Could Do Better...

Here's a good one : the delivery guys assigned the delivery and installing over your beautiful new table etc. arrive at 11.50am, you having been waiting for them since 10am as instructed. They walk in and announce that they cannot install anything as it wasn't on their order form and they don't have time, but they could leave the boxes of stuff...

Frankly I had to pick my jaw up from the floor gaping as it was with disbelief at the sheer incompetence, inefficiency and blatant disregard for the customer (me). When I asked the simplest question, why hadn't they called to let me know, their answer was that all the stuff was anyway in the van and it was too late. I didn't see the relevance to calling me to let me know that I didn't need to take two hours of annual leave off from work, but then there maybe logic in there somewhere - Up Yours logic, that is...

I got a little testy with them, they rang their boss, I spoke to the boss, told him I would have appreciated a phone call so I wasn't wasting my time and of course I just got a 'I don't give a shit' apology. In fact, they had to come and go because they needed a signature from me showing that I had refused the delivery because of installation issues...

I then rang the shop 'Authentica' and told them that they hadn't specified installation on the order form, so the delivery guys had come and gone, and that I was furious. She said installation had been specified because it always is, and she would get onto the delivery company.

I'm going to write to complain. I HATE taking time off for nothing, getting effed about by incompetent workmen and disregarded although I am a PAYING CUSTOMER.

I stormed back to work, went to lunch with my pals - WITH wine - and then this afternoon, the sofa delivery guy called 5 mins before he was due to arrive enabling me to dash back home to take delivery, with no problems, of my lovely new sofa. Such a contrast with this morning's clowns.

I may get the table next week, if they can dredge up enough brain cells to organise installation time as well as 'throw it at the client and bugger off' time. All the old stuff is being removed on Sunday of course. The best laid plans...

Sofa So Good

The boys went off to see their father last night - a traumatic event if ever there was one, and I was left practically a gibbering wreck who had to be revived with some excellent wine and a salmon supper chez pal B. If I told you my eldest was looking forward to seeing his father, I'd be lying...

So, I'm now left to contemplate my navel and my dash across the Pond next weekend. To help pass the interminable moments before getting on the plane, I went furniture shopping today, and I think I have got things sussed for the upgrading of my sitting/dining room. Out will go the old sofa, crappy table and even crappier tele table; the bar stools and 5 Ikea chairs in green plastic (any offers?) - there had been six but one couldn't take being swung upon by my eldest any longer and when he fell backwards, snapped the plastic on the backrest. That was the only thing that broke, thankfully!

I was just going to give Emaus a call to come and take the whole lot away, but it's been suggested that I put some of the stuff on Ebay, so if I can get my act together I may do that. Not that I would make much money though, and certainly not enough to enable me to buy a new mattress.

After a nice little lie-in where I mentally wrote rude letters to various people and thought delicious thoughts about another, I forced myself to get up and go off to St Jean de Vedas. It's a bit of a trek, but without little voices from the back informing me that they do not want to be there, it didn't matter.

First stop Authentica and as soon as I walked in, I knew the saleswoman thought I was not a likely customer. Not even when I was examining closely the tables and chairs and went and asked specific questions about a special offer did she consider me seriously. It's very annoying that, and I may well order off the internet just so that I do her out of some business. Having checked delivery charges, natch...

Then to Bois et Chiffons where they have a perfect angle sofa which is just the right size, although I wish it was 500Eur cheaper. I just hope my bank advisor, who is a lovely chap, doesn't have a fit of the vapours at my sudden splashing out on credit left right and centre. I can see I'll be paying it off for quite some time, but at least I'll have a house I can invite people into and not feel like a total prat.

Something to aim for, at 44 going on 23, no?

Sofa Sagas

I've decided to join the credit crunch throngs. Why? Because the inside of my house looks like it was put together with a hotch potch of hastily thrown together items - which it was - and therefore needs to grow up a bit.

You know how you go into some people's houses and wonder at the amazing way everything just sort of goes, and it's all immaculate even though there are children? Well, mine is not like that, but it could be better than it is. A rough list includes a sofa, table with chairs, thing to put the tele on, sideboard, and while I'm at it, a new mattress wouldn't go amiss.

First stop the internet, natch, and a browse around Ikea, Habitat, odds 'n' sods sites and Steiner, Paris. Second stop, Ikea in the car on a Wednesday afternoon. I don't know what's happened to Ikea but their stuff looked dull, badly put together and uninspiring. The only sofa that might do was 1090Eur which is a lot to spend on something you might hate having had to struggle to put it together.

Steiner sent me an estimate for a beautiful angle sofa - 4660Eur. Hmmm, maybe not... By this time I'm getting a bit concerned that I'm on a wild goose chase. To make matters worse, I tortured myself with the Conran website where everyone lives in a mansion with rooms at least 100m². They are perfect for the 4m long sofas with graceful curves...

Back in the real world, I need a compact angle sofa measuring around 2.4m in length, not leather since I have a cat and not looking like it is held together with hope and two bits of string. My youngest and I went on a reconnaissance trip to the sofa shop strip of But, Roche Bobois, Meuble de France etc. this afternoon. Hopeless it was. But looked like a bazaar as they are having a refit sale, and the others had prices upwards of 4000Eur.

Came home disheartened and made lasagna from scratch. Looking for solace in food...