Why?

Ok. I'm doing what millions of people seem to do on social media. I will show you a photo of my complementary cake and coffee at Ikea. My kitchen designer man is running late  ( hence the bribe) and I am already stressed at walking two miles around the store to find the right department.
The couple at the next table are having a fantastic row , he is saying to her " if you bring me here again I shall divorce You!" I SHOT HIM A supportive smile.
Hey ho

93 comments:

  1. Ikea. I spent a week there one day.

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  2. I've had that cake! (But it wasn't complementary...) That husband and wife need to work things out at home. Did she tie him up and throw him in the trunk to get him there?

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  3. My mum chose Sainsburys when I said I'd take her anywhere on the Wirral for a meal out. It was like eating in works canteen. She said: It's lovely here isn't it? Of course I had to agree. My mum after all.

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    1. Next time, take your mum to Hosta, the coffee shop in Premier Plants, Ledsham, it's wonderful! Be aware though, they don't accept card payments, it's cash only!

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    2. My mother loved Sainsbury's
      But she always sat in the car in the car park ( she WAS on oxygen)

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  4. I tend to say the same when Jenny has lured me once more to one of the local theatres, and once more it has been an embarrassingly second-rate production.

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  5. We were in IKEA (just south of Washington, D.C.) recently. . . . . . on a Sunday afternoon. It wasn't just wall to wall 'stuff', there were so many people you could hardly move. Seemed to be a fun day out for families with swarms of little kids screaming and jumping on the furniture - parents don't seem to teach their children how to behave in stores anymore. I eyed the restaurant but decided it would be a hour before being able to sit down - so bought a bar of that wonderful Swedish chocolate DAIM they sell, and nibbled happily in the car on the way home to North Carolina.

    I envy you getting a new kitchen John, but I also am so happy for you - especially as you turn out delicious veggie pies! My guy can't boil water or remember how to turn on the oven, haha! But I love him anyway - and after 53 years of marriage I know he'll never change, and will keep turning down my offer of cooking lessons.
    We have many muscle-bound workmen here at the cottage, making a heck of a noise, playing country music, guzzling chilled water (it's still very hot) whilst doing a major facelift on the exterior.
    Hang in there with the kitchen - it will be worth the upheaval when done - that's what I'm telling myself when I look at the mess my little house is in!
    Happy week - Mary

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    1. Mary, I have never owned a clean and decent and new kitchen...ever

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    2. I'm on my third. Just. Every time he finishes one - we move! In the meantime I've spent most of my married life washing dishes in the sodding bath....

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  6. It's not that I dislike Ikea .... it's that having to follow the yellow line that annoys me .... at least you got cake !!! XXXX

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    1. You couldn't walk the yellow line ...yuk yuk

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  7. I went to Ikea once. I got dragged there, actually, which is probably the only way anyone ever enters Ikea.

    I might still be there. It's unclear.

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  8. So Ikea to take aesthetics right down to the coffee and cake

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  9. (I have never been to an Ikea).

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    1. The coffee is on a par with that in waitrose

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    2. Complement was all about aesthetics in my head

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  10. You had me at "complimentary cake" . . .

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  11. Am I one of the few left in the UK who have not been to an IKEA store? All I can say is I quite fancy going if you get free cake like the slice in the picture.

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    1. All the sane people have never been to an Ikea Pat - me, you and Rachel !!!

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  12. Please to read Rachel has never been to an IKEA either - solidarity Rachel - you can't beat it.

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    1. Here's another one who's never been. Do they sell anything other than cakes? I assume one normally has to pay for them and that this is merely a ploy to lure you in and buy their confections regularly, right?

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    2. Anonymous6:04 am

      I'm in the U.S. and I have never been to an Ikea store.

      Mo

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  13. going to Ikea is like going to the grocery store...have a list and stick to it.

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    1. It's very easy to get carried away with buying shite

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  14. I often regale dinner party guests with the story of the day I spent 12 hours in IKEA. I was also planning a kitchen (and then handpicking each teeny, tiny part of it from the warehouse)...

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  15. p.s. I didn't get any free cake!

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  16. So pleased to be in solidarity with Weave and Rachel. My solid oak kitchen was made and built in situ by a local carpenter. It cost less than a Magnet kitchen although I did have to visit a vast granite warehouse near Heathrow to pick out my worktop.

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  17. I have been without a kitchen since last Sunday. I am running out of 'mini oven cooking' ideas...... The kitchen fitters came in Monday to Friday last week. They have been here all day today. Now I realise I should have bribed them with cake. Ho hum, it should be finished tomorrow.... should be.

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    1. I'd sleep with mine if they do a quick job

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    2. I DO sleep with mine and it still took eleven years. I must be a disappointing shag. Though I do have a light hand with pastry....

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  18. Well at least you got a little something to 'sweeten' the deal.

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  19. When I go to IKEA, my daughter and gr-daughters take me. With the girls, we discover stuff we never noticed. Never go on a wkend.

    Cake looks great. I love their desserts. the kid's meal has great mac.&cheese.

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  20. I despise IKEA. No windows and I feel like I'm
    part of the herd going to slaughter. That said, I have an IKEA kitchen which I adore.

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  21. LOL, exactly ... I spent more time taking cheap crap back to Ikea than I ever spent shopping there.

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    1. Sad but so true. So shoddy. But people seem to love the kitchens, so John will be okay. And great style, always.

      lizzy

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  22. I was just looking at IKEA's website. They wanted $83.00 to deliver two slipcovers!!! 95.00 if I add a lamp! I could hire a limo and go get them for less. Outrageous. I got the slipcovers for less on Amazon w free shipping.

    John, remember: UNDER counter flush mount sink. Reinforced drawer bottoms! Buy extra door handles [6 to 10] and store for future breakage.

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    1. Yes I have heard of the handle thing

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    2. get lots of drawers over cupboards! you wont regret it. also secret drawers for cutlery and spices. I wish I could have moved my kitchen from the last house here it worked so well. Agneta (I think that was her name) helped me in the Bristol store, she was amazing!

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  23. I feel your pain, John. I only go to IKEA if I absolutely have to.

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  24. I bet she'll snap his hand off, at that fantastic deal;)

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  25. "Why are you making eyes at that bloke?"
    "He smiled at me first!"
    "Well if you like him so much, why don't you dump me and go with him!"
    "I will then!"
    The fraught wife leaves.
    "Hi! I'm Justin. Who are you teddy bear?"
    "Me? Oh. John. John Gray. Nice to meet you Justin."

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    1. ...said John, a fortnight later, when Justin came home drunk as a lord and tripped over Winnie.

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  26. I watched someones' two young children jump up and down on the made up show beds in IKEA once and had a good chuckle. It's the sort of thing my son would have done had we had an IKEA near us when he was a child.

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  27. Never been in an IKEA and now I never will!

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    1. I enjoy it. Next time I will wear headphones

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  28. Anonymous6:22 pm

    Husband and I have mastered the skill of walking through ikea and not buying a single thing.

    Siebrie

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    1. I bought a duck egg blue cooking pan! Nothing more

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  29. Jesus Christ. He should have shot you back.

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  30. went once; my claustrophobia got the better of me; bought nothiing.

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  31. I used to go to IKEA for the bedding, lamps and great postcards. I never go now.
    After the first time you "walk the line" You can find the best way to just start at the place you want and miss all the upper floor displays.
    The IKEA near me is in the hell hole called Phoenix and I only drive there if I really need to. Never go on a weekend ! Ever !

    cheers, parsnip

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  32. I, too, have not had the immense pleasure of trying to find my way around and out of an IKEA store. SWMBO went once and hated it, never to return.

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  33. Well, I've never been to IKEA,
    But I kind of like the music
    See the ladies are insane there
    and they sure know how to....
    Oh sorry, kind of drifted off there. X

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  34. We have a huge IKEA here. Husband hates going there. After a few visits you figure out where all the shortcuts are. Over the past year they have been adding a massive addition onto it. God knows what it's like now! We do like the meatballs though. The grocery department is just as you go in so we don't have to go through the whole store. Just think of the number of steps you get just trying to find the exit!!

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    1. I sneaked up a back entry ( oohhh err) and missed the crowds

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  35. Love the meatballs, the cake complimentary or otherwise, meh! I could make better cakes with my feet.

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  36. Best time I ever had was sitting on the bollards at the loading bay waiting for P to bring the van, watching people loading their purchases into their cars. Two teenagers off to uni I think tried to load pictures, crockery, mirrors and FLAT PACK WARDROBE into a Nissan micra they then tied the back hatch door to the bumper with a piece of parcel string...we ended up giving them our tow rope to tie it with. Lots of angry husband and wives trying to cram stuff into cars, but the best was mummy in the brand new 4x4 with darling little Tristan and Pandora who'd bought mirrors, pictures pots boxes etc and a ginormous cheese plant, after lots of shoving, rearranging, seats collapsed and mummy saying " no Tristan I can do it " and " leave it to mummy darling " there was a crash and I heard " you little **** look you've broken the mirror and the pot you ***** **** I told you not to ******* shove it !!! ....Best afternoons entertainment ever.

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    1. Thank you debbie! I was enjoying the drama of it all too....but I will NEVER return on a weekend!

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    2. Never on a weekend, never after 3.00pm ( schools finished ) and never ever ever in the school holidays....

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    3. Point taken 10 am Monday mornings then

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    4. Never,ever, ever at the start of the school year (late August/early September) when parents are buying everything for their college and university bound offspring.

      On the other hand, a Tuesday morning as the shop opens is a great time - quiet with staff willing to help.

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  37. IKEA? Shudder. I have almost total sales resistance and stores like IKEA and Costco are a foretaste of hell for me. My partner goes alone. And enjoyes it.

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  38. I have been to an Ikea. I will not go again. I am diabetic and was having a high day and feeling miserable. I was closest to the entrance and idiot door monitor would not let me out. Stated i had to follow the trail and go out the exit. It would have taken me an hour to navigate my way out. So i sat in front display and continued to test my blood sugar levels in front of everyone until someone from management agreed to let me out the front door. Idiots.

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    1. Well generally it's a thumb down for the place...well for me apart from the kids I loved it

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  39. I've never been to an Ikea and after reading these comments I'm not likely to!

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  40. Does the kitchen refit mean you and the professor will be staying in Trelawnyd? Do hope so.

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  41. I have never been to IKEA. Literally everyone who knows me says I should NOT go. I would like someone to go and bring me back some of the meatballs.

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  42. All we wanted was two plain kitchen chairs, with a modicum of back support. And so many friends and rellies told us we were bound to find exactly what we wanted at Ikea.
    They were right.
    But what they didn't say was that three quarters of Brisbane's population of around one million would also be at Ikea on any given Saturday.
    And we didn't understand the system! You have to find what you want - taking up the first year or so, then somehow remember the number and/or name. A condescending worker lent me a pen and gave me a scrap of paper. The humiliation! He then described, as to little children, that these were the demonstration chairs and... and... sigh. We eventually found the storage area, oh, about another three years later and took our chairs home.
    And let's not discuss trying to put the bloody things together!

    No, we will never again set foot in an Ikea.

    But I'm glad you enjoyed your cake, John.

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  43. I've been twice .... never again, never, ever again 😵

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  44. The moral of this story....always shop at John Lewis.

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  45. I actually enjoy wandering around Ikea. I took my mom a couple of years ago and we had lunch and explored for a while. Didn't buy anything, though.

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  46. I write a list and the other half goes. I like the products but can't bear the slack jawed locals and their vile sprogs that wander around like the undead. Maybe it's just Ikea at Bletchley? who knows.

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  47. The best bit about Ikea is the exit. Make sure you order every conceivable bit for your kitchen, they have a habit of charging extra for something that should be an essential part of their furniture, you know like slats for the bed Base. Good luck that man.

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  48. I love Ikea, but it takes at least a couple of hours, and I go off peak.

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  49. What a great post.

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  50. I love IKEA, John. It's a real treat for me when I travel to get a chance to go to one and study the display rooms. I would love to have an IKEA kitchen to replace the crappy old cabinets in our fixer-up house, but there is no IKEA closer to me than Montreal, Quebec--1000km (600 miles) away. I'm looking forward to seeing your new kitchen.

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  51. Anonymous8:16 am

    This is a really good idea that you have going on. manufacturing
    หนังการ์ตูน

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