I totally forgot to mention our trip to Ikea in the round up of my weekend away. You would be surprised to hear I forgot had you been with me as I walked around the massive store near the Metro Centre in Gatehead. I started to squee the moment we walked in the front door and saw the itty bitty pencils which were just-oh-so-cute and continued to squee during the whole mind blowing experience!

The past couple of times I have visited Jacqui's I have stared longingly out the car window at the store as we passed by. This time I happened to mention that perhaps I might like to see the shop. And POOOOF, no sooner said than done, we were in the car park looking for the entrance.

OK so, I KNOW Ikea is great. I KNOW we are missing out by not having one here yet. I KNOW people think it is so wonderful they travel far and wide just to be able to pack their boots and trailers with their purchases - but DUDE! No one told me how truly GREAT it is. It has to be experienced in real life for that to sink in!

The store in Gateshead is truly massive. It started off large but has since swallowed up two other shop units beside the original one. It took ages to walk round it all and all we really did was trot, glancing (and stroking) as we passed items we fancied.

There were definitely several book cases I would like. And items for the shop. Display cabinets and similar. And more book shelves. And And And - too many to mention!

So, on to the good news. For those of you who haven't been keeping up to date with the progress of the new store in Belfast.

IT'S NEARLY READY!!

Thursday 13th December. Guess where I will be spending my Christmas money this year!

Can you wait?

Tags: Shopping, Ikea