As you know, most if not all commercial activities comes to a halt on Sunday. It is against the Swiss employment law for anyone to work on Sunday and few shops that are open are normally located at MAIN train station.
So Saturday is a full on shopping day for Jem and I. We wake up, Jem will make breakfast...
- since I cook 6 days a week
- he wakes up earlier than me
... and off we go. And today - we went IKEA in AUBONNE and spend close to CHF 1,000 on furniture for our new place!
Mind you, these furniture are the cheapest of the lot and basically what we will need for our 2 year stay here... Jem wants to add some colour to our place (as much as possible anyway)
For the bedroom:
~ For the reader in me.. .and the facebook king in Jem... we got 1 in black and 1 in yellow!
~ We bought 2 of this and it will serve as a side table for books and comp and will also serve as coffee table when there are guests!
~ For any Ikea Fanatics out there will know that this is the CHEAPEST bed frame a person a buy from Ikea.. at CHF 99.95 - it doesn't get cheaper than this.. although our mattress (the 2nd cheapest - cost CHF 249!)
For the Dining area
~ We bought 4 of this + we have 2 folding chairs donated to us by Kelly (as she was leaving for Switzerland)
~ Jem and I have ALWAYS wanted to buy Bar Stools for bar table... so we got the cheapest one.. we thought it would be cute watching the other person cook.
For the Entrance
~ No apt is complete without a place to hang all our coats and scarf and beanies!
For the Hall / Guest Room
~ For all our visitors, this is where you will be sleeping! We even have quilt and pillow to go along with this... It is mighty comfy too!
~ Our apartment doesn't have any light fixtures - meaning if we want light, we need to fix it... and since Jem is not very electrical savvy (I think we need John Cheng to help on the lights), we bought this floor lamp so he won't be in total darkness.
For the little nook (just outside the bathroom)
~ This will be our utility shelves.. from toilet paper to cartons of coke to sacks of jasmine rice!
Of course we bought many other bits and bops like colander, shower curtain, toilet brush (very important), teeny weeny ironing board, water glass etc... was it worth the price? Oh yes! I think we would have spend a lot more if we had gone to any other furniture store!
The Ikea restaurant here is boring (very different from Singapore). Their menu is VERY VERY limited. We have been here twice and the main dish are:
- Sweedish Meatballs
- Pasta
- Fish & Chips (apparent "Filets de Perches" as it is known, is quite popular here)
- Poached Salmon with pan-fried vegetables cake
Gone are the local daily specials and chicken wings that we get in Ikea Singapore! And I don't get free coffee as an Ikea member too! *boooo*
Jem discover his favourite wine at the Ikea Food Store. For anyone who knows Jem, he does not drink - not more than 2 glass anyway. But for this particular wine, he has finished 4/5 of the bottle in a short span of 24 hours!!!! He loved it so much, that he is persuading me to go back to IKEA to get a few more bottles!
And what wine are we talking about?.....
This is the same wine we tried at the Christmas Market... after some googling.. it is known as mulled wine (in English), vin chaud (in French), Glühwein (in German) or Glögg (in Nordic countries)
According to Mr Wiki... mulled wine is wine (usually red) combined with spices and typically served warm. Historically, wine often went bad. By adding spices and honey, it could be made drinkable again. Nowadays, it is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas.
So Jem have been heating up this wine and drinking it all day long.. some of his reasons are:
- It is snowing - let's have the wine
- I can't solve this matlab equation - think I need the wine
- I am having sore throat - I need the wine so that the alcohol willkill the virus
- Cool Running is on TV - let's have the wine etc etc etc....
So we are going to IKEA again this TUESDAY...
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