Morning out: Ikea

The one thing I have learned (the hard way) in London is that it is very hard to get anywhere by car if you do not have satellite navigation.  Of course, London is a highly populated, sprawling city with many old and narrow roads that are not meant to be used as through roads.  There are often stories on the news about massive trucks that have literally become stuck between buildings  on these roads after being diverted there by satellite navigation. 

On Sunday morning, Stephen and I took ourselves off to Ikea in Croydon. Unfortunately, Croydon Road itself was closed for maintenance and we were diverted down the narrowest country road where parents just happened to be dropping their children off for football.

Part of the reason I took the photo was because we were stuck in traffic for a really long time and we were beginning to worry that we would miss our Ikea breakfast.  We literally had to wait until the flow of traffic from the opposite direction abated before our side could start moving again.  The other reason was to show just how beautiful the English countryside is.

I was just ready JAPRA's entry and I was reminded of when I moved here last year and lived in Westerham. These photos were taken really close to Westerham.  I remember sending an email to Stephen telling him I had never seen such beauty in my life, that I had never seen so many different colours of green.  I was reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the time and it was great looking into the greenery imagining Harry and friends camping in the forest.

We made it to Ikea, in time for a full cooked breakfast for 95p, no thanks to the satellite navigation being buggy and taking us to the other side of Croydon.  The first thing you see when you are finally on the right road to Ikea is the Ikea Towers which are the old chimneys from the power station that used to be at that site. 

It would be difficult to explain Ikea to anyone who doesn't have a concept of what it is.  It is a gigantic home store with the most modern furniture and fittings you can imagine.  They are masters of modular wardrobes and space saving systems.  The very best thing about Ikea is that all their amazing modern and chic products are really, really inexpensive.  Suffice to say I ♥ Ikea.

We bought two single and two double wardrobes, complete with special rails for skirts and drawer dividers for ties and all sorts of interesting things.