Saga by Ikea

No it's not a new wardrobe organiser or colander I'm referring to, I am actually talking about the ongoing saga of our new bed. First off, I bought a bed frame about 18 months ago from Ikea which has been getting stored in my parent's cellar until I took it over to Alasdair's this week ready for our new good quality, half price, Argos mattress to arrive.

First problem was that there was no midframe included with the bed frame meaning there was nothing to rest the wooden slats on. So we went out to Ikea on Tuesday evening to buy one. Not entirely convinced that the slats would just balance on top of the midframe safely we asked one of their staff for advice and got the crappiest replies ever, "Yeah it works" and "No-one else has a problem with it"! Cheers mate, you're really earning your wage there.

Incidentally, on the way back from Ikea on that occasion some stupid old woman almost hit us head on as she came round a blind corner on the wrong side of the road. Luckily I knew that sometimes huge lorries have to use the middle of the road to turn so had slowed right down but the speed she was going at meant it was still a skidding halt from both of us. My reaction: Phew, that could've been game over. Alasdair's reaction: Ya f&%($^g, s£@&*d-l**6$^g, b(&%h-f@£@d c*w! Nice and calm as always then.

So we get back to Alasdair's, assemble the bed, without so much as a raised eyebrow never mind a raised voice (I think we were both still grateful to be alive), put the old mattress on top for one last night and instantly realise that the Ikea double bed is bigger than the double mattress.

And not just a little bit bigger either. Oh no, a whopping 5cm all the way round. 5cm may not sound like much but it's definitely enough to slip down the edge in the middle of the night, bang your shoulder and leave a bruise. Trust me.

So the nice man from Argos arrived on Wednesday morning with our new good quality, half price, Argos mattress which we had to return straight away. Only he can't take it back because he only does deliveries and doesn't have any collection paperwork. Someone else will have to come to collect it. A bit annoying but their returns dept arranged a collection no problem.

So it was back to Ikea again on Wednesday night to look for an Ikea sized double mattress which actually cost us £40 less than our good quality, half price, Argos mattress but then they charged us £35 to deliver it. £35! It's only 3 miles down the road! Apparently it costs £35 for anything up to 30 items. We also bought a couple of pillow cases which I was tempted to add to the delivery just to split the cost a bit but we decided that might be being just a touch petty.

So Alasdair's waiting in today for the Ikea mattress to be delivered then again tomorrow for the good quality, half price, Argos mattress to be collected.

I'm really not looking forward to replacing the sofa now!

LA and Home

My last few days in LA weren't exactly spectacular, I was put in the staff room at the hostel which was absolutely bogging and a bit cliquey, the hostel was in a really rough area on Hollywood Blvd full of guys hanging about and folk off their faces and I just didn't like the place. Parts of it were nice but nothing amazing and certainly not worth the hype.

Hollywood Blvd, one of the main tourist attractions in LA only has 3 or 4 blocks that feel safe enough to walk them alone after dark. The part that the hostel was situated in was probably one of the dodgiest areas I've ever been in and I made sure I was back at the hostel before 7.30pm each night. I know hostels are generally in more run down areas but contrast this to the hostel in San Francisco where I felt perfectly safe out at night even though it was in the red light district.

I enjoyed spending some time on Venice Beach and saw some great street performers, The Calypso Tumblers, as well as a Basketball game near Muscle beach but Santa Monica beach was more like Butlins and Rodeo Drive was nice but didn't have anything that you can't find somewhere in Glasgow minus the attitude problem.

The people are also a waste of space. Girls who swan about waiting for people to notice them, 'actors' waiting every single table in the city and some of the most sexually aggressive men I've ever had the misfortune to encounter - apparently walking in a gang behind a girl and shouting about how nice her legs, bum, boobs are is acceptable in LA. What self-respecting girl would find that flattering? On second thoughts, the ones that want to be noticed would probably love this.

And so, after a few disappointing days in LA I was glad to be heading home to sunny Glasgow. I'm sure if I had left the US directly from Chicago or San Fran I wouldn't have been so eager but it was probably best ending the 2 months like that rather than dragging myself to the airport.

It was an uneventful 10 hour flight (being able to sleep would have been nice though) then a short hop from Heathrow back up to Glasgow where I was met by my mum, dad and Alasdair. Dinner, some wine and endless anecdotes later I crashed out at the fairly respectable time of 1am - God knows how many hours after getting up for breakfast at 8am the previous morning in a different timezone. No real jet lag to speak of although Alasdair kindly pointed out that I looked knackered yesterday morning - thanks, darling!

I had a great summer, met some fantastic people (as well as a few scary nutters), saw some amazing sights, danced my heart out and was inspired by others but I have to admit I'm glad to be home. There's something about Glasgow that makes me feel safe, it's home. I know it has it's downsides and I'm not blind to them but better the devil you know and it does have tons of good points in it's favour, culture, shopping, nightlife, open spaces, music, dance, the punters, the patter...

Glasgow's Miles Better!