Have His Carcase

For what feels like ages, in the weeks before we moved, I had the minimum number of garments to wear - rotating three tee shirts, a few bits of underwear, two pairs of trousers- and one smart dress to wear for recording Church Services! Then we got here, and I put some stuff on a clothes rail - and revelled in wearing different some tee shirts and a couple of prettier tops with leggings. 

But mostly clothes were spilling out of bags and generally the corner of the bedroom looked like the backroom at an Oxfam shop!

Its two years since we went to IKEA and selected the wardrobe we'd really like for this room. But we knew we needed to save up for it first. we said to the guy that we'd return in 2020 and finalise this order, and then spend the summer building it so it was ready for our retirement. But then the pandemic arrived.

In June I went into the store and asked about delivery, and the said "Come back in August" In August they told us that by October we could have the fittings [rails, shelves, drawers etc] but no carcases. [btw Have his Carcase is a great detective story by Dorothy L Sayers] That wasn't much help. Finally the week after we moved, we went into the Norwich store again. Muneeb, who said he had only been working in the store a couple of months, was determined to sort this out for us. He looked at our original specifications, and managed to get it all sorted, to arrive on May 11th. We were very impressed.[and grateful to UCF - their Farewell Gift helped with the costs]

The boxes arrived at 8am. Lots of boxes. Now there was one drawback- which we had known about for four years. The height of the wardrobe is 10millimetres higher than the bedroom ceiling [our previous next door neighbours had discovered this fact - and they had to make modifications] 

Bob is not a man to be put off by such issues though - and with his new Power Tools [also purchased with Farewell Gift] he set about trimming off those unwanted millimetres. We took ages over the building first section together- anxious to understand the instructions properly, anxious not trim too much, anxious to position in exactly the right place. The flatpack instructions had pictures of a cheerful couple assembling the furniture, and pointy fingers showing what not to do!

Two small parts had been damaged in transit- I rang customer services and these are being replaced ['I will send you a gift voucher as well, Mrs Almond, as an apology for your trouble' - said the nice guy. I had been on hold for 5 minutes, most amused that IKEA's 'on hold' music is Abba, singing "Mamma Mia!"]

By tea-time, Part 1 was almost complete - drawers at the bottom, and high hanging rail at the top, for Bob's shirts etc. Being very determined, Bob went back to work after his meal to get the doors on. We will work on the rest of the build today.

Did you know that 600 years ago, the King had a Royal Wardrobe?  It was actually a storehouse for all sorts of accoutrements - clothing, arms and armour, and other personal goods. And it wasn't a wooden box, but a large building. In 1351 it was located in Blackfriars, not far from the Tower. The parish church next door became known as St Andrews-by-the Wardrobe. Many famous people worshipped there over the years [included William Shakespeare, who lodged nearby]

During the time of the Commonwealth [and no King] many orphans were housed there. But Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that during the Restoration, the new Keeper of the Wardrobe evicted these poor children. In the Great Fire of London, the Wardrobe, and St Andrews burned down. Christoper Wren designed a new church, and that was damaged in the Blitz, but restored and rededicated in 1961

St Andrews-by-the-Wardrobe / St Robert-by-the-Wardrobe