Why I don’t like IKEA

	Yesterday we went to IKEA at Murcia. It is only half an hour down the road and should be easy to get to and back but for some reason it just isn’t. The journey there is all OK until we come off the motorway and get to the roundabout which leads to the car park. Then I always seem to be in the wrong lane except that today I’m sure I was in the right lane but still someone had to cut across me. Coming back was perfect. One time we went, I missed the turning to the motorway and ended up in Murcia. This time though, not only did I get that right but I also avoided driving through the middle of Orihuela – that was a first.
	The one good thing I can say about this IKEA is that there is no shortage of space to park your car unlike the Warrington shop where we used to go in England. That was a nightmare especially at the weekends. Mind you, if that car park is ever full, I dread to think how crowded the shop would be.
	Apart from the journey, I don’t like the fact that you have to walk all the way through IKEA and look at all of the displays before you get to the part where you want to be. But the worst part of going to IKEA is the size of the boxes that everything seems to come in. If you only have a small hatchback then you are stuffed. This couple finally managed to get everything in by dismantling most of the car. Companies know this is a problem and offer a delivery service from IKEA to your door in English! I think some of these companies will even assemble the articles for you which is of course the second worst thing about IKEA – everything is flat packed, comes with a bag of parts and a book of instructions that seem to bear no relation to the item you have just bought. I always worry that there might be parts missing. But to be fair to IKEA, only once did we ever find that was the case unlike the stuff from MFI where they seemed to miss parts out of everything they sold.

So what did we go there for? A stool for Pamela to sit on in the kitchen, a picture frame for a photo we have had for nearly six months and a new door mat.

The stools they had were all either too high or were too expensive, the picture frame that we did buy is actually too big for where it has to go and we could not find a decent doormat of the right size anywhere in the shop.

It wasn’t all bad though. Pam did buy a candle snuffer for 1.95 Euros and some boxes for her make up. Oh and yes, the lunch was really good, we both had a very tender, huge ham shank with chips for 6.50 Euros each.

And now for the bad news, Pam will want to go again in about 12 months time. By then I will have forgotten all the bad stuff and only remember that wonderful ham shank.