Two go on a Shopping Spree

Last Friday I went on a ‘big shopping adventure’, with Charlotte, (my eldest’s lovely girlfriend).

It all started with an e-mail from Neptune Home saying that they were having a massive warehouse clearance sale at their HQ in Swindon. Now I love all things Neptune – my kitchen is from there, so is my dresser, and I love them – and it happened to be that it was absolutely essential I find ‘just the right’ console table for my upstairs landing. Perhaps Neptune’s sale would be the place to root it out!

A plan was hatched, a van was found and Charlotte and I decided that we should get there about 1/2 an hour before the doors were due to open at 11am. (Oh, by the way, Charlotte’s absolutely essential piece of furniture to find was the perfect wine rack cabinet.)

We plugged in the details on the SatNav and off we went – Swindon was further than either of us had imagined it, but we still had plenty of time.

We had a lovely, chilled, trouble free journey through the countryside – winding our way through England’s pleasant land. Actually, why weren’t we on any A roads, and did these lanes even qualify as B roads – these were questions we posed to ourselves as we sailed past Stonehenge and through fields full of Druid stones and long barrows?

Eventually we found ourselves some ‘proper’ roads and the SatNav alerted us to the fact that we were about 2 minutes away.

20 minutes later we were still queuing with the myriad other keen bargain hunters in their over-sized mummy-mobiles – not many fellow white van drivers around, except for those genuine ones whose attempts to go about their business on the somewhat unusually overcrowded trading estate were being thwarted!

Actually, being in a white van was suddenly an advantage – we were waved through and were able to get into the Neptune car park (the attendant told us we could turn round), when eagle eyed we spotted a (sort of) space – hurrah, the attendant said we could park there and it wasn’t even 11 yet! (It was 10.59!)

Parked, we hot trotted it to the marquee, that had thoughtfully been put up to protect those queuing for entry from the bitterly cold, but bright and clear day. Ah, what was that ahead – oh yes that was the snaking, double width queue in the car-park, to get to the pre-ordained, official queuing area in the marquee in the car-park – deep joy! (at least we weren’t still in the queue in the road, to get into the car park to get to the queue, etc, etc – I think you can picture it!)

Nobody it seemed had realised Neptune was popular!

However, a short 2 and a half hours later, we hobbled, (by now it felt as if our cold toes might actually snap off), up the steps into the wonders of the Neptune Warehouse…………….under-whelmed doesn’t quite cover it, but none-the-less as seasoned and professional shoppers we soldiered on, ever hopeful.

A quick 5 minute circuit confirmed there would be no furniture purchases today, (we really didn’t mind the journey in the van), but then we entered a side area named ‘accessories’!
At an initial glance this area could be written off as too busy, too messy, too noisy, too small and with way too many plain cardboard boxes, not to mention people to possibly be of interest, but we’d come all this way and queued for so long and our toes were starting to defrost!

An hour or so later we had bagged ourselves candles, glasses, serving spoons, dog baskets, a vase, a lamp, lampshades, and faux peonies, hyacinths, hydrangeas, arty sticks and berry bunches. Hows that for bargain hunting?

Happy with our haul, but, lets face it, disappointed about the lack of a console table and wine rack, we headed for home. This was fine with me, because by now I was suffering from post traumatic shopping syndrome; symptoms include exhaustion, dehydration, aching limbs, regret, elation and a much smaller bank balance.

However, (the much younger and more energetic), Charlotte had other ideas!

Before I knew it, and mainly because the SatNav had suddenly decided to acknowledge the A34, we were pulling up outside Homesense at Hedge End – how on earth did that happen? (Note to self – get SatNav checked!)

Lets just say it was light when we went in.

When we came out we had to face the fact that the van we were in might not actually be big enough!

We were a tad more successful in the furniture department at Homesense than we had been earlier in the day. Charlotte got a pink velvet sofa, (as you do), and 4, (yes 4), upholstered bar stools, pink mirrors x 2, a pink painting, (she likes pink), plus a bits and bobs – to be fair she is setting up her first home with Josh; to be unfair she has got a sofa and some bar stools, but they were lovely and such good buys!

And I got – wait for it – a console table! Not exactly what I was after but close enough. I also got a little side table to go next to my wing back leather chair – handy for cups of tea, reading book that sort of thing, and I got – I think a list would be easier: Towels (for Hannah’s room), Notebooks (for notes), Storage Boxes/Files (they were navy, the colour of our study), Ornaments (for filling the blank spaces in what was Josh and Charlotte’s room), a Rug (for our bedroom), Watercolour brushes (for painting with) and Watercolour paper (for painting on). Success!

Now that’s what I call a successful day out

UPDATE:

Five days later, while my daughter Hannah was home from Copenhagen for a few days, we popped to T K Maxx for Hannah to pick up something or other, when I spotted the perfect console table. Needless to say the next day I swapped – it just goes to show you can’t force these things!

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