… service will return to normal shortly. By normal I mean a post a month or so.
I can’t believe it’s been a month and a half since I last posted! Doesn’t time just fly when you’re up to your hairy eyeballs??
We just took our first step onto the property ladder. Probably not the best time says you but we figure we’re better off paying our mortgage than someone else’s mortgage. And luckily enough we got in just before banks stopped offering 100% fixed rate mortgages for FTB’s. So these days most of my free time is spent putting together flat pack crap and pondering what to do with our back garden which is a gravel and concrete nighmare.
On top of that I was forced to make the drive to Ikea in Belfast … it’s going to take some time to recover from that trip. I was going to get a “I survived a trip to Ikea” t-shirt but i’m still on a morphine drip so am not quite out of the woods just yet.
Ikea is a scary place; they regularly make staff announcements which sound like the cops: “Code 30 in Textiles”; “Code 30 in Secondary Storage” etc.
A Code 30 is apparently a panic attack, which seems to frequently occur to men in Ikea; a Code 90 is a ‘man down’, the highest level of alert which requires a few hits with a defibrillator and air extraction to the nearest ICU. It’s a hellish place really.
“Annual trip!” says she; ain’t gonna happen!
Comhghairdeas, a Mhaca!
When rents are about equal to mortgage payments, it makes little sense to keep renting.
“It’s a hellish place really.”
I’m with you there. Even my wife, who normally hates shopping more than I do enjoys visiting the place. The only good thing about their being one on our doorstep in Cardiff (well, a 5 min drive) is that we go in the evening midweek when the place is dead.
What grates me is that IKEA likes to give the impression that it’s a really nice place to work and it’s a socially responsible company, while all the staff look and behave like drones, their stuff is made in China and is so cheap many probably consider the furniture to be disposable.
Get well soon.
I heard some announcements like those you mention here in a different shopping centre. They were far more worrying because it was something like “Watch out! Code 110! Watch out!”, with a loud voice and repeated with different codes for at least five times in 30 minutes.
The even more disturbing thing was that nobody of the staff moved or got alerted.
The last time I went to an IKEA centre was 12 years ago… It’s only 20 minutes drive from home. I hated the fact that in order to purchase an item I saw near the checkout we had to walk all through the shopping centre, upstairs, downstairs, left and right for almost an hour. There was no way to cut the path short to the item I was looking for.
I hate that place.
Rhys,
I’d hate to live that close to Ikea … the missus would have me in debt before too long. At least Belfast is hours away
A Chionaoidh
Go raibh maith agat. Mar bónas, tá ár dteach nua in aice leis an Gaelscoil. Rachaidh ár mac is sine againn go dtí an scoil an bhliain seo chugainn. Beidh Gaeilge líofa aige gan mhoill.
Jaypers I’m rusty!!
What I tried to say (and for the benefit of others) … as a bonus we live beside the Gaelscoil where our young buck will go next year and so he’ll be fluent in Irish soon enough.
Antonio
Obviously the announcer was taking it far more seriously than everyone else. It must have been a code related to a specific area??
I know what you mean. I needed to go to the toilet before we left and had to walk back through the whole shop to get out. Pain in the ass.
“Go raibh maith agat. Mar bónas, tá ár dteach nua in aice leis an Gaelscoil. Rachaidh ár mac is sine againn go dtí an scoil an bhliain seo chugainn. Beidh Gaeilge líofa aige gan mhoill.”
Is clann ádhúil sibhse. Níl aon Gaelscoileanna againn sna S.A.M., agus sinne ag lorg scoil deas donár gcéad mac go luath.
(You’re a lucky family. We haven’t any Gaelscoileanna in the states and we’ll be looking for a nice school for our first son soon.)
No worries about the rust, a Mhaca — if my 4-year-old can teach me the names of a hundred or so dinosaurs, yours will undoubtedly drill some Irish back into your head.
Maca,
I don’t know. It’s a store where I go frequently, it’s an electronics store, but that was the first time I heard such an announcement.
By the way, your ability in writing in Irish is outstanding!!! My most sincere compliments!
The same to Cionaodh!!!
Geez, how I’d like to write and read like you do!
A Chionaoidh
It’s apity alright, but i’m sure you’ll pass a few words onto him
I’m sure I’ll pick up a bit alright. The school also runs short courses for parents so i think i’ll pop along to that.
Antonio
Thanks but my Irish is FAR from outstanding. Cionaodh would have good Irish but I struggle at all languages even English sometimes