14 Months to go! - Bargains and must haves

Its 14 months to go, and we've had a bit of an emergency this month. I'll get to that later. For now though, we've been packing. Yes that's right, we've just packed the first box of many, 14 months in advance. Ok, it's not as bad as it sounds. Because we've moving from a shared home, we're short on a few things. Items like towels, kichen bits and bobs and various other things are going to be needed after we move. With that in mind, the post Christmas sales have been plundered for a few great bargains. A set of nice towels we the most recent purchase and, with a. Small pile forming on our coffee table, we figured we'd need a box to keep things in. So off to ikea for a cheap plastic tub and lid we went. 

The trip did more harm than good. Whist the box of brand new homewares is sitting just waiting for a home, we found that Ikea was discontinuing a few items of furniture. Now when we decided to move, for fun we went to ikea, both here and in Vienna and Innsbruck, to do a bit of fantasy shopping. We picked out several things, including the very nice, and very comfortable Ektorp sofa, for example. We did struggle with a good tv unit. However, the Ikea Expedit range introduced a great looking unit that fitted in with two other items from the Expedit range. Now for those who aren't familiar with it, the Expedit range has been an ikea staple for many years. However, whist we were shopping, we caught sight of the tv unit, complete with yellow 'Now or Never' ticket. Panic stations. 

Reaching home confirmed the worst. The Expedit range was being discontinued. The online outrage was tempered a little by the news that the range would return restyled with slimmer sides and slightly rounded corners. That's all we knew though, and with the spectre of losing our tv unit (from what we knew of the new range, the tv unit may not be remade.) we took the plunge and ordered the unit, a 5 by 5 box shelf unit and a seperate smaller unit a whole 14 months early. It does present a few problems. For one, the seven boxes have to go somewhere, and we won't know until we go to build the units next year if they're all intact. Still, it makes life interesting. The new stuff isn't due until next month (the tv unit is popular and has been delayed apparently). 

Until then, we're still battling on with Rosetta Stone, slowly closing in on the end of the first level. Plus, come the first week of May, we're off to Vienna for work and a short break. 

Jess B