no more on the buses

I've decided to spare you all the photos of my bus trips to and from work.

Instead, I'll tell you what I did today.

I went to Ikea.
Along the way I thought I'd stop off at Howard's Storage World, to return something I'd bought but couldn't use.
All of this means even more time spent on buses and waiting at bus stops than on working days. Ha Ha.

First up, a bus to the city.
Second, a bus to Mile End, where Howard's Storage World is.
The nearest bus stop is quite a walk from the actual store, but it was a lovely day and I figured I might as well get my full quota of Vitamin D from all that sunshine. (strong bones and all that...)

Of course this meant that getting back to the bus stop then waiting for a third bus which would take me to Ikea was going to take a bit longer than I thought.

But I made it to Ikea before lunchtime and had a bit of a wander around before realising I was getting hungry and deciding to have lunch there. I've never yet tried the Swedish meatballs and thought about having them until I saw the little spinach quiches.
 Maybe I'll try the meatballs next time...

Then it was time for some serious wandering around, looking at everything, seeing what was new, (not much), while searching for the kitchen section which was further around the arrow trail than I remembered.
I was looking for a shelf or two for my kitchen.

 I saw exactly what I wanted and was disappointed to find the smallest size was 60cm wide with a shelf depth of 19cm.
(Would have been fine if the shelf width was only 50cm).
So I kept looking and found an even better shelf. Found an assistant and asked if this type was available in a smaller size.
Sadly, no. This type only comes in 120cm and 80cm.
Oh Heck!!
My available wall space is 55cm.

I started checking out the hanging rails instead, some of those looked to be short enough.
Eventually I found a rail only 53cm long and bought that along with a basket shelf to hang off it and some "S" hooks as well.

Then I went to the bathroom section for a corner shelf with three tiers to be fixed into the corner of my shower, instead of the over-the-screen shower caddy I've always had, which looks a bit untidy and hangs just a little too high to be comfortable for me. Because I'm short.

On to the lighting section. I was looking for lightshades for my lounge room and kitchen. Many, many lightshades later, I moved on without finding what I wanted.
I'm going to have to check out a specialty lighting shop I think.
But there's no hurry, I can live with bare globes a while longer.

My last item was a small bedside rug. I found a stack of them for only $19.95 each and just had to buy a dark pink one.
Because the other colour selections were a not-quite-navy blue; egg-yolk yellow; grass green; black; and white.
None of which would look good with my bedroom colours. So dark pink it had to be. Crimson really, very nice.

After paying for all this, (less than $100, yay!), I quickly discovered that while pushing a trolley around Ikea is easy enough, carrying the *&^%$# stuff to the bus stop is not so easy. But I made it, using several muscles I'd forgotten I even had, got back into town and glanced across the road to see the bus I wanted was already at the stop.
 And I was on the other side of the road at a red light! 
 But luck was on my side. I crossed over, the bus was still waiting, the driver was occupied answering questions for some people who were asking who-cares-what, so I ran (yes! ran! can you believe it?!!) the last few yards and caught the bus home.
As I was walking up the footpath to my flat, my son-in-law pulled up.
Now there's a coincidence!!
 He had a few spare minutes between jobs and called in to see if I needed any help with anything.
So he drilled and screwed my new hanging rail for me and bolted something else more securely into position too.

Now for the sad bit.
 I haven't yet taken any photos of all this new stuff, so you can't see what it all looks like.
Ah well. There's tomorrow for that.