As may be clear from other entries in this blog, I am not, in general, a fan of shopping. With the notable exception of bookshops, of course, and some thrift/charity shops. Grocery shopping is a necessity, but my preference is always to walk to a small local mini-market or froutaria than to have to spend time in a supermarket.
I have rather mixed feelings about large stores like Ikea. I very much like some of their furniture, and many of their prices are excellent. They used to issue annual catalogues which I would sometimes flick through, although they were organised by room rather than by style of furniture, so I found them a bit confusing.
We were quite excited when the first Ikea was opened, in Nicosia. When we first visited, early in 2008, we were able to find some bookcases we liked, and various other items. Since then we've made a few visits - usually when going somewhere else in Nicosia anyway. One of our favourite things to buy at Ikea is their classic 'billy' bookcases; I wrote a lengthy post about buying billies at the start of 2024.
Each time we have been to Ikea - and I suppose on average it's been about once a year - we've picked up a few other items that we noticed on our wanderings. We particularly like the size of their smallest melamine trays, which are perfect for Richard's breakfast. We like their lint roller refills, too; very useful for removing cat hairs from clothes or furniture. But we don't need any more bookcases - we have no room for any more in the main part of our house - and we can't buy items like bedding from Ikea, since our bed is a non-standard EU size (150cm wide. Ikea double bedding is either 140cm or 160cm).
The last time we went to Ikea was in January this year when we bought some bookcases and a TV unit for our guest flat. I hadn't even thought about it since then, until about a month ago. It's been a long, hot summer and, as has happened several times before, the plants on our upstairs front balcony all died. Not for lack of watering or care. It just doesn't seem to be a good place for plants to thrive in the summer. It gets a lot of direct heat, and when the shade temperature is 35-38 degrees, day after day (and probably five degrees hotter in the sun) it's not surprising that the plants eventually give up. These plants were thriving in April:
By the end of September, all but the aloe vera succulent were dried up and lifeless.
So it finally occurred to me, after many years of similar disappointments, that perhaps I should have some artificial plants instead. I'm not a huge fan of anything artificial, but fake plants have become more realistic looking in recent years, and I've become more relaxed about them. I'd rather have some healthy-looking fake plants than dying or dead real ones; I feel quite sad when I have to throw out a plant. I didn't know where they could easily be bought in Cyprus; online searching led me to Ikea. But plants, real or otherwise, can't be bought via the website.
It wasn't urgent; I put the thought aside until Richard said that he had a meeting in Nicosia a couple of days ago. He will be providing PA for a conference in November, and needed to meet the pastor who was organising it, to check over the venue (which has changed) together. He had arranged the meeting for 11am on Wednesday. He would be going almost past Ikea on the way there, so we decided that he would drop me off there around 10.45, as the meeting was probably only ten minutes' drive away.
The plan was that I would look at plants - and a few other things; we needed a replacement breakfast tray, for instance - and wander around, and that we would meet at the restaurant for lunch. He hoped that the meeting would last only about half an hour; I guessed it would be at least an hour. After the meeting he had to go and buy some speakers at a shop not far away. He hoped to be at Ikea by about noon; I thought 12.30 more likely.
As I went into Ikea, I saw one of their workers handing out papers to everyone. I assumed it would be a notification of some special offers, but took one anyway. I was surprised (and pleased) that there was an English side as well as a Greek one, as Ikea in Cyprus operates almost entirely in Greek. I was even more surprised at what I read:
I had arrived on a day when there was a planned evacuation drill, and if I took part I would be rewarded with a voucher for a free lunch. Since we planned to have lunch there anyway, this seemed like a bonus. I just hoped I would have time to look around as much as I wanted to.
I needn't have worried. I browsed the kitchen sections at leisure (there were no trays of the size I wanted, despite the website having said they were in stock), nor were there a few other items I had hoped to pick up. I did find some lint rollers, and had just reached the plant section - and selected a couple - when there was a loud announcement, first in Greek and then in English, telling customers to leave the building.
However, that announcement (which was repeated a few minutes later) constituted the entire 'instructions' that the staff were supposed to be issuing. I had no idea where to go - so I started heading for the checkout area. One staff member did approach me, but only to tell me I had to leave the Ikea bag I was carrying; he put it on a table, for me to pick up later. But he couldn't tell me where I was supposed to go. So I followed a few other customers, and we found an open emergency exit door...
I saw a stream of Ikea workers (easily recognisable by their uniform) walking briskly past. So, along with a couple of other people who were as puzzled as I was about what to do, we tagged on the end of this line. They took us almost entirely around the building, to the main exit... where people were starting to go inside again.
It didn't seem to me at all 'smooth', and I have no idea how they knew if there was anyone left inside. Nobody seemed to be checking anything. But I was handed a voucher as I went in. It didn't take long to retrieve my Ikea bag, and continue looking at fake plants.
We had wondered about some bigger ones, for the balcony outside our bedroom. But the larger plants looked unrealistic, and were extremely expensive for what they were. I found four smaller ones which I quite liked, and some nice pots; I found some tiny flower-like plants, too, and an artificial rose.
By then it was about 12.15 and I'd heard nothing from Richard. I had had enough of wandering around Ikea, so I went to sit down at the restaurant. There was an immense queue: I assume these were other people who had been given vouchers for meals.
It was well after one o'clock by the time Richard joined me at the restaurant - the people he was meeting were very late, and he then had to wait some time for the items he was buying. But by the time he arrived, the queue had reduced to a trickle, so we were able to buy our lunch, and take advantage of my voucher.
The artificial plants I bought look much nicer on my balcony than the dead plants did:
And yes, there's still a large dead one behind the aloe vera, and some pots with cat grass seed which has consistently refused to sprout.
I'm also rather pleased with the little fake flowers, whose colours go very nicely on a shelf in our main floor loo:
But I've had my fill of Ikea, now, and hope it will be at least another year before we go again.
No comments:
Post a Comment