The Quest for the Holy Drawers

Another weekend, yet another trip to IKEA. A lot of last week wasn't actually recording much that happened, so heres a quick recap. We went to IKEA in Leeds on Wednesday, trying to get the draws that were out of stock. Viv had phoned in advance and we were told there were some left, but by the time we got there, there was only one drawer left. We were suitably annoyed. We were then told they had some new ones in stock, currently being counted, but they won't be on the shelf until Friday.

After our mid-week trip to IKEA in Leeds we were being a little bit more cautious before we decided to go for a hour long round trip, so Viv phoned again to make sure they weren't taking the piss. Turns out they were, as they didnt have any draws in stock. We were told to head to Gateshead, an hour away, if we wanted those drawers, as they wouldn't have any for another month at least. Viv then phoned Gateshead on friday night checking they had the drawers, yes, 320 apparently, the only ones in Northern England.

So just before we head off on saturday for our hour long quest Viv phones to check again. They still have the drawers, but there's only 290 now. Concerned by this we jumped into the Batmobile and sped away. When we arrived in IKEA in Gateshead about 75 minutes later I practically sprinted through the store, only pausing to pick up a curtain rail and leap onto a trolly so I could lance an old woman out of my way. I then got trapped in the labyrinthine 'Marketplace' wondering in circles till I spied the foot wide exit, flanked by columns of woven baskets. I took my chance and ran through, narrowly avoiding a cave-in. Viv wasn't so lucky, by this point she was carrying a new king size duvet and it got caught on the way through. I just about heard her cries of "Save yourself!" above the sounds of collapsing wicker.

Eventually we got to the Warehouse, where we had to wait in line to find an assistant, we had skipped the main store and so had no idea where the drawers actually were. As I was waiting I heard the guy at the front of the line mention 'Komplement Drawers'. My senses were tingling as I waved frantically at Viv in the other queue, then quietly instructed her to follow those men! By the time we got to the location we found it empty! Of the 3 levels of massive shelves the bottom and middle shelves were empty, only the top shelf had anything on it. Just 7 boxes...

We started chatting to the men we'd followed discovering that they were a gay couple from Leeds, they'd had the same problem finding these drawers as us, they needed 6 of them, while we required 8. Luckily they also said that the assistant had gone to find a ladder and there was another stack of drawers a few locations over on the top shelf. I smiled at this news and put the set of carving knives back in our trolley, there was no need for a fight to the death this time. It also turns out that there had been Drawers in IKEA in Leeds on Friday, it's just that all 300+ of them had gone by Saturday morning.

But we have our drawers! Took me most of Sunday to get them up. The journey was eased by listening to Led Zeppelin, which was cool. Also Jon and Karen finally moved into their new house this weekend, after a two week delay. We went round to theirs on Sunday night. It was a good weekend and the Bank Holiday was well appreciated too.

Tags: Humour, Ikea, Weekend, Bank Holiday