Evil thy name is Ikea

I am normally not too bothered by the trekk that is generally involved when going there but yesterday I guess I was just not up for it. We don't have a car but there is a a really good bus service that take you straight there... The main thing I was going for was a sun shade for the terrace... of course it was sold out... and after 45 mins of waiting and asking they told us that we could not have the display one as they could not take it down until all the stock has gone (there were are few items left in a hideous stripy colour) argh... What I don't understand is that they told us they were not re-stocking so what's the big deal? Give me my damn white sun canape!!!! Ikea says no.

But we did manage to still get a few little bits which were delivered bright and early this morning (before 9am!) by three lovely little south american men... Ikea in Barcelona seems to sub-contract the delivery work out to these guys. It makes me quite concerned as I can't imagine them making more than 5euros and hour... talk about brutal work! I live on the equivalent of the 6th floor and there is no lift... I feel bad for them but the guys who deliver groceries are not much better off... although the delay for grocery delivery is 1-2 days it only costs 4 euros... and it's worth it... to avoid bringing up 4 8litre bottles of water plus all our other goodies like wine and juice and food... now that sucks.... I am indeed greatful and yes of course always tip!

My funky little dressing room is looking just that... pretty funky... Fredu set up the mirrors for me and I put together the little wooden box myself... I'm generally not very good at such tasks but I managed that as well as installing the missing clothes rail in our wardrobe which was finally back in stock! Fredu also deserves credit for building the shelving unit himself... no ikea needed there... wood was bought from a local shop in our neighborhood... he painted it white of course... my little wooden box will soon follow suit.



Shoe order and other such delights of the dressing room!

The Screaming woman

There is this woman who lives in a flat who's window faces into an interior patio out onto which our bathroom window looks out into. Here in Barcelona the old buildings have lots of these secret patios which are I think designed to let light into the dark recesses of some areas of the building. You can't acess them but they are just there... Not all of them work... The tiny interior patio which the spare room, dressing room and salon all have windows to, brings in a tiny ray of sunlight for approx 10 mins every day. The rest of the time it's DARK and grey and serves no visual interest whatsoever... Anyway, back to the bathroom interior patio. Every day at around 11am there is a woman who screams out her window into this interior patio. It's very regular and it's rather upsetting. I've never seen her, I only hear this agonising scream... Every day like clock work. Ollie says it's a common thing in Russian villages... Old people suffer from it and it has something to do with isolation. I'm not too sure if that is the case here as we're right smack dab in the middle of bcn... there are hundreds of people around all the time and although you can still feel isolated when in a huge mass of people... well you get the idea... I sometimes worry that she's locked in... or being tortured or other times just think perhaps she's mentally ill and can't help it... either way it's pretty unsettling... especially for unsuspecting house guests! I don't know how to ask my other neighbors about it... maybe they know the secret...