Well, it shows that I am becoming totally stupid as the years roll by. Yesterday I went to Ikea. It actually started out with good intentions. I had seen a leather reclining chair in there some time ago which, surprise, surprise, was out of stock. When I looked on their site yesterday morning, it was in stock ... but before driving for an hour and a quarter, I rang them to make sure...yes, it was in stock.
At the same time I decided I would buy my Christmas tree there. Christmas trees in Verbier are so expensive that it is a luxury and so I thought I'd do a little for the Planet and buy mine at Ikea as if you take it back after Christmas, you get a refund and the tree costs you €1.00. Now of course when you think about it, there is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to this. My weedy effort to take back a dead Christmas tree means that I am being totally counter-productive with all the litres of petrol I burn going up and down the motorway - added to which I suppose the shredded trees find themselves recycyled into Ikea furniture which I will then go and buy.
And quite frankly, am I going to fill the back of my car with pine needles that I will continue discovering until next year. And am I honestly going to drive for two and a half hours just to recycle my tree and not go into the store? No, of course not.
Anyway, the quandry was solved for me as they sold all their Christmas trees on the first day! So along with a zillion other people, into Ikea I go. All I wanted was a chair - which really was in stock. But 'just in case' I picked up a yellow bag, and that is fatal. So along with the chair, I come out with a standard lamp, two picture lights, yet another load of Christmas lights, six tumblers, a pack of their three pairs of scissors, a few bits for stocking fillers and a dog bed! And I promise, I am not a compulsive buyer!
They say that every home has at least one thing from Ikea in it - this I well believe. The store was heaving yesterday morning at 1015 and it was a Tuesday - a 'quiet' day! And of course, once I had finished the shopping it was time for a snack - I've decided that I don't like their meatballs any more!
When I got home my daughter arrived, fortunately ... armed with yet another Allan key, we fought for an hour to put the chair together. The chair comes flat packed and one 'just' has to unfold the seat and the back and insert two bolts into the hinge where they meet. Simple, no? NO! It is impossible to do by yourself unless you do bodybuilding, but after an hour of getting hot and sweaty and a copious amount of swearing, we got the bloody thing together. And guess where it was made? Yes, China of course! I will spare you the details of putting the picture lights up...suffice to say the second one is still in the box!
And do you know where "Monsieur Ikea" lives? No, not in China ... Switzerland!
The one positive note on the day - Angus loves his dog bed. It's big enough to hold a couple of labradors and he hasn't yet learnt that you get in it - but as I type he is lying next to it with his head resting on the squidgy surround!
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
GOW ON CHRISTMAS
Well, would you believe it? This grumpy old woman loves Christmas! The last few days the English press has been full of articles about how many offices won't be decorated this year as it isn't politically correct - what rubbish. And Nativity scenes without Jesus - I ask you. And all to appease 'minority groups' who apparently celebrate Christmas themselves. There was a big rumpus in France last year as a college put up a Christmas tree in their forecourt and was later made to take it down as it offended 'minority groups' - mind you, this was in the middle of the veiled students row...
And of course we should have loads of articles starting in the next few days on 'how to get through Christmas in one piece', 'receipes for the morning after', 'what to do if the turkey is raw', 'a thousand things to do with children over Christmas' etc.etc. And not to mention kick-starting the economy during the next fortnight - I see that people are still paying off their credit card purchases from last year...why do people have to eat too much, drink too much and overspend?
As children, we had the most wonderful Christmases - my parents divorced when we were young and both remarried, and they decided that special days should be celebrated together; it was probably difficult for them but we were so excited that any strain the atmosphere went totally unheeded. Canny as children are, we soon realised however that we could play one set of parents off against the other to see who would give us the most extravagent present and we worked this routine a goodly number of years before they cottoned on! "Extravagent" would perhaps be a new bike - nowadays bikes are as 'ordinary' as a new pair of jeans, despite their horrific price - however.
The one aspect of Christmas that was terrible was The Lunch - never again will I eat those hormone induced turkeys and I only ate the Christmas Pudding hoping to find the 6d (remember those?).
It is only in the last few years that my mother and/or my stepmother have relinquished their 'right' to do Christmas and so now the 'kids' are allowed to change the rules. My rules are that no turkey or Christmas Pud are allowed in our kitchen, the drawingroom must NOT ressemble Hamleys, the house MUST be decorated and the Christmas tree has to be covered with all the works - none of these black designer trees for me! And, most importantly, that none of the above causes stress, panic or family arguments. Oh, I forgot - the dog has to either have a bit of tinsel or a ribbon on his collar!
Even when my children were young, we didn't feel obliged to 'do' things with them over the holidays - Christmas in itself was enough. It seems now that the minute the present giving is over, there is a tendency to have to rush out to either change the presents, spend the Christmas money, or rush off to a theme park, paintballing, cinema or whatever, accompanied with wails of "I'm bored".
Last year was our first Christmas in Verbier and my brother and his family came to stay - the children were slightly put out as we postponed presents until the evening as Lucie was working on Christmas day, but with the snow and the sunshine and a super whizzy lethal sledge that I whipped out, this was short lived and off they went to see who could break a limb first. We went for a long walk with the dog, stopped and had a snack for lunch and all met back at the chalet at the end of the afternoon. For our Christmas 'Lunch' we had a couple of poulet de Bresse which were lovely and the only problem was with the parsnips which turned out in fact to be white carrots - the label on the packet was in German, but they sure looked like parsnips to me! A bottle of champagne for the aperitif, a couple of bottles of good wine with the meal (not Swiss, I hasten to add), a silly game and later a flop on the sofa to watch a new DVD, and we all had a happy, stressless, no argument day. Bliss!
This year I have another of my brothers coming with his girlfriend and we shall basically run along the same lines - he doesn't like turkey either!
New Year is however a different kettle of fish - the chalet will be full of friends coming to ski for a week and my ex - now that is stressful! However, the plan is to feed them an enormous breakfast, send them off skiing for the day and I and anyone else who is in non-skiing mode will struggle up and down mountains with Angus.
PS My raclette photos are non-existant - the table was totally trashed before I could get out my camera so the composition was not exactly pleasing to the eye, but it was damn good!
And of course we should have loads of articles starting in the next few days on 'how to get through Christmas in one piece', 'receipes for the morning after', 'what to do if the turkey is raw', 'a thousand things to do with children over Christmas' etc.etc. And not to mention kick-starting the economy during the next fortnight - I see that people are still paying off their credit card purchases from last year...why do people have to eat too much, drink too much and overspend?
As children, we had the most wonderful Christmases - my parents divorced when we were young and both remarried, and they decided that special days should be celebrated together; it was probably difficult for them but we were so excited that any strain the atmosphere went totally unheeded. Canny as children are, we soon realised however that we could play one set of parents off against the other to see who would give us the most extravagent present and we worked this routine a goodly number of years before they cottoned on! "Extravagent" would perhaps be a new bike - nowadays bikes are as 'ordinary' as a new pair of jeans, despite their horrific price - however.
The one aspect of Christmas that was terrible was The Lunch - never again will I eat those hormone induced turkeys and I only ate the Christmas Pudding hoping to find the 6d (remember those?).
It is only in the last few years that my mother and/or my stepmother have relinquished their 'right' to do Christmas and so now the 'kids' are allowed to change the rules. My rules are that no turkey or Christmas Pud are allowed in our kitchen, the drawingroom must NOT ressemble Hamleys, the house MUST be decorated and the Christmas tree has to be covered with all the works - none of these black designer trees for me! And, most importantly, that none of the above causes stress, panic or family arguments. Oh, I forgot - the dog has to either have a bit of tinsel or a ribbon on his collar!
Even when my children were young, we didn't feel obliged to 'do' things with them over the holidays - Christmas in itself was enough. It seems now that the minute the present giving is over, there is a tendency to have to rush out to either change the presents, spend the Christmas money, or rush off to a theme park, paintballing, cinema or whatever, accompanied with wails of "I'm bored".
Last year was our first Christmas in Verbier and my brother and his family came to stay - the children were slightly put out as we postponed presents until the evening as Lucie was working on Christmas day, but with the snow and the sunshine and a super whizzy lethal sledge that I whipped out, this was short lived and off they went to see who could break a limb first. We went for a long walk with the dog, stopped and had a snack for lunch and all met back at the chalet at the end of the afternoon. For our Christmas 'Lunch' we had a couple of poulet de Bresse which were lovely and the only problem was with the parsnips which turned out in fact to be white carrots - the label on the packet was in German, but they sure looked like parsnips to me! A bottle of champagne for the aperitif, a couple of bottles of good wine with the meal (not Swiss, I hasten to add), a silly game and later a flop on the sofa to watch a new DVD, and we all had a happy, stressless, no argument day. Bliss!
This year I have another of my brothers coming with his girlfriend and we shall basically run along the same lines - he doesn't like turkey either!
New Year is however a different kettle of fish - the chalet will be full of friends coming to ski for a week and my ex - now that is stressful! However, the plan is to feed them an enormous breakfast, send them off skiing for the day and I and anyone else who is in non-skiing mode will struggle up and down mountains with Angus.
PS My raclette photos are non-existant - the table was totally trashed before I could get out my camera so the composition was not exactly pleasing to the eye, but it was damn good!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
