A Trip to London

This is a blog post all about me being me - taking something really simple and making it into something really complicated. Buy something new for the house for every month of the challenge, easy enough to do but as we've been doing lots of work on the house I thought it would be a good one to help me get it exactly how I want it.

I started off simply enough. Last month I decided I needed a new dvd player so I nipped across the road to Tesco, picked one up and came home - easy! That was far too simple though, thought I'd go for a bit more of a challenge this month.

We are looking at getting a new kitchen in the next few weeks. I've been going on about how I want the kitchen more or less since I moved into this house and I know EXACTLY what I want. And top of he list is a range cooker. Not just any range cooker though, it had to be cream, had to have two ovens, had to have a seperate grill, a wok burner and a warming plate. Basically it had to be a Leisure Cookmaster! I fell in love with this cooker years ago and have designed my whole kitchen around it.

Range cookers don't come cheap though, so I decided to check out ebay. I was really excited when I saw they had the exact one I wanted complete with matching hood, less excited when I saw it was in London. Luckily the lovely Garry (who has practically rebuilt my house) offered to take me down in his van and told me to get bidding.

I'm not cut out for the whole ebay thing. I was a nervous wreck he whole time bidding was open. And when I was outbid with half an hour to go I was all for getting into a bidding war there and then. Dan seems to be the auction king though, he kept me calm and didn't let me bid again until there were just three minutes to go. It felt like a very long three minutes but we won :-)

So yesterday me, Dan and Garry were on the road for 7am, a time I didn't know existed on a Saturday to pick up what I think is a thing of beauty and Dan thinks is 'that bloody cooker'. Actually getting to London wasn't too bad, but once we got off the motorway it was a nightmare. Romford Road must hold the record for the highest number of traffic lights anywhere - and they were all on red. I was glad we had sat nav, don't think we'd ever have found it otherwise. But we got there in the end and it fitted through the door (we were worried it wouldn't) and into the back of the van.

I love London, all the sights and a bit of shopping on Oxford St. Didn't get any of that yesterday though. It was a very different kind of day trip to London. Real London I suppose - the nearest thing to a 'sight' was West Ham Utd's ground which backed onto the street we were looking for and Leytonstone High Street were the only shops I got near.

So a 12 hour round trip to pick up a cooker, was it worth it? I think so! Even adding in the cost of petrol I've saved over £500 and I got the exact cooker I wanted. Maybe next month I'll go for a photo frame from Next or something though.

Anyway here it is, my fab new cooker. I love it :-) Can't wait to see it in the new kitchen.