IKEA - the only good thing.....

..... is the meatballs.

Why on earth I suggested(!?) then agreed to go in half term week beats me.

Meatballs for lunch in the restaurant\canteen and then buying a bag of mini Dime bars and some Cloudberry conserve in the shop were the highlights of the day.

I don't like any of the furniture or furnishings, the cookware is average, the tableware is below par, the lighting is at best quirky and the customer service is pretty poor - apart from the woman on the food checkout who was a. Swedish & b. very helpful.

Cleaner car....

... I have been wanting to get my car valeted properly for a while. I keep it fairly clean, but of late have thrown it through the car wash occasionally just to keep it tidy, I know the damage they can do to paintwork, but I thought a decent car wash would do less damage.

I had noticed that some of the paint had gone slightly flat in places, so I tried waxing the bonnet, even with Autoglym Super Resin polish & Autoglym Paint Restorer nothing worked.

Years ago I saw some work a chap had done to a friends Range Rover - it was stunning, it came back as new. He was based in Weyhill, so when I tried looking him up he had moved... twice. I persisted and eventually found him and got him to do my car last Friday & Saturday - yes it takes him 2 days. He is not cheap, but he works wonders - he has brought up the flat paint shining like new, the interior is just as when it came off the production line and the leather is soft & supple.

I cannot recommend him highly enough - Mike McPhee - Auto Valeting Services - Unit 135, The Commercial Centre, Picket Piece, Andover, SP11 6RU. Tel. 01264 335000‎. Mike is a busy man, so it might take you a while to get a booking date, but if you want your car looking super smart, it is well worth the wait.