All IKEA-ed out!

Sister & Bro-in-law needed to get rid of more IKEA bookcases (my antiquarian encyclopedias are already looking lovely in their glass-front Billy bookcase). Yesterday they delivered 2 Billy bookcases and a Benno CD tower so this week will include frantic sessions of assembling bookcases and fixing them to the wall and maybe getting rid of some things. I'll also dismantle the unused picnic bench; it wasn't my idea to have it in the first place and I have some garden chairs. I also have a spare pine kitchen stool (mostly used as a small round table/plant stand!) and can donate to Billy and his flatmates.

Unreliable, Disorganised, Useless People Rant

A couple of weeks back, Billy and I had to stay indoors all afternoon because someone had booked to view the room at 1 pm. At 1:45 she phoned to say she'd just arrived at the station as there were delays on the tube. Fair enough, if she was stuck underground she couldn't phone earlier. Billy gave her directions from the station and landmarks (a pub) and the address. It's about 10-15 mins walk (I've done the walk often enough).

We waited ... and waited ... and waited ....

At 2:30 she phoned to say she was standing outside the house (the right house number) but there wasn't a "Flat D". We were looking out the window and there was no-one outside, which meant she wasn't at the address Billy had given her. He gave her more directions and we waited.

... and waited ... and waited ....

At 3 p.m. he tried phoning and got no signal, so it seemed the very disorganised person had got back on the tube. So we went out.

So where did she end up?

• Maybe she can't tell left from right and walked completely the wrong way after leaving the single exit of the tube station.
  
• Maybe she was at the wrong tube station.


• Maybe she ended up at the wrong pub (there are 2 pubs with "Queen" in the name).


• Maybe she saw the first road called a "Grove" and went down there instead of going to the road Billy told her.


• Maybe she was sat at home watching telly and pretending to be lost as an excuse for not bothering.

The commiseration is that someone so disorganised she can't follow clear instructions (everyone else, including me, has been able to find it) or print out a map is probably too disorganised to pay bills on time. It was, however, very frustrating as we spent 2 hours unable to go out or indulge in friskiness.

Anyway, we did eventually go out and we wandered round the huge Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road - 3 floors of exotic and mundane paper ranging from schooldays "sugar paper" to gossamer-thin Japanese paper, pretty shiny stationery supplies and, for some reason, handbags. Billy prefers Paperchase (frivolous) to Ryman (functional).