The morning started with a phone call: my grandmother is not well again.
We left for our Ikea appointment to order our kitchen. It was not a good journey: the day had turned cold and grey, with a bit of rain. It was also the first weekend day after the lifting of lockdown and the roads were jammed and no taxis were to be found. We were running a little late so after trying to hail a few taxis we decided to take the metro and then the Marmaray. Then realised that the Marmaray didn’t actually go there, we would have to change at Uskudar. We thought maybe we should get a cab at Uskudar but outside the rain was pelting down and no taxis to be found and the roads, presumably, completely clogged. So we took the metro after all, and arrived in a fairly desolate bit, a wide many-laned road with a few restaurants and a Vitra store directly opposite. We could very well have had as succesful a visit there than our last one in Nisantasi, as we had to wait about 10 minutes for a taxi to arrive, but eventually it did. There was traffic jam outside Ikea so we walked the rest of the way in the rain (lighter now at least) to enter a packed warehouse. At this point we were an hour late for our appointment and the person we were supposed to meet called me. We sped to the kitchen section.
The design process was fairly hasty which I rather leaned into as I wanted to get the hell out, but this was not entirely wise, perhaps. Well, there were not a lot of options given the size and shape of the kitchen. Anyway, we have a kitchen planned, though we have not placed the order since we are very far indeed for the 2 working days they take for delivery. So another trip will be required, though we will arrange it more carefully, going on a weekday when it is all likely to be more quiet.
After the kitchen was done we stopped for a bit to sit on the sofa we are considering. It was all rather miserable and the sofas etc looked even more pitiful than I remembered seeing them in the many, many AirBnbs we’ve stayed in. We decided to do one final dash through the kitchen section and see if there were any decisions we might want to review before the final order, and this turned out to be a good thing as there were indeed a couple of second thoughts and a few others where we confirmed what we had chosen. We also looked at appliances – they use a good brand here as their house appliances – and make a list of the ones we were interested in for cost comparisons later.
Then a dash through that neverending labyrinth, in which the final warehouse comes as a relief, pausing only to pick up a baking pan and a mixing bowl and then pay for them. Outside the rain had mostly stopped but there was a long queue at the taxi rank so we slipped ahead by calling an Uber, much to the (perhaps justified) annoyance of the taxi rank guy. The journey back was quick, thank heavens, and I spent it listening to the film review which was the right thing to do.
Glad that is done.