Little Things that Bring a Smile to Your Face 5: Rainbow Edition

[dvdx2]

We bought a chair for our balcony from Ikea a couple of weeks ago but in true Ikea fashion, they had lots of stock of the chair but none of the cushions that make it comfortable to sit in. I e-mailed Ikea, who said that it was a seasonal item and that they wouldn't be receiving any more stock this year. Grrr!

In the meantime, I paid £5 extra for the same cushion from a seller on eBay, who claimed to have posted it to me last week and it had yet to arrive. They'd been really evasive about giving me a tracking number and I'd resigned myself to it never arriving. Double grrr!

But wait! I took my wife out for lunch today and on the way home, I suggested that we take a different route. As we neared our flat, I spotted a £20 note on some grass nearby. When I picked it up and checked to see if anyone near us had dropped it, there was nobody to be seen. As I was walking back to my wife, I found another £5 a few feet away. I'd never found this much money before.

When we got in, I sat down and checked my phone. A minute later, Ikea e-mailed me to say that they had the cushion in stock in our local branch. We decided to go there straight away, so we went to the bus stop, just in time to see the bus arriving ahead of us and it was going to pull away... until it sat there for two minutes and we just walked on. We went to Ikea and found the cushion, which was new and sealed, returned as an unwanted item by another customer earlier today. Coincidentally, it cost £25- so we appear to have gotten it for free. When we left Ikea, the bus arrived immediately and we just hopped on again. Just after we arrived home, it started raining.

Since then, I've asked the eBay seller for a refund and decided to play the lottery- just in case.

I found 2x£20, 1x£10 and a fiver within a space of 5 weeks - the fiver looked like it had been chewed by a hungry rat!

[Decider-VT]

Update: didn't win the lottery but got the eBay refund. Silver linings!

[Colin]

Wandering around Edinburgh festival yesterday and randomly asked what return tickets were available for shows at the box office, we got the very last tickets for Russell Howard for £5 each, nice bargain!

[prinnysquad]

Had a sesh at vanpeebles’ place last night. Hours of PES2018 and a load of hefty beers. Top night.

I was boliing through the night so had the tower fan beside my side of the bed. I woke myself up this morning with the hottest of beery farts. It felt like it had been baking for hours. The tower fan proceeded to blast the fallout over to the other side of the bed and engulf wor lass. She woke up choking and cursing me.

A double rouser.

What. A. Fart.

[Brad]

Wandering around Edinburgh festival yesterday and randomly asked what return tickets were available for shows at the box office, we got the very last tickets for Russell Howard for £5 each, nice bargain!

Only downside being it was for Russell Howard I guess ;-) Calm down, he's ok I suppose.

[Zaki]

Colin posting at 5-6am

[Zaki]

Had a sesh at vanpeebles’ place last night. Hours of PES2018 and a load of hefty beers. Top night.

I was boliing through the night so had the tower fan beside my side of the bed. I woke myself up this morning with the hottest of beery farts. It felt like it had been baking for hours. The tower fan proceeded to blast the fallout over to the other side of the bed and engulf wor lass. She woke up choking and cursing me.

A double rouser.

What. A. Fart.

Bet it was proper frothy! pArP!

[Zaki]

Only downside being it was for Russell Howard I guess ;-) Calm down, he's ok I suppose.

I like Russel Howard - he's got an immature, but harmless style. Certainly not like our favourite national treasure: James Corden...

[randombs]

I've been enjoying buying gaming stuff. Got a Hori Fighting Commander for PS4 and it's brilliant. Nice, large buttons, switchable trigger configs and it works on PS3 and PC as well.

In fact, I fired up the PS3 last night and had some jolly good sessions of SSF2THD and VF2.

I was worried I wouldn't be motivated to use the PS3 now I have a PS4 but there's plenty of stuff I own on it that may not come out (or would be silly to re-buy) on PS4 and it still has a fair bit of life left in it.

[Zen Monkey]

Blackberry picking. Picked a ton last week, cooked up several jars of blackberry jam, a tart and a crumble. The picking, the cooking, the eating... I love it all. It feels wholesome and satisfying.

[randombs]

What I wouldn’t do for a blackberry tart right about now...

I made bread on the weekend. 100% wholemeal bread. A tiny Japanese loaf of the stuff would cost around a fiver at least from a bakery. Supermarkets don’t sell them.

This loaf cost me about 2 quid in ingredients. And the first taste was heaven. I was transported back to the UK.

Mmmmmm

[Zen Monkey]

Homemade bread is delicious. The smell, the taste.. you can't beat it and, as you say, it's cheaper than mass produced loaves too.

[Zen Monkey]

My cousin visited last month with her husband whose job is growing high grade tea on Tregothnan private estate which they then sell to places like Fortnum and Mason and London's fanciest tea rooms. Really expensive stuff. He knew I'm a gardener into all things organic so brought me 3 kilos of various teas to sample: earl grey, darjeeling, engligh breakfast, jasmine to name a few. I drink a lot of tea. I've tried a lot of teas. And this stuff is up there with the best. Really aromatic and flavoursome. Good aftertaste, none of that cheap tea muddyness. What a lovely gift.

Dunno if there are any tea connoisseurs on here but if there then try Tregothnan tea. It'll put a smile on ya face.

[Zaki]

I like your story, but you left out the part where you tried to smoke it.

[kryss]

You realise you can't claim 3kg is for "personal use"?

smile: three more shifts left before I'm done at the hotel.