A spitfire, IKEA and integration

[bluehillside Retd.]

So I was out on a bike ride yesterday when I heard the growl of a Merlin engine, looked up and saw a spitfire that rather wonderfully performed a barrel roll as it went over.

And today I'm sitting in the cafe at IKEA waiting for my wife and daughters to finish shopping and I'm watching Orthodox Jews, Muslims both in headscarves and in full coverall garb including, curiously, two Muslim women next to me drinking red wine, and any manner of other ethnicities too and I'm thinking: is there a connection between the causes those pilots fought for, the welcoming and diverse nature of our society now and how much better it is for people to occupy the same space rather than be segregated.

Just musing, and now the woman I love has just called to say they're queuing to pay so I have to go.

Hey-ho

[L.A.]

But you have yet to endure the trauma of assembling your flat-pack furniture.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Lapsed,

Ah but! I understand where old Blue's musing is coming from, what those Spitfire pilots were fighting for, not only were our brave men of the RAF fighting for our way of life, women in our factories were also showing that they could do jobs as well as men, so old Blue, when he hears the cry " you are not doing it properly" and he will, can turn around and say "do it your bloody self then" Blue can walk away in the knowledge that he is supporting the female of the species and their strive for equal rights.

Gonnagle.

[floo]

But you have yet to endure the trauma of assembling your flat-pack furniture.

Funnily enough my husband, who now has only half a functioning brain, is brilliant at putting flat-pack furniture together. I wouldn't have a clue!

[Hope]

Funnily enough my husband, who now has only half a functioning brain, is brilliant at putting flat-pack furniture together. I wouldn't have a clue!

Ah, but which side is the functioning side, Floo?

[floo]

Ah, but which side is the functioning side, Floo?

The right side of the brain is the functioning area, the brain haemorrhage was on the left, yet the right-side of his body was paralysed for a while.

[Harrowby Hall]

Funnily enough my husband, who now has only half a functioning brain, is brilliant at putting flat-pack furniture together. I wouldn't have a clue!

I presume that the damage is to his left hemisphere. When you say "half a functioning brain" do you really mean that or do you mean that many left hemisphere activities (mainly connected with language - particularly spoken language) have been seriously disrupted? Can he read?

I've never found assembling flat-pack furniture to be a particularly challenging task. Perhaps I should advertise my services to IKEA phobes.

[john]

Dear Lapsed,

Ah but! I understand where old Blue's musing is coming from, what those Spitfire pilots were fighting for, not only were our brave men of the RAF fighting for our way of life, women in our factories were also showing that they could do jobs as well as men, so old Blue, when he hears the cry " you are not doing it properly" and he will, can turn around and say "do it your bloody self then" Blue can walk away in the knowledge that he is supporting the female of the species and their strive for equal rights.

Gonnagle.

Very Good Gonners.

Incidentally in my local newsagents is an add for a bloke who specialises in putting together flat pack furniture..... One mans difficulty is another's opportunity Eh.

[floo]

I presume that the damage is to his left hemisphere. When you say "half a functioning brain" do you really mean that or do you mean that many left hemisphere activities (mainly connected with language - particularly spoken language) have been seriously disrupted? Can he read?

I've never found assembling flat-pack furniture to be a particularly challenging task. Perhaps I should advertise my services to IKEA phobes.

My husband's reading is coming on after nearly ten years although it is still slow. He was highly articulate before his illness but is aphasic now, and the words don't always come out right. He gets extremely frustrated as he had a MENSA level intelligence, and academia was his greatest love, but he cannot now do anything of an academic nature. 

Brain damage is weird, he can do complicated graphs on his computer, but couldn't compose or send an e-mail, for instance.

He finds it extremely hard to accept his limitations, and the fact his much less intelligent wife occasionally knows best!

[Harrowby Hall]

Thank you,Floo. It must be painful for you to share these details.

It's about 40 years since I studied neurophysiology (part of my psychology degree) but it does still greatly interest me. Please forgive me if I am being too intrusive.

[floo]

Thank you,Floo. It must be painful for you to share these details.

It's about 40 years since I studied neurophysiology (part of my psychology degree) but it does still greatly interest me. Please forgive me if I am being too intrusive.

HH you are not being intrusive, you are welcome to ask questions, probably by pm would be best as I have no wish to bore others.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Sorry for the meandering OP - the thick end of two hours in IKEA will tend to addle the brain of anyone I think.

I guess the point that struck me though was that these communities (presumably) to a large extent live separately, they ghettoise. Yet there in a temple of commerce they were completely intermingled. I'm not so Panglossian as to think they'd all start up conversations with each other the better to break down the age-old barriers of mistrust and misunderstanding while picking over the tea lights and Billy bookcases, but nonetheless the effect can't help but be a little bit normalising at least can it?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Blue,

You should muse more often, we all put our trousers on the same way, one leg at a time, we all worship at the temple of Ikea, which reminds me again of Samson's Riddle, out of the rot something sweet comes.

Not saying Ikea is rot, or am I And why was Blue ensconced in the cafe and not perusing the goods on display with your lovely wife and family

Gonnagle.

[floo]

I wouldn't darken the doors of IKEA, their goods are tat, imo.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

And today I'm sitting in the cafe at IKEA waiting for my wife and daughters to finish shopping

Good....I always thought you should get out more.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Hi Gonners,

You should muse more often, we all put our trousers on the same way, one leg at a time, we all worship at the temple of Ikea, which reminds me again of Samson's Riddle, out of the rot something sweet comes.

Not saying Ikea is rot, or am I And why was Blue ensconced in the cafe and not perusing the goods on display with your lovely wife and family

Mostly because Blue hates being treated like a rat in a lab maze - being forced to wander through departments I have no interest in just to find the exit only then to be met with a 25 mins queue for the privilege of paying has pretty much ruined my previous high regard for the Swedes and their terrific social care society, beautiful country and even beautifuller women.   

Anyways...as I was saying - the god of Mammon it seems is the big daddy on account of his ability to bring together all those folks whose various separate god beliefs would otherwise keep them apart. And that normalising, that reducing of the sense of "other" has to be a good thing right?

IKEA as a candidate for the Nobel peace prize maybe - who'd have thunk it?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

the god of Mammon it seems is the big daddy on account of his ability to bring together all those folks whose various separate god beliefs would otherwise keep them apart.

What a crock since it's material wealth and wanting land and stuff that is the major cause of our problems.

Have you spoken to anybody who is under the wrath of Mammon (skint and haunting a food bank) lately?.......what planet are you on?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

 

Anyways...as I was saying - the god of Mammon it seems is the big daddy on account of his ability to bring together all those folks whose various separate god beliefs would otherwise keep them apart. And that normalising, that reducing of the sense of "other" has to be a good thing right?

IKEA as a candidate for the Nobel peace prize maybe - who'd have thunk it?

I suppose it was for the want of a branch of Habitat that Hitler annexed the Sudeten Land.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Vlad,

The man was musing, have you ever mused, it would do your little soul the power to have a muse every now and then, you have proved that you can be a-musing but that is a different type of muse, try it, give us a post where you muse.

Gonnagle.

[Aruntraveller]

Dear Vlad,

The man was musing, have you ever mused, it would do your little soul the power to have a muse every now and then, you have proved that you can be a-musing but that is a different type of muse, try it, give us a post where you muse.

Gonnagle.

Oh c'mon Gonners any chance to jump up and down and scweam and cweam and scweam materialist antitheist.

I mean I know he hasn't yet - but we were heading in that direction. So I thought I'd just  give the derailing train a bit of a nudge. 

[Shaker]

Hi Gonners,

Mostly because Blue hates being treated like a rat in a lab maze - being forced to wander through departments I have no interest in just to find the exit only then to be met with a 25 mins queue for the privilege of paying has pretty much ruined my previous high regard for the Swedes and their terrific social care society, beautiful country and even beautifuller women.   

The last time I was in an Ikea (Nottingham) I was doped up to the eyeballs (medically-indicated, I hasten to add, not recreationally) and found it a thoroughly delightful experience throughout.

Highly recommended, pun unintentional.

[Rhiannon]

IKEA is horrific. The best bit is in the basement at the end by which time I've lost the will to live.

Giant blue IKEA bags (which for some unfathomable reason are available on Amazon) are brilliant for moving stuff though.

I've always found nicely medicated trips to Costa quite pleasant.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Philistines,

Come on!! Old Blue ( in his own wonderful way ) is asking some deep questions and all you guys can do is rattle on about how rubbish Ikea is ( although one of the main questions I ask when visiting Ikea is, which way to the exit ).

The men and women who fought for this little island, would we even have an Ikea if the Hitler's of history had got their wicked way, Ikea, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Asda, where we see all colours, all races, all faiths ( maybe not, probably a branch of Christianity which frowns on using these establishments ) mingling.

Places like these do ( as old Blue states ) normalise us, we become a thing, a shopper, a consumer, makes you think, well it makes me think

Gonnagle.

[BeRational]

The last time I was in an Ikea (Nottingham) I was doped up to the eyeballs (medically-indicated, I hasten to add, not recreationally) and found it a thoroughly delightful experience throughout.

Highly recommended, pun unintentional.

I also visit that IKEA (Kimberley NOT Nottingham though), and quite like it now and again.

[Aruntraveller]

I also visit that IKEA (Kimberley NOT Nottingham though), and quite like it now and again.

Well how about that - I am also semi-regular at Kimberley. My partner has taken a liking to the breakfasts there, although I think primarily it's the cost - not saying he's careful with money or anything but he likes the fact that with the family card we can get 2 breakfasts and 2 coffees for £3. And he's even more excitable now because they sell fish and chips for £1 on Fridays.

I'll be spending all day there soon