Got to sleep in today!
It's John this time - Hello!
I'm having a great time here so far. Jamie and I saw the show last night and jumped out of our seats a couple of times. Jamie wasn't expecting that part of the show! We grabbed a quick bite at Los Locos - it's a "Tex-Mex" Restraunt - Bar - Club. It wasn't too bad for Mexican food - we had quesadillas and nachos. And the happy hour was good too!
Ikea was definitely an experience. First off, you can't get there by tube. They offer directions that were totally out of the way for Jamie and I. However, Jamie being a direct descendant of Magellan was able to chart a course for us. We took our tube line to South Wimbeldon (2nd to last stop) walked to the Morden Street Tram (Tram = Trolly, but on it's own tracks like a commuter rr) to the Shopping Super Centre, home to Ikea, some other store like Home Depot, and a proudly advertised drive through Burger King. It took us about an hour to get there from our house.
Ikea is different than I recall back home - It is more like a Disney Ride - kinda like It's a Small World except 3 hours long. You are guided through the "showroom" where you see the 3-4 brands displayed in different color combinations and themes over and over. Here's a Beech Colored Bedroom, next the White Colored Bedroom. Sorry - Coloured as they say here. You write down everything you want - you can't take it with you. After the showroom tour you are dumped into the Marketplace - or as I like to think - Looting Downtown. Nominally you should follow the arrows on the ground - if you are a brain-dead sheep. How many people looking for kitchen gear need to take a 15 minute tour of curtains?
You make it out of the marketplace -now to pickup the furniture you painstakingly selected from your multitude of choices. Now you grab a flat trolly (shopping cart) and go find your boxes (flat packs). Of course, everyone else who has exited the marketplace gauntlet is searching for their goods as well. Kinda like "Supermarket Showdown" but with giant unwieldy carts and pissed off patrons. Imagine my surprise when finding the location of our new dressers in the warehouse - Aisle 45 Location 03 - to see only empty space. A little note says, "Temporarily Oversold, please see staff for assistance." AWESOME. So we picked a different color since it was there. No big deal right? Same thing for our bookcases, computer desk, and something else I can't remember now. So I seek staff assistance - "Those items will be in sometime next week" Sometime? Can you hold them for me? "No." So how was that assistance? I could've guessed that they'd have a shipment next week, being a major international furniture retailer and all.
Don't get me wrong - We still managed to find a dining table, chairs, a coffee table, drying rack, ironing board, night tables, dressers, yada yada so it was a success. The best part was that we kept our cool the entire time. It's being delivered right now - Jamie just called my temp cell.
Friday night we went out exploring our neighborhood- bit of a pub crawl. We had dinner at the Railway - just across the road from us. Thai food is served upstairs. Then we went to Arch 345 (I don't remember the #, Jamie wrote it down though) It is located under the train tracks in an Arch - it's pretty cool. Then we went to a place called Rinky Dink, which is full of couches and metrosexuals. We had fun sitting and watching. We haven't found "our" bar just yet, but I have a feeling we'll find it soon enough! We then bought some frozen pizza and snacked. The pizza box actually suggested that we prepare a salad while we wait for the oven to preheat.
I should get back to the flat now - Jamie is probably surrounded by flat packs...
John
I'm having a great time here so far. Jamie and I saw the show last night and jumped out of our seats a couple of times. Jamie wasn't expecting that part of the show! We grabbed a quick bite at Los Locos - it's a "Tex-Mex" Restraunt - Bar - Club. It wasn't too bad for Mexican food - we had quesadillas and nachos. And the happy hour was good too!
Ikea was definitely an experience. First off, you can't get there by tube. They offer directions that were totally out of the way for Jamie and I. However, Jamie being a direct descendant of Magellan was able to chart a course for us. We took our tube line to South Wimbeldon (2nd to last stop) walked to the Morden Street Tram (Tram = Trolly, but on it's own tracks like a commuter rr) to the Shopping Super Centre, home to Ikea, some other store like Home Depot, and a proudly advertised drive through Burger King. It took us about an hour to get there from our house.
Ikea is different than I recall back home - It is more like a Disney Ride - kinda like It's a Small World except 3 hours long. You are guided through the "showroom" where you see the 3-4 brands displayed in different color combinations and themes over and over. Here's a Beech Colored Bedroom, next the White Colored Bedroom. Sorry - Coloured as they say here. You write down everything you want - you can't take it with you. After the showroom tour you are dumped into the Marketplace - or as I like to think - Looting Downtown. Nominally you should follow the arrows on the ground - if you are a brain-dead sheep. How many people looking for kitchen gear need to take a 15 minute tour of curtains?
You make it out of the marketplace -now to pickup the furniture you painstakingly selected from your multitude of choices. Now you grab a flat trolly (shopping cart) and go find your boxes (flat packs). Of course, everyone else who has exited the marketplace gauntlet is searching for their goods as well. Kinda like "Supermarket Showdown" but with giant unwieldy carts and pissed off patrons. Imagine my surprise when finding the location of our new dressers in the warehouse - Aisle 45 Location 03 - to see only empty space. A little note says, "Temporarily Oversold, please see staff for assistance." AWESOME. So we picked a different color since it was there. No big deal right? Same thing for our bookcases, computer desk, and something else I can't remember now. So I seek staff assistance - "Those items will be in sometime next week" Sometime? Can you hold them for me? "No." So how was that assistance? I could've guessed that they'd have a shipment next week, being a major international furniture retailer and all.
Don't get me wrong - We still managed to find a dining table, chairs, a coffee table, drying rack, ironing board, night tables, dressers, yada yada so it was a success. The best part was that we kept our cool the entire time. It's being delivered right now - Jamie just called my temp cell.
Friday night we went out exploring our neighborhood- bit of a pub crawl. We had dinner at the Railway - just across the road from us. Thai food is served upstairs. Then we went to Arch 345 (I don't remember the #, Jamie wrote it down though) It is located under the train tracks in an Arch - it's pretty cool. Then we went to a place called Rinky Dink, which is full of couches and metrosexuals. We had fun sitting and watching. We haven't found "our" bar just yet, but I have a feeling we'll find it soon enough! We then bought some frozen pizza and snacked. The pizza box actually suggested that we prepare a salad while we wait for the oven to preheat.
I should get back to the flat now - Jamie is probably surrounded by flat packs...
John
posted by Jamie & John | 5:33 AM
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