What are you all up to
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David
I am assuming all IKEA Stores have the same layout? If so the secret is to turn left at the top of the escalators and that avoids all the furniture! I quite like to the IKEA system as everyone is going in the same direction, I wish supermarkets would follow the same idea. I would agree that they are hardly stores that you can just pop into and even when you have found what you want it is still miles to the checkout!!
David
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During Covid shut down DD had quite a few things delivered, we clubbed together to make a big enough order, and I see now that they are doing free small parcel delivery for over £60 spent.
Our store is not bad for distance walked, once you get used to it, and we noticed yesterday that a few new "shortcuts" had been put in place.
We were only in the market hall, and had a list, so were in and out in about 90 minutes, including "dithering time"
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Our store must have a different layout to yours, stairs and lifts, and turning left upstairs you end up in the restaurant.
We have been in several of their stores in UK, plus Holland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland and France, and there does seem to be a lot of different layouts used.I expect a lot depends on the size of the site available. Many stores have parking below, ours is only outside, but the site area is huge. The ground floor has the market hall and the warehouse for self selection, plus the food shop and the bistro. Upstairs are all the showroom areas and the sit down restaurant.
The Glasgow store only opened in 2021 or 2022, if I remember correctly, before that it meant a trip to Edinburgh.
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I can believe that. If you live in the far north of Scotland it would be over 150 miles to Ikea, and in North Norway, where my relatives live it is more like 300 miles. Nearest large supermarket is 30 miles.
Before there was a store in Ireland, there were regular weekly bus trips organised to the store in Glasgow.
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Went to the Christmas Illuminations at Whimpole Abbey on Saturday night, truely spectacular and quite magical even for an oldie like me, the grandson was spellbound. Apparently similar events are taking place at Anglesea Abbey and The Cambridge Botanic Gardens, all within a 15 mile radius. I'd recommend this but choose your night wisely, it was a clear moonlit night and very cold but the mulled wine half way round certainly helped.
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Kj said :- Our store must have a different layout to yours, stairs and lifts, and turning left upstairs you end up in the restaurant.
The MK branch is the same but all the household/kitchenware items is just past the restaurant so no need to go through the furniture section.
Interestingly Milton Keynes wasn't the first choice for IKEA to build a store in our area, Northampton was the original planned location but for some reason the local Council turned it down which is difficult to understand. Their loss our gain and the MK IKEA branch is now part of a large development on the outskirts of Bletchley, including the largest ASDA (apparently) in the country, MK1 shopping district and Stadium MK.
David
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A very cold but totally windless day. A beautiful walk around Buttermere.
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Morning food shopping then we set to and shifted the music centre around and assembled 2 of the 4 items from IKEA.
Of course we couldn't get the speakers to work. Half an hour later I turned the socket on.
Just roasting the first Rhubarb of the winter, to go with braised Bramley Apples. Let them cool down and have them with cold custard and/or Greek Yoghurt.
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🤭Love it WN🤣
Beautiful photo Corners. Last time I did walk around Buttermere, it was like stair rods, water pouring off the hillsides. I’m like a jinx if I go to Lakes, it pours it down. Been lovely here today, I managed a short walk out from Mum’s.
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Great photo, CS. Appropriately, when I saw it, I was just listening to "The Beauty of Everyday Things" by Luke Bloom.T
Our home electric toaster started to make funny noises so we decided to get a new one. Found just what wanted at Argos in their Black Friday sale, and I had Love2shop voucher from Sports England for £5 for filling in a couple of questionsaires, so we got the new one at 35% of the original price!shore
It being a lovely sunny, but chilly, morning we had another walk by the shore. As well as Curlews, Stonechats and Oysterchatchers there was a large mixed flock of about 200 Dublin and Knot feeding on the waterline. Have booked another couple of sites for our Xmas trip, now waiting for word from a commercial site before booking our first site.
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Third time lucky some say! We have been trying to get into The Centre Milton Keynes for three days. On Monday we made an attempt in the car but it was chaos, I think something to do with it being Cyber Monday so we turned round and came home. Yesterday we had planned to go in on the bus but had a phone call from youngest son saying he had a dental appointment nearby so would drop in to see us. He had just come back from France and he got me a tin of duck cassoulet. He also finished setting up our new TV which was useful. So today was day three and we did mange to get there on the bus. Christmas is in full swing in Middleton Hall (see below) for those that know it and the whole Centre seemed pretty busy so hopefully the shops will have a better Christmas this year? One of the reasons for being there was that Margaret's new glasses one of the arms has come away from the frame. It seems just to push in but there is no grip. We went into Boots expecting them to work their magic but instead they said the will order a completely new pair of glasses which seemed to me quite wasteful given how expensive they were! I wonder if I might try some PTFE tape?
David
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Good to see your pictures of Middleton Hall David. We often used to visit the centre for Christmas when we lived near Bedford. We know what you mean about the traffic though, it was bad 16 years ago so I’m sure it’s worse now!
The picture of Buttermere is stunning WN. We have one from the same spot, similar to yours but not quite as beautiful.
IKEA is our bete noire, we really dislike it, not the items at all we have some of them, just the store. When we were visiting the family in Macau in February, they live in an apartment above an IKEA it’s smaller than our UK ones but just as confusing!!! We found it handy for a quick meal but that’s it.
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Very cold week here it’s been dropping below freezing most nights lots of frost around in the mornings. IKEA Glasgow is only 20 miles from us so we visit there often as SWMBO likes to go I’m not a fan but like the cafe so normally go along.
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Thanks for all the comments about the photo but really all I had to do was be there.
Another very cold day here but again no wind at all but there's snow back home.
We did a walk up the old mine road in-between Causey Pike and Outerside. Too frosty to venture off it but great all the same.
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Shocked awake by nuisance phone call just before 7am. Your credit card has been debited £500 at Amazon or Ebay 🤔. Phone replaced at that point!
Very shocked to see the school field completely white! Beautiful full moon still out. Remaining, very, golden leaves being shown off by the rising sun. Checked my App, said -2c feels like -3c 🥶🥶🥶🥶. Regretted deciding it was cold enough to walk across the nearest fields 😱😱😱. I had snowshoes of mud very quickly..... We stuck with it but I'll choose more wisely tomorrow!
Once home Dora's feet enjoyed her warm dog shower, I used the facility to wash my boots. Was shocked, again, when I went out to find that splashes from the dog shower had turned to ice. I did stay upright - phew! Frost hasn't shifted in the shade all day. Forecast now saying we have 8 days of bitterly cold, more January February temperatures. Just seen yellow weather warning for snow bordering our area!
Good job I'd opened this thread earlier to read but got interrupted, as I'm now getting server errors....
Good to read folks news. Stay warm and safe
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Loving the photos.
DK, Middleton Hall is looking very festive this year. We might get to see it when visiting our son, although it would be a weekend and after your post re the traffic, it might be difficult 🤔
Finished work at lunchtime today, this afternoon we had another trip through the cotswolds to Cheltenham this time. It was the Christmas Fayre at the Animal shelter where we adopted "Polly" from. It was lovely that the staff recognised her and we were happy to report that she has settled really well with us. She met Santa Paws and won a bag of doggy biscuits in the lucky dip 😂. No such luck for me, no raffle or tombola prizes. 😥😥
Very cold here tonight too. 🥶
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We have had a nice day out today. Drove over to Castleton, bit of a walk, then had a late lunch in The George. -2c all day, very heavy frost, but a beautiful day. We finished off by having a look in Castleton Church that had a lovely exhibition of decorated Christmas trees inside, all done by local community projects and businesses. Around 40 in total, all wonderfully individual, a lot of creativity on show. Nice one by CC site staff😁 Our favourites were the one by Castleton’s ice cream shop, and another by a cave rescue organisation, made of climbing ropes! Castleton itself wasn’t very busy, but looked nice with lots of lights twinkling.
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OH was a star yesterday.
We, loose description, unpacked the desk and cabinet that we bought from IKEA the other day and she proceeded with minimal input from self to put them together. Quite impressed that there was only the 1 Dowel left over.
Set them up in the front room.Trouble is that she definitely wants one for her "Artists Room" so it will have to be Click and Collect as for some reason IKEA said our postcode was in an area that didn't qualify for delivery.
Must be expecting Welsh Bandits or something. Might have to wait a while. Trip to the "Tip" this morning with stuff that definitely needed chucking rather than Charity Shops.
Sounds like H&T and Ttda had good trips out.
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Just taken Lizzie to the vet for her annual check. Her heart continues to be a problem, but she's a Cavalier King Charles, so always will be! She just has to keep on with the tablets. We did a deal... I paid the vets bill and Carol bought the coffee's at Costa. I know who came of best.... and it wasn't me!! 😀
David
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Another very cold day again but a beautiful walk along Borrowdale from Grange to the top of Castle Crag. We all just feel so privileged to see such fantastic scenery.
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My Brother in Law posted our Christmas Card in Northern Ireland yesterday afternoon at 2.20pm and it was delivered to us in MK before 10.00am this morning, and on a second class stamp! How brilliant is that? Perhaps the Club should send out the magazines from Northern Ireland
David
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Enjoy it while it lasts DK. I have a calendar coming for OH’s birthday, ordered last week. On Monday I got a tracking update from PO saying they had the item, and it would be delivered later Monday. Then I got another saying it would be delivered Tuesday, then another saying it would be delivered Wednesday, and finally today’s update gem, it might arrive today before 7.30pm. Our PO post is shocking at the moment. Meanwhile, I ordered some eye drops for pooch this morning, they are dispatched and DPD tell me to expect tomorrow. Evri delivered something today ordered only a couple of days ago. It’s quicker, and cheaper for me to drive round and post our local Xmas cards than sticking a stamp on☹️ OH’s father would be incandescent at state of PO in our town. He was the local Post Master!
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Fabulous Lake District photos, Corners - very envious, we've done all those walks but rarely in weather like that. The Buttermere one is looking up towards Haystacks isn't it - one of our all time favourites, just got to watch out for specks of grit on the mountain itself!
As it's (nearly) December, we've started planning a few trips for next year - two short hotel breaks and a cottage week sorted so far.
Meanwhile, Mrs M got her hand caught in Ralph's harness at the weekend trying to get him away from a rather aggressive chow. Came home with her hand about 3 times normal size.
So a trip to the local minor injury unit who could only put on a splint and tape it up and send her of to A&E at Bath RUH! Fortunately, as she'd already been triaged she got straight through to the x-ray department and was seen within about 15 minutes (waiting time notice in A&E said 4 to 5 hours! 
). It's a bad break on her right hand but as fate would have it she's left handed so can still manage the hoovering! 
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That sounds very painful, mouleys, hope that the break heals properly. Very good service from the A&E dept. I guess that she won't be driving for a while.
Grand photos from both CS and tda.
OH did well on the assembly front, WN, hope that the next one goes as well.
Complete the bookings for our Xmas trip yesterday, so it's a C&CC site, a commercial one and then 4 CLs up to after the N.Year. There will be a few more to do for our homeward journey. Following on from my second meeting with the audiologist, I now have a referral to the ENT Dept. This had to be done by my doctor, so phoned up at 8:00 this morning, had a call back by 8:15 and an appointment for 9:40 today!! Just now have to wait for the hospital to contact me.
We had a cold but bright morning, after heavy frost over night, and a very icy walk along by Sandscale Hawse before lunch. Saw Curlew, Lapwings, Little Egret and Stonechats.
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Ouch, that sounds painful M☹️ I hope it mends up quickly.
Well, knock on our door at 7pm, parcel handed over to me. Pity it wasn’t mine🤷♀️ Luckily I managed to stop Postie, told him he had got C C South, not C C North. He took it back and I told him how to get to right place, oh and did he have a parcel for me in his van? Quick check and oh yes, here it is……you couldn’t make it up honestly🤷♀️ He was telling me our sorting office have set new staff on, but they aren’t getting anything like enough training, and there’s all sorts going missing.
Good to get things sorted Nellie. Hope you get off soon. We are starting to pack for our break. 😁
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It's nearly the weekend, so what does that mean? Another gig of course! This time it's Merry Hell at The Platform, Morecambe. If you get the chance go to see them. A guaranteed good night out.
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Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mrs M, moulesy. What with Ros's escapade in February - just goes to show how dangerous these dogs are
Not wishing to be a doom and gloom merchant but has anyone mentioned osteoporosis? First thing our private GP jumped on when he got the results of her MRI scan. Trouble is, apparently, no one knows they have got it until they break a bone! Ros has been treated for it for the last six months - even though she doesn't go for a bone density scan until next week - on the basis that it's doing no harm to treat her anyway.Pleased to hear that you've got out of having to do the vacuuming
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Same from us Moulesy for a good recovery, a friend of ours who has two donkeys fell over last year whilst doing their morning feed and broke her left wrist as she was told that she possibly had osteoporosis but has not been for any tests and probably will not go just the way she is.
A very wet day here so far 10.2 mm of rain and the last two days we have had 25mm yuck very mucky to walk on the grass areas, I see in our English paper that this good be a good winter for the Truffle season due to all this rain and a lot of money changes hand around this area as we are in a well known Truffle area and the first sale is next Tuesday and every Tuesday after that until March.
Have a good weekend folks.
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"Shocked awake by nuisance phone call just before 7am. Your credit card has been debited £500 at Amazon or Ebay 🤔. Phone replaced at that point!"
glad you were alert to this, but be careful folks, i had a text message also 7am Sunday last , asking if i recognised the following 3 transactions on my current account and asking me to text yes if indeed i did no if i did not, it indicated the text was from my Bank Barclays, i recognised 2 of the transactions but not the 3rd but thought the text was a scam and ignored it, i could see 2 transactions on my current account using my banking app but not the 3rd.
1 hour later a telephone call from an automatic machine asking me to confirm if i did or did not recognise the 3 transactions, i ignored the call. 1hrs later call on my landline from Barclays fraud team,, yes it really was Barclays fraud team, they sent a verification notification to my banking app and we went thru loads of other checks, it transpired that somebody from a company in Hong Kong was trying to take money £79.99 from my current account using an outdated debit card, 2 years our of date. Barclays cxld my current debit card as a precaution and issued me with a new one, Barclays would not divulge how they had spotted this but assured me it would not happen again from this particular company.
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