"In the beginning"

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The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Monday, June 30, 2008

We're Not Lost (we just don't know where we are)

I’m home at last and pleased to say that everything on the home front was OK when I arrived, the last leg of the journey (the bit that included Wazza) was pretty typical of our normal visits, lots of laughter and a few stuff-ups.

I had visited IKEA a couple of times with Vicki while in SA and as seems to be normal had quite enjoyed the experience, there has been an IKEA store in outer Brisbane for many years but they have moved to a bigger and better store now, I had become enamored of the idea of replacing the wardrobe in my bedroom (not a built in one).

So I set of on Friday to inspect the range (while Warren was at work) the address was Logan Central on the Pacific Highway, in this area the highway and Motorway M1 intersect a few times and previous experience had taught me that I would almost certainly have trouble finding it, no worries say I, my GPS will guide me there!!!

And it well might have done too…. Except for the fact of about 6 months of non-use saw it with a flat battery and unable to locate a satellite…. So I was left to my own sense of direction…. Regular readers will recall that this is an unerring guide to failure!!!!

After about two hours of battling the traffic, all the while becoming less and less inclined to shopping at IKEA, I gave up in disgust and went to do some other shopping for the afternoon.

When I got back to Warren’s he was highly amused by my tale of frustration and offered to take me there next day as his brother lives nearby and he knew the area, this seemed a suitable arrangement so we set forth next afternoon and proceeded to retrace all the errors that I had made the previous day, I must admit that I was highly delighted by this as it seemed to offer a glimmer of hope for my sanity.

Eventually we did find the store, which is HUGE and parked in the carpark which is even HUGER, we found the right department and even managed to find just the wardrobe I had in mind but as we were in Wazza’s small car we couldn’t pick it up, it, and most things that IKEA sell is in a flat pack which we determined would fit in my Subaru wagon.

So back we went next day… yes we did find it OK this time… and bought the wardrobe and a matching set of drawers, there was some slight confusion about where we would pick up our purchases, we had to pick up the drawers en-route to the check out, so we collected an industrial sized trolley (with the inevitable bad steering!!) located aisle 21 and location 29 loaded our two flat packs on and headed for the checkout, from there we were sent to the customer reception desk.

I expected a delay while they sent someone of to collect the wardrobe flat packs, but was pleasantly surprised to find they were there waiting for us on yet another trolley, we were then directed into a huge elevator which took us and the two trolleys down to the carpark.

Those who have been paying attention will recall that I described this carpark as bigger than HUGE and guess what…. We were on the opposite side of it to where we came in with two uncooperative trolleys to guide while we searched for a familiar landmark!!!!

It didn’t take long for this to become a bother so I told Warren to stand guard over the flat packs while I searched for the car, a security guy told us that there were three colour coded carparks and all we had to do was pick the right colour and aisle letter, Warren thought he remembered seeing yellow letters and as I didn’t have a clue I started with the yellow area…. Needless to say the car wasn’t there so I headed for the blue area, located the correct aisle (fittingly “F” aisle) and at last found the car, I even found Warren and the trolleys again… after only three wrong turns.

Next came the loading up of the flat packs, we knew that with the passenger seat in its useable position we would not be able to close the rear door so we had brought some stretch straps to hold the door down while we drove the few miles back to Warren’s. once there the plan was to push the passenger seat forward and incline the back rest so we had sufficient space to close the door.

Fate had not quite finished with us yet, we had put the longest pack second from the top and the door wouldn’t close!!!! We needed another inch!!!! So out came the top two packs and we swapped the longest one to the top position which gave us just enough space to allow the door to close.

These flat packs by the way all weigh in at the same weight as I would expect a small car to weigh so throwing them around was good fun…. They are still in the car BTW until I recover from my strained back and take them out.

click photos to enbiggen.


I didn't think about photos until after it got dark but they came out OK anyway.

16 comments:

Pamela said...

I can't wait to hear about putting them together..
I was breathing hard just being anxious for you on the purchase!!

kenju said...

Peter, get some help when you want to wrestle those out of the car and into the house. Otherwise, you'll hurt your back yet again!

TLP said...

There's no place like home, is there?

Marcus said...

I'll see your Subaru at IKEA and raise you a Mercedes!!

Like father like son!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dad
I too am looking forward to the episode(s) here when you start putting the new purchases together!
Glad to hear all is well on the home front, as it is here with 20 points of rain to keep us hopeful.. We have a new addition to the family too - Orphan Annie arrived yesterday! She's as big as Shmucko, but verrry skinny, so it's a real juggle at feeding time now. Shearing again Thursday & Friday (unless it's too wet!!)
Take care, Love Vicki XOXO

Hale McKay said...

Welcome back, Peter.

That is marvelous news that Vickie is going to be pain-free!

OldHorsetailSnake said...

I would say: Heroic!

Anonymous said...

hey Dad,
Sounds like Laurel and Hardy at it again! lol. Glad you got home safe.
Lyn xx

karisma said...

Oh I can't stand shopping for these types of things. If we have to pick up something like that we make sure they have a loading bay first (before we pay for it! LOL) There has been the odd occasion where SB threatened to stick me on the roof or leave me behind.

Now me I would rather pay someone the $60 to deliver and place nicely my furniture, already built and ready to go! Don't know what it is about you boys always needing to build stuff! So do you even look at the instructions????

Jeanette said...

Gday Peter,Nice to see you safely home, And hope you get plenty of help unloading and putting your furniture together, Take care of that back. Jan

Merle said...

Hi Peter ~~ Glad you are safely home.
And when/if you get the furniture put together, be sure to post photos as proof. It took quite a few trips to
even purchase the things, so they ought to be something special.
Vicki said you were a big help to her.I do hope they can ease her pain.
Take care, Love, Merle.

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Hi Peter, glad you made it home safely. Try to get assistance when taking those boxes out of your car, OK !?! Looking forward to the continuing saga ... will you read the instructions (my hubby wouldn't ... I guess all men are the same, aren't they !?!). Good luck with it all.
Please pass on best wishes to Vicki, hope the pain meds are working for her.
Take care, Connie xx

Dave said...

*S* Good one Peter... and welcome home!!!

I hope the pieces go together better than finding IKEA did!

Walker said...

I have had may an adventure putting stuff together that I bought from IKEA with their little allen key.
Sometimes its just easier to throw out the clothes and have less lol

fergiesfabfotos said...

Hi Peter, I told you that one of you should have been video-ing this saga! I',m laughing again as I read it!!! Jackie

Puss-in-Boots said...

Ah Peter, glad to hear your sense of direction is living up to reputation...smirk.

I hope you can understand the instructions in the flat packs...apparently they're worse than Taiwanese...good luck!