Shopping excursion

Today, I finally managed to get Tim to go with me to IKEA.* There are a few in and around London. Unfortunately, the one which is probably the closest to us (in Croydon) is not very easily accessible (as there are no tube lines going in the south, thanks to the swampy land). We have once before been to the store in Tottenham Hale, but decided to try the one in Wembley this time (both in north London). So, after a 30 minute tube ride we got off at Neasden. Well, the map wasn't exactly on our side, because there was quite a walk from the station and to the store (which was why we chose no to go to Tottenham Hale, where you have to take a shuttle bus). But we were there, so we might just as well go for it. We had the obligatory meatball lunch, and then strolled around. Got all the normal items - candles, serviettes, lightbulbs etc. My greatest buy was otherwise a great bit wok pan for the amazing price of £3! And then the food section! And this is normally the best thing about IKEA abroad - it's food heaven for an expat. We were both slightly disappointed this time though, because the food section was a lot smaller than in the other IKEA. Still, I managed to fill up a whole basket with Singoalla biscuites, dill flavoured crisps, elderberry lemonade, Swedish fish (from Malaco!), cheese (that can be sliced with a cheese slicer, yay!), Kopparberg's cider, lingoberry/cowberry jam (we got cloudberry jam last time) and other little bits and pieces. Tomorrow, I'm the one having polar bread and blueberry soup for breakfast!


*IKEA in Oslo was otherwise one of our very cheap weekend entertainments - you'd get out of town, and could buy really cheap Swedish candy and a hot dog for hardly any money. However, IKEA also represents one of the biggest arguments we've ever had. We were going to buy some storage for all the shoes in the all, and couldn't agree on which item to get. Tim famously stated that the one I preferred would make the hall claustrophobic... Anyway, after som arguing, which I of course won, we went off to pick up the storage unit - which we suddenly discovered weighed 30 kilos! So, that was our punishment for arguing in IKEA - in the three years we lived in the Oslo flat, we never had any storage for shoes...