We have now moved in – pretty impressive to arrive in a new country, find a place to live and then move in, all inside a week. Obviously the main priority before we could inhabit the place was a bed to sleep in. Which is how we ended up in Ikea on Wednesday night. Yes, they do have Ikea in the US (although only about 20 stores nationwide) and yes, they are just as much of a pain as the ones in the UK. Don’t think that Ikea are a pain? Have you ever tried to order a serious quantity of furniture from them? If you have, you will know that there is *always* some vital piece of the order that is not in stock at the moment. In our case, it was only the mattress pad, but it still nearly caused N to walk out of the place there and then. The added complication with Ikea in the US is that the staff have absolutely *no clue* how the names should be pronounced.

“I’d like to order a Liared, please”

“Li-wha?”

“Liared. L-I-A-R-E-D”

“L-Y-R…”

“No, L-I..

etc. etc.

I know they’re all nonsense Swedish names anyway, but I could swear that UK employees have much better stabs at pronunciation. Americans just aren’t used to having to deal with another language, unless it’s Spanish (or, for some reason, Tagalog – there are churches here that advertise special services in Tagalog).

So the conclusion to this story is that we are now safely installed in our new house – we have a bed, and a spare for all you budding guests out there, two rocking chairs, a dining table and chairs and bedding.

Next comes the sofa…