I’ve gone mad for rugs. I don’t know why but since this lockdown business I have been online buying rugs. You could say I have been ‘rugging it’. I am ‘rugging’ every room in the home. So, I’ve just taken delivery of four rugs from Ikea. Three for the kitchen table chairs (which go amazingly well with the floor’s light brown palette), although I’m not sure if they look right under the table. They look a bit patchworky. Badly. I WhatsApp’d a photo of them to one of my friends (at her behest) asking what she thinks. “It looks okay,” was her response. Clearly unable to contain herself. Then another rug arrived for one of the bedrooms. I don’t like it. Too small and it looks a funny colour. A funny kind of cream. Not what I anticipated. So that’s going back. But there is another new rug in that bedroom! Oddly, when I ordered this supposedly cream Ikea bedroom rug, I had forgotten I had ordered another rug from another company. Yikes! That came but it took a bit of getting used to. I thought I had ordered the wine colour but when I opened the box, what my eyes beheld was a motley coloured creation the company called ‘rose’. Still, it’s growing on me!
I and a group of friends meet up monthly for our Disqus about life. Things. Anything. This month the title was to be ‘Living with Less’, making some dubious reference to the coronavirus lockdown and scarcity. And yours truly, moi, was supposed to be leading on that! What a caper! Living with less? I have been living with more! Since the lockdown I have bought a new freezer, a new juicer. I hadn’t juiced a fruit in many a year. What else? Let me see. The rugs, of course. Then there’s the Himalayan salt lamp. At 5-7 kg, a brute of a thing. The delivery lady plonked it at my door with “God, it’s heavy.” Then there are the two pairs of leggings. One grey and one black. Same size but different lengths and textures and definitely a different fit. Although all the specifications were the same. Funny, that! The same brand too. Same company yet the outcome so different. Ink cartridges for my printer. New TV/DVD. Thirty-two inch. Shoes. And now I am awaiting the delivery of a super-duper mascara. (I won’t mention the dress as I am not supposed to be buying any clothes this year.) External CD player. Charcoal capsules. I tell you, there’s no end to it. Paperbacks from Amazon. A couple of ebooks on Kindle. I have had more deliveries in the few months of lockdown than I have had in as many years. If this goes on any longer, I will be bankrupt. Actually, I don’t think the patchwork of rugs under the kitchen table is working. And I have already scissored the labels…
