We were looking for a present for my mother’s birthday, a cardboard clip-together CD box. We couldn’t find a nice one anywhere in Stratford. I looked on the internet, too, but couldn’t see what I wanted there, either. But I did see a link to a huge shop in Coventry which had some in stock. The shop was IKEA. It’s Swedish and very popular because it’s cheap. It sells mainly homewares, kitchen stuff, furniture, betting and the like. Anyway, we decided to go. The drive there was easy, but Coventry is a concrete city with a confusing ring road, but eventually we found the place. It was huge. And horrible. Goods on pallets, concrete floors, open ceilings with all the tubes, pipes and wiring on view. White walls. No displays, no assistants, just a big bag to put all your purchases in. We found the boxes we wanted (well they weren’t really what we were looking for, the photo showed them in a very good light, but as we had gone all that way I thought we might was well buy them. They were cheap. Cheaply made and cheap to buy, but actually total rubbish. But shopping in IKEA was real experience. Supermarkets are moving this same way, too. It looks as if all the feeling is going out of our lives, all that matter is how cheap something is. What a future!

Junko has grown some basil, and now she is thinking of making some pesto out of if, to go with the home made pasta that we did a while ago. Should be good.

What is it with the rain? For months we have had hardly a drop, but in the last few days we have had masses. It’s such a pity, it’s when we didn’t need it really, too late for the growing season. And I suspect that now the farmers will curse it because they can’t harvest their crops as they are wet.

And here we are, taking the curds out of the pan.



Quiz 241
If something is ‘spot on’, it’s ………..
a) exactly right
b) dirty
c) easily seen
d) in a very good position

Yesterday’s was b)