to download it. And it has not appeared after a few warnings.

Do any of u find google chrome rather better than internet explorer? To me the best thing about it is that I don’t have to bother with the constant upgrades that windows keep giving me. You don’t know if that is a spam, or to allow it.

I am rambling in this post of course, but that is the nice thing about your own blog, u can just do it, and talk all kinds of cock. It is like a kind of meander within your thoughts and is like a kind of easy reverse meditation… thinking all kinds of things instead of emptying the mind. Haha. It can be just as restful.

During the post Christmas days I bought a lot (5packs) of pork and fig stuffing at 20p (reduced from £3 each, such a ridiculous price). I thought they were pork burgers and only when I opened one that simon told me it was stuffing.

There was a Chinese woman there too taking all the pork stuffings and there were a lot of them. I wonder whether she had realised her mistake, or did she really wanted all those pork stuffings.

I fried the first pack, and it was quite ok, it was edible but not really like hamburger.

Anyway, I was at asda, and saw they were selling sausage rolls packs reduced price to 40p each pack. And I thought hey I could do that using the pork stuffing. So I bought their ready made short crust pastry(now I think of it maybe I should have bought their puff pastry instead as it is very difficult to make your own puff pastry) but anyway I have the pork pastry baking in the oven now.

If it comes out nice I shall take a picture for u to see.

These pasty are very useful for picnics and packed lunches. I tend to go out and bring my own lunch and these will come in useful then.

 it is baked now, but i made a mistake and put them on wire racks, and the bottom got stuck to the rack. no wonder they always use a baking tray for these things. 

its quite tasty because the figs give it that sweetness, and gritty texture, and it is very filling as there is a lot of fat in these things which is absorbed by the pastry, which itself is fatty too. 

so not a healthy snack and i wont advise anyone to eat this a lot. now and then is fine. 

here is the picture of it, even though it did not turn out good. 

i turned one over so u can see what havoc that rack caused.