A little while I was debating over bedding.  I debated so long (procrastination is my middle name) that a whole new bedding range was launched at Zara in the meantime.

I love Zara Home - not everything, but invariably there is always some little item which sneaks home from the shop with me.  Its just as well that I don't have the nerves of steel required to brave the rest of Zara too often really.  In Amsterdam Zara Home is situated on the very top floor of the Zara store on Kalverstraat.  Which means negotiating 3 floors of insane chaos before reaching the calm and sanity of Home - which is often almost empty - ah bliss.

With only one day to go until we get the keys  - woah - and 2 days until the bed arrives new bedding was requested by the lovely husband.  Asked to shop?  Moi?  Why of course darling, whatever you want...  Hah!

Off to Zara I hopped - head down for three floors, power on through and try not to trample any small, beautifully dressed children (Zara Kids - oof - almost worth having children for) on my way.

Some time later, so much time infact that they were keeping a small stockpile of acquisitions for me behind the counter along with my previous purchases that day so that I could grab more stuff, I struggled home with a bedding set, cushion for the sofa in velvet so soft that I kept pressing my face against it and various soap dispensers, toothbrush holders, towels etc from the Sale.

Regretably, the bedding I wanted and got was new season and therefore not in the sale but there was still quite a selection of sale bedding spread out over several tables.  Nearlly all the cutlery, plates, glasses and table linens were on sale, fortunately I am already well stocked on those or it could have been carnage.

So, new bedding:

The duvet cover and pillows are reversible with purple stripes on one side and grey stripes on the other.  I prefer fitted to flat sheets and the purple fitted sheets weren't the right colour so rather than buy standard white sheets I picked up a sheet and pillow covers in the same green as the quilt above.  Incidentally, thoughts on the quilt?  I am tempted, but it seems a little superfluous if we already have a duvet on.  But its so pretty...

While I'm asking questions.  I still have to get another duvet set (one on the bed, one in the wash etc.).  I was going to get one from HEMA, a white on white polka dot that we already have in a guest set but is so ridiculously soft and lovely that I have been stealing it for our bed.  There is also a great hotel quality set with a piped grey trim.

However, Zara also do the stripe bedding in a reversible green and petrol blue, gorgeous.  Should I go for that instead or is it a bit same-y?

Thoughts?

UK boutique and purveyor of beautiful goods, Oliver Bonas, has quietly started shipping internationally so those of us who don't want/can't be bothered to lug gorgeous things back from London can benefit as well.

Which is how this little lamp will be gracing No. 75 in a few days time.

 

 

image from Oliver Bonas

They are also on sale at the moment.

Yes, I am talking to you. You, delivery companies in Amsterdam. You, who take my money, whisper promises of delivery and, well, quite frankly... fail to deliver in all senses.

We've already discussed one of you here, and now I have another one to add to the list. Oh, yes, you better believe there's a list, and chair delivery company, you are going right on it.

You see, I am a trusting type. So when you take my money and tell me you have two chairs in stock and will deliver one of them to me on Friday I believe you.

When you don't deliver on Friday (after I have spent the whole day waiting at home), you can understand why I might be a little miffed at having to chase you down through multiple phone calls.

I appreciate your view that the store shouldn't have promised delivery without checking with the delivery company but really, shouldn't someone have let me, the customer, know? Luckily for you I am a generous, patient, and I believe I already mentioned, trusting, soul so when you tell me you will call me on Monday to arrange delivery for Wednesday, I believe you.

When Monday comes and goes I start to lose faith a little, but joy of joys, you call me on Tuesday to arrange delivery between 10am and 12pm on Friday.

Ok, its not what we agreed the previous week, or indeed when I handed over my hard earned money to you, but the end is nigh. I can forgive you.

Right up until yesterday when you call me again to apologise, somewhat profusely, that you cannot deliver my chair as it is on a container ship about 3 weeks away from the Netherlands - probably. You can deliver me a spare chair in the meantime and swap it when mine gets here but... you can't quite guarantee when that will be. About 3 weeks... probably.

By this point I am losing the will to live. No really, how hard can it be? You had two in stock when I paid you in full for the chair. You promised to deliver in a week. Two weeks down the line I have no chair, no idea what happened to the ones you had in stock and my future potential chair is currently bobbing towards the Netherlands on a container ship.

You are on my list.

Warning: Coffee table company - I am planning to order from you in the next 48 hours. Your delivery service better be flawless. There's this list, you see, and believe me, you do not want to go on it...

With just 37 days until I get my hands on those keys things have stepped up a notch in the preparations. You may remember that we had already survived round one of the sofa delivery debacle, which gave us a grand total of 3 pieces of furniture (we already own a guest bed). We needed, and indeed still need, more. So at the weekend we ramped up the purchasing. Our tally so far:

 

• One sofa and armchair - already ordered for delivery the week after we get the keys... hopefully.
• One bed, boxspring - ordered to be delivered the day after we get the keys.
• One quilt, we already have pillows
• One DVD player - which may or may not be on its way to the UK depending on whether the Company sent it to my delivery address or my billing address. Their confirmation e-mail was unclear on this point and they have been incredibly silent since I asked for confirmation and provided them with a copy of the order. Am I to be cursed by deliveries?
• One desk chair with a E50 discount as it is the end of the line (hurrah, I would have bought it full price anyway).
• One set of Bemz covers for the, as yet, unbought dining chairs.

Which, I am sure you will agree, is progress. We have also:

 

 

• decided on a coffee table. An "opium table" rather like this one, but in natural wood, unless I change my mind and go for the dark stained wood, or the natural...

We have also chosen a television. And when did televisions get so expensive? I mean, really? We are not a tv watching household, more of a dvd boxset sort of a watching household. It galls me to spend this much money on something we don't use that much, but I have aesthetic issues. I simply cannot have a large lump of black plastic and glass as the focus of the room, so the television had to be as unobtrusive as possible while still being of a decent size to watch (which for the lovely husband seemed to mean 32 inch). The most unobtrusive I could find was a Samsung with a white surround, rather than black, however, it was way over my tentative budget. I just couldn't go there. Rather than bitch and whine about it (as I usually would), I took matters into my own hands and hit the internet. Having discovered it relatively cheaply in the UK and Germany I quickly worked out that no company would ship it due to size. Which meant hunting around the internet in Dutch.

 

I don't know what your experiences of buying online from Dutch companies have been like but my limited experience has left me frustrated and vowing never to do it ever again. It may be just my impression but online shopping has not really advanced here the way it has in the UK. The process is slow and complicated. One order required a bank transfer as a payment system rather than the more simple, plug in your credit card and away we go. Still, the lure of a cheaper product was too much for me and I hit the internet with a vengance. I started off with www.kelkoo.nl, a pricing website, to familiarise myself with the stores which stocked the tv I wanted. That worked well and I found it much cheaper at www.bestekeus.nl. It was still quite a lot though, so I pondered on it for 24 hours and tried again. This time I went to a dutch pricing site, www.beslist.nl who had a greater range of shops. The cheapest option on there was www.plasmadiscounter.nl. Joy of joys, they accept cards, no bank transfer hassle and they also promise to match the cheapest price you can find the product at. Hurrah. I am a happy bunny (well, as happy as a bunny still spending too much on a television can be). I'll let you know how the delivery goes. Maybe third time's the charm.