Day 4: new house

Finally moved into the new house yesterday. Unlike the flat I was renting before, this didn't have any bedding so a trip to Ikea was in order. Rather than deciding what to get when I got to the store I thought I'd do my choosing on the internet and print out each item I wanted. Then when I got to the store, going in, getting the items and paying for them would have been a quick in and out operation.

So, first I went to the pillow section to make sure they had some good old Swedish square pillows. They had some pictures of pillows that looked square, but the dimensions of these were 80cm by 50cm - definitely not square. So I next had a look at the pillow cases, this was a bit more promising, not only did they have plenty of square pillow cases, but they also had some that I really liked. So I printed that off and went back to the pillow section. Surely if they sell square pillow cases they must sell square pillows to go inside them, but none of them were the requisite 65cm by 65cm, they were all 80 by 50. Looking back at the page with the pillowcases on I saw that it said they were specially made to go with a pillow called "GOSA VILA".

So that's ok then I'll Do a search for "GOSA VILA", they'll probably just be on another page or something, but no. There was no sign of any pillow going by that name anywhere on the UK site. So, never wanting to make do with rectangular pillows when square one could be had, I looked on the Swedish ikea site. I was going to have those square pillows even if I had to fly to Sweden (on a 53p Ryan air ticket from Prestwick airport) and get them from here. But it was exactly the same story there - no GOSA VILA pillows to be had for neither love nor money. Ok, I thought, we'll sort the square pillows out later, lets choose a duvet, duvet cover and fitted sheet. We'll get the fitted sheet out of the way first - this will be nice and simple, needs to be double, 100% cotton and white - sorted. The SOVA will do the job nicely. The only problem here is that I don't know the dimensions of my new bed and this comes in a variety of sizes - well, I can sort that out later. Right lets choose a duvet cover - don't need pillow cases as I've already picked those. Ok, so now I discover Ikea only sell duvet covers with pillow cases and 50 by 80 ones at that. Ok that's no bother I'll just not use the 2 pillows cases I get with the duvet. Did I say 2 pillow cases (cue the "waah waaaah" noise from family fortunes) nope the double duvets come with 4 pillow cases and every last one of them is 80 by 50. Well not to worry it just means I'll have 4 unused pillow cases, but it gets a bit better as because there is no duvet set that goes with the pillow cases I picked (that I still don't have pillows for) I will simply go for a white cotton set which means I'll have 4 white regular sized pillow cases spare that I can use back at my regular home - problem solved. So the ALVINE STRÅ it is then.

So that was me with all my bedding requirements printed out (apart from lack of square pillows) ready to go to Ikea and be in and out in 5 minutes flat.
So 20:30 that evening I arrive at Ikea. Its a bit cold and windy outside, but I'm all prepared and really looking forward to a text book bit of shopping.
In I go, straight to market square (or whatever its called) shopping trolley well oiled and ready to receive the goods. So I arrive in the bedding section and what am I confronted with? Shelf upon shelf fit to bursting with GOSA VILA pillows and every single one of them was the 65cm by 65cm variety - I was in square pillow heaven and you know, I no longer wanted this to be a quick in and out operation, I wanted to savour it.
Right so lets pick a couple of really nice looking GOSA VILAs and get stright on with the pillow cases. They were soon found and getting them in the basket was, with me, the work of a moment. Right next we'll pick off the fitted sheet. Well I don't know what size the bed is (as mentioned previously) but it seems that the standard double size is 140cm by 200cm so I'll get one of those -whoops, first disappointement of the evening. The SOVA shelves are overflowing with every size they do apart from 140 by 200 - and I just didn't want to have to go for a colour other than white. But Ikea wasn't about to let me down, I just had to turn around and there behind me was a big basket type affair and it was full of white 140 by 200 SOVAs. I was feeling good! Right lets get the duvet now, I had decided to go for the 200cm by 200cm MYSA MOLN because it had real feathers in it, it wasn't too high a tog and it wasn't too expensive, as I was shopping on a budget. Anyway this was soon found and bagged so all that remained was to get the duvet and extra pillow cases and I would be gone. So over to the ALVINE STRÅ section.

First problem, in the picture it looked like a simple white duvet, but in reality if had some unexpected pleats in it. Well I suppose I could live with those, but next discovery; they don't have any left in 200 by 200 and there was no handy backup basket type affair behind me this time. So I had to find another plain white duvet, and all the available ones had frilly bits on that I just didn't think would go with my manly image. But deep down I know Ikea are never going to let me down and just around the corner I spot a duvet that goes axactly with my square pillows which wasn't on the Ikea website. Fantastisk - I grab one throw it in the trolley and realise this is the happiest day of my life. So off I head to the checkout and I casually look down to admire my new duvet cover and I see that it doesn't say 200 by 200 on the package. I had picked up the wrong size. Back I run to the duvet cover section and shock horror I find that there are 3 shelves marked out for this particular duvet cover design: top shelf for single (which was full and was what I had accidentaly put in my trolley), middle shelf for double (empty), botton shelf for king size (also full). So what do I do? I could swap my 200 by 200 duvet for a king size one, but that would add £10 to cost of the duvet and about £6 to the cost of the duvet cover and, remember, I am on a budget here. Well I need that double size duvet cover so much that I decide I am prepared to wait for it to come back into stock. I find a nice Ikea lady and ask when they'll have some more in. She tries looking it up on the computer, but it keeps saying "item not found".

My heart is beating but she keeps tapping away and eventually comes back with "Sorry it is now obsolete and there are none in stock anywhere else". So now I'm going to have to choose another duvet set - but I know it just won't be as good as the one I wanted. But never to give up on Ikea, I go back to the section it was in and look through all the single ones to see if there is a double hiden away in there. No joy. I look through the king size ones and there on its own at the very back is a 200 by 200 duvet set. Deep down I had always known that Ikea would not let me down. So my 5 minute in and out operation may have taken a full hour, but what and hour that was. Full of ups and downs, but climaxing on a high.