I fear IKEA

In the words of the cult folk band The Lancashire Hotpots, I fear IKEA. After moving to the apartment last week having spent a fortnight in a hotel, we were faced with the challenge of making an empty shell look slightly more homely. A trip to IKEA was inevitably on the cards. The place is massive, even by IKEA standards. Located one metro stop along line 1 from my new pad, it can clearly be seen from our apartment complex, a large imposing figure of blue and yellow in an otherwise grey and murky wintery scene.

Armed with an oversized yellow and blue plastic bag, I make the mistake of entering the showroom. This myriad of mazes and floor mounted arrows led me through scenes of living rooms, bedrooms and the like, complete with Chinese customers poignantly posing for photographs with the furniture. My only saving grace was the fact that it was mid-week and the store was relatively quiet.

Having successfully found the correct size of bedding, I walk out armed with a duvet protector, duvet, duvet cover, pillows, pillow cases, sheets and the oversized blue nad yellow detailed bag I was charged for taking away with me. You can hear them at IKEA HQ “sell these fools oversized items in an inner city area and they’ll have no choice but to buy our colossal carriers to shift their stuff home via taxi or metro”!

Hey ho, mission completed in a relatively stress-free and short space of time and with a bit of luck, a return visit won’t be required.

The apartment itself has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room, open plan kitchen and dining area and balcony. On the 25th floor, we have some decent views of the local area and are ideally situated between the city centre and our schools. The ‘we’ I refer to are my housemates; a totally laid back Aussie guy and quirky little Polish lass who are both teaching with the same company as me. Much fun and frolics to be had I’m sure and all in all, a very good place to call home for the next year at the least.

A xx