That blue and yellow place

We had to make a rare trip to IKEA today. I had palpitations at the thought of it. I find the never ending paths through it so claustrophobic.

This stems from the day about 15 years ago when we were making a visit to #1 daughter when she lived in south London, and she asked us to call in to IKEA, which we had to pass close to, to get her a lightbulb. This was when ikea lamps had to have ikea bulbs. We queued to get onto the slipway off the motorway. Then queued to get into the car park. Then we thought there must be a fire drill on in Ikea as there were so many people milling about outside. Turns out there were so many already in the shop, they'd had to lock the door to prevent it becoming a safely issue with too many people in the shop. It was cold and wet. Why didn't we give up? I don't know. We got in, shuffled along behind all the people, wending our way through many departments till we found the bulb. Was it neatly over? No, we got to the check-outs behind more queues, as by now customers had been able to load their trolleys full. They had no quick line for people with one item. It seemed hours had passed. I was sweating with frustration.

Ps Today I wanted a wipable tablecloth for when the children visit, but the ones they had were so hideous I didn't buy.

At least that meant we didn't have to queue at the checkout.