Double Busing
It is easy for me to get to IKEA at Edmonton, as I just get a 341 from the Balls Pond Road. However lately, when I go that way I get a 141 from a stop closer to my house. I find that the two routes seem to race themselves up through Manor House and if you time it right you can change to a 341 without delay. I cuts a couple of minutes off the journey and avoids a few minutes walking to the stop.
This is the great advantage of very frequent buses.
I believe Transport for london are going to allow bus tracking over the Internet. This will mean, I can choose the route before I leave to meet a bus at the stop.
IKEA’s Silly Screws
I’m putting the IKEA Stolmen wardrobe insert together now that I’ve got a complete chest of drawers. But why do they use such silly screws?
IKEA's Silly Screws
They are absolutely impossible to use, if you have a gammy hand and their little bent wire socket keys are definitely something for one person per end and as I live alone, what am I supposed to do?
I’ve given up on them as and as you can see, I’m using conventional nuts and bolts from Clerkenwell Screws. They were just a few pence each.
The great thing about the conventional hexagonal head nut and bolt, is that they are an almost perfect piece of design. They are easy to put together, they don’t roll away, when you leave them to their own devices and they can be screwed tightly together with a couple of spanners. I always have a nut driver handy for one end. Usually, you only find these tools at proper tool shops, like Clerkenwell Screws, Franchi or Mackays in Cambridge. But having one in the right size for a job you do often is worth the saving in anger.
In this example I’ve used standard bright zinc-plated bolts, but I could have used brass, as I did in the staircase.
I’m an electrical engineer, but remember the definition of a mechanical one; A nut who screws, washes and bolts.
And Now There Are Six!
I had a special delivery today from IKEA containing a set of draw sides for my cabinet.
Six Left and Two Right Sides
As you can see they did the safe thing and set a complete set of two left and two right sides.
I can’t fault IKEA on this one and must give them 10 out of 10 for customer service.
I can make an appeal to anybody who has a Stolmen two drawer chest in white with missing left sides, I’ve got four spare ones.
Fuel Prices
After my stroke, I gave up driving and moved to a highly-insulated house in Dalston.
If you don’t like fuel costs, then move somewhere, where you don’t need a car and your house has affordable and efficient central heating.
I do all my shopping either on the Internet or by bus. I even go to IKEA on a bus and that is real fun!
Do The Swedes Know Their Left From Their Right?
Why is it that if IKEA are going to drop somebody in it, then it’s me?
This morning the decorator came and painted the cupboard in my spare double bedroom. A month or two ago, I bought a set of Stolmen interior wardrobe fittings from IKEA. So this evening, I decided to put the two drawer cabinet together. As I always do, I cbecked that everything was there and the first part went together very well.
A Half Completed IKEA Stolmen Chest
In the picture you can see the frame of the chest and the two drawer fronts, ready to accept the sides and back.
But then I noticed the deliberate mistake that I’d missed when I checked the contents.
Four Identical Drawer Sides
The four drawer sides were all for the left, instead of two being left and two being right.
I have informed IKEA, but I might have a problem, as I’m probably outside of their return time, as I ordered this furniture in February. But surely one of the reasons you buy flat-pack furniture is that it is easier to store until you need it. I’ve also thrown all of the packaging away.
The IKEA Obstacle Race
I need some stuff from IKEA and want it to be delivered, as that way I don’t have to carry it all the way on a bus. The total was of around £300 and was a total of 10 pieces.
The order went through efficiently from the web site and they said delivery would be around the 16th of July. I do take IKEA a bit sceptically about delivery dates, as some of the items I have ordered in the past, have arrived a few days after the originally quoted delivery date. But as someone who understands scheduling very well, I know that you can’t meet all the quoted dates, but I would have been quite happy to wait a few more days.
However, yesterday they phoned me and the courier firm said that the earliest they could do deliveries would be the 4th of August, which is quite a way into the future and four weeks later than I was originally quoted.
So this morning, I cacelled the order. I still want the goods, but they are just a bit much to bring home on the bus. And one of the pieces wouldn’t fit in my son’s old Mini.
Why is it that other companies like John Lewis, Dixons and Marks and Spencer, seem to get the last delivery right, but others, like IKEA just cause more and more hassle?
Incidentally, in this case, I would have paid a few extra pounds to get the item delivered on a day convenient to myself.
Mathmos Lighting
This company, famed for the Lava Lamp, seems to be thinking the way I am on column lights with its Airswitch range.
I need one that is the size of the IKEA one, with the controls of the Airswitch.
Branas Boxes Bite Again
I have a new delivery of some IKEA furniture tomorrow and to finish it off I need some more Branas boxes.
As I was going to have a coffee with a friend in Covent Garden, I thought that I might go on from there. But getting to Covent Garden had been difficult on the Piccadilly line as someone had stupidly been hit by a train at Southgate. So the obvious route back to IKEA at Edmonton which involved using the Piccadilly line to Manor House and then a 341 bus, was probably a no-no!
So I decided after my coffee to take the circular route from Embankment of a District line train to Wimbledon and then the Tramlink to IKEA at Ampere Way. Afterwards I intended to continue on the tram to West Croydon to get the London Overground to Dalston Junction.
The Chimneys at IKEA Croydon
The two chimneys of the old power station that give the road its name are still there.
As are the concrete blocks, that sit in the pedestrian entrance to catch the drunk, the lame and the elderly.
Welcome to IKEA - Again!
They may have been moved since I last visited the store.
I did have a nice lunch in IKEA before I bought another eight boxes.
Or should I say seven and four-fifths boxes? As when I checked out, a bottom was missing! I did check them, as I’d been caught once before, but I obviously didn’t check well enough! It meant another walk through the store as punishment to get a replacement. At least I didn’t take it home and now will be plotting a return.
IKEA at Croydon at least has one advantage over Edmonton. It is easy to take a trolley to the tram stop. Not that I did as many had done and dump it somewhere awkward for pedestrians, but I was able to leave it in a handy trolley park to shorten the walk considerably.
From Ampere Way I took the tram to West Croydon to get the East London line to Dalston Junction.
Overground Directions at West Croydon
The picture shows the excellent signage at the West Croydon interchange.
I actually changed trains between West Croydon and Dalston Junction, at Surrey Quays, so that I got on a train that ended its journey at Dalston Junction, which meant I only had a short walk to the lift.
It was then a couple of stops on a 38 bus home.
It would be so much easier, if I could buy the Branas boxes online in fours.
An IKEA Linen Bin
My current bedroom is not as large as my previous one, so space in some ways is at a premium. I have given away some of my larger furniture and replaced my bedroom chests and dressing table with Expedit ones from IKEA, mainly with Branas baskets.
A Branas Basket as a Laundry Bin
For a single man living alone, the one next to my bathroom makes an excellent linen bin.
Incidentally, I’ve put my old laundry bins on eBay. They are stainless steel and wood by Miller of Sweden and are in very good condition.
Don’t Blame Me I Voted Yes!
Usually, I’m the one who gets blamed for everything. After all, I’ve had so much bad luck and sorrow lately, that people feel that to heap a bit more on me won’t do any harm!
But if you’re disappointed that you voted Yes to AV and didn’t win, then you can’t blame me, as I did the same! At least though after the result and a good lunch with a friend in Carluccio’s, I had enough strength to take back the bottomless box to IKEA and get it replaced and buy another four!
One of their guys told me that bottomless Branas boxes are a bit of a problem. So when you buy them check you have the five parts and they are all strapped together. After all, what use is a Branas without an as?
The Anonymous Widower 