Myself and my other half have recently moved home. This is the first time we have properly lived together folks, please take a collective breath in. Anyway, we moved in together, and with little furniture had to make the pilgrimage to furniture mecca, otherwise known as Ikea. Many a time have I heard the trip to ikea referred to as ‘the cementing of the lesbian relationship in stone’ and we aimed to fulfil this.
There we were many obstacles on this journey. First and foremost; getting there. As my partner stupidly decided to drink drive a few years ago she was unable to drive. Conversely, I had a clean sheet but once passed my test (on the first time I may add) I had not driven since and therefore was extremely rusty and very very scared. So off we trotted to the van rental company where she was denied the privilege to drive and I was told I had to if we wanted the van. So there I was on a main road, cars whizzing by, scared stiff. Thankfully the rental man casually wondered off, meaning we could quickly switch places. Now, I'm not one to condone illegal activity, but I would have been far more treacherous on the road then she was, so I think it was a wise idea to swap. And indeed, we came back in one piece, happy as larry.
Anyway, Ikea was an experience- my other half broke her phone and spilt petrol down my new jeans when refilling the van. In addition, we lost our list of product codes, which meant once at the stock area, we realised we had to repeat our previous two hours of browsing. However, we successfully loaded up six trolleys full of stuff (we have an empty flat to furnish) and carted them about as best we could. The assistants helped us through the checkout with them, commenting that they had only ever seen one person ever buy more than us (hard to believe I know) and watched us as we loaded approximately 20 heavy boxes into the van.
As much as I enjoyed browsing the beautiful furniture, I can tell you this furniture buying malarkey has been a pain in the ass. Not only was Ikea a pretty stressful day, but the furniture making process has been a nuisance too. I took over three hours to make a chair the other night and it only has four pieces. Now I know I am, no furniture whiz but seriously?! This process has been such a nuisance, myself and my other half have coined the phrase ‘if we can get through ikea we can get through anything.’ And this is true, I think there are very few things more stressful then building a home.
I may moan about this but buying furniture together has been a lovely experience on the whole. Creating a new home together has been wonderful and hilarious at times. Most of all, it proves that the little bi girl isn’t conforming to stereotype and can lift as many boxes as the next man. Well, not really, but almost :-)