So, today was the day that I took my younger daughter on the pilgramage to Ikea to get her uni stuff. We set off as soon as she woke up and downed her coffee, which was 12.30pm and off we drove up the motorway, blasting my playlist on Spotify that I forgot I had, such is the memory of a middle aged woman. Much singing, teasing and laughter later, we arrived at the big, blue store, ready to shop.
I had a picnic basket, as you do, with bananas, nuts and bottles of water in case we got peckish during our spending spree. We should have eaten them in the queue because, obviously, as soon as we walked through the entrance, we were wearing face masks and the chance of eating them was over until we were on our way out. What had I been thinking?
Every time I have been to Ikea, I end up going up the stairs and trailing through the showrooms until I am flagging with energy and confused to how I am actually allowed to buy the items I like. Marfa and I were running out of steam, so we walked over to the restaurant for some nourishment to be told that we needed to have booked and the next free slot was 5pm. On we slogged until the bittersweet end of the floor, where I realised we had to go downstairs and that's where we can buy items. Every time.
So an hour in, we had to start from scratch but thankfully found a trolley I could unload my picnic basket and heavy bags into - why? Then, sloping along, we added various things to the trolley and ticked them off the list. I think Marfa was very underwhelmed. We finally reached the warehouse and gave up any leftover enthusasim to look for the mirror we had spied in the showroom, so headed straight to the till. The checkout guy asked whether we meant to pick up a display pillow and we laughed nervously as he called to have it taken back to it's home. As the total bill was announced, I realised my purse was missing from my bag and started to panic. Luckily, Marfa had her card with her, so she had to pay.
We took our masks off as soon as the fresh air hit our faces, excited to be getting the hell out of there. I offered Marfa bananas for sustainance but that wasn't going to cut it, so on we drove to the Services for Burger King. We ordered our halumi burgers and couldn't believe the girl serving was wearing her mask over her mouth only - what is the point? It got worse though, as she pulled it down to speak and then proceeded to touch everything in sight. We watched in horror as she put our order together.
By the time our food was ready, we were so ravenous, that we pretty much doused ourselves with sanisers and devoured our meal. I chucked our banana's onto the backseat of my car, after their wasted daytrip, only to discover that they had landed on my purse - which had been there all along. I could now pay Marfa back. We drove happily home with the car filled with Marfa's music this time, which a bit more lively than mine, to say the least and not so easy on the ears but was uplifting all the same.
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