IKEA.

Today I trekked all the way across London in search of IKEA. Luckily Neasden was on the Jubilee Line so there were no changes once I got to London Bridge and only a relatively small (though slightly wet) walk from the station when I arrived there. Inside, I browsed the showrooms (mentally planning as ever, the layout of future rooms in future homes) and the Market Place, ate meatballs, chips and gravy in the restaurant, went on a nervous rug hunt and eventually selected some objects for the buying. These were, as follows: a pink and red heart rag-rug, a back-up alarm clock, as I have limited mobile phone trust, coat hangers, cutlery, plates and a bowl, two chemistry-beaker shaped vases and from the Food Shop a packet of Snowballs, two sachets of gravy mix and some Ballerina biscuits ♥.

From IKEA I took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked to the bookstore mile on Charing Cross Road. I then set about using up some of my many, many book vouchers in the nearest Foyles and pacifying the fear that Waterstones, etc. will shut down or begin rejecting tokens. I bought four books in total; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (course book), Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (course book) and Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes. That coming to twenty-six pound something I now have, oh, I don't know, only fifty pounds worth left?

I concluded my day with a trip to Cineworld, - IKEA goodies in tow and looking like a bag lady - where I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire. I had heard so many good things about it that I was prepared for disappointment, but it was actually worth every nice word. It had its dark moments, but all in all it was a lovely tale, with a true Bollywood happy ending. Oh, and never leave your shoes unattended at the Taj Mahal!