Week 291: FrIKEA

A week of in-person boardgames, shooting the shit, union tables, Friday IKEA trips, plant balls, doubling up possessions, picnics in the park, and weeks in Derbyshire.

Posted on 25 May 2026 by Rowan Manning .
Tagged with Social, Work, House, Health, Food, Walking, Kittens

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I started this week well by meeting up for in-person boardgames as Scott was down in London, just nice to catch up really; chatting online is never quite as good for shooting the shit.
Worked the Unite/NUJ table in the canteen, had quite a few unexpected people come and say hi. Had a chat with someone later in the day who has since signed up. Small drinks on Thursday after a busy week of further weirdness.
On Friday evening we drove to IKEA with Alison to buy some essentials for the new house. The most chilled IKEA trip of my life, honestly, it’s the place to be. Barely saw anyone but then weirdly bumped into a colleague. Oh I’m trying to be more vegetarian again. Well, pescetarian because you can try to pry tinned mackerel out of my cold dead hands. I say this because IKEA plant balls spark joy, it turns out.
Spent a lot. It’s expensive to own two of everything you need across two houses.
On Saturday we went for a walk and a little picnic in Victoria Park with Luke and Alison. I drank a cider and then felt quite weird and coughed a lot and got phlegmy. Been searching things like “can you be allergic to cider but not apples?”
On Sunday we drove to Matlock to spend our first week in the new house! It’s not going to be super relaxing, we’re working for some of it and we have a mix of cleaners, movers, and other service people coming in. We did pop to the local pub and enjoy the sun today (Monday) and it was delightful. We brought the lads, they’re having a nice time running up and down the stairs.