Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Bed, Oven & Beyond

In this large country, sometimes it's a very small world.

In Sebring we have a store called Bed, Bath & Beyond, part of a nationwide chain I think. The bizarre thing is that it doesn't actually SELL beds or baths....but it sells loads of beyonds. Beyonds are just about anything you'd ever want in your home and many items you'd never ever want in your home but you can't resist buying them anyway. Remember the Innovations catalogue ? It's a bit like that.

You'll get the idea from their web site and basically, if they haven't got it, you don't need it. If I was moving here full time, I'd just take my wad of crisp new dollars into a BB&B and tell the spotty sales assistant I was going to spend an obscene amount of money there.

Then I'd go somewhere else and get a 54" TV and all the fixings as they don't actually sell those.

Like a lot of stores now, they sell even more goodies online. I want a combi oven and have decided to get one from BB&B. This is one oven that cooks using microwaves, convection and grilling either individually or in any combination and I just love the one I have at home. To get a crispy fluffy baked potato in 8 minutes is worth the price on it's own.

The Sebring store doesn't have one in stock, so they'll order it for me and deliver it to the house for no extra charge. Great service.

A few feet away from the store is Mattress Giant where last Thursday I bought a bed. I've only ever bought one bed before in my life and it didn't turn out too well as I just donno how to buy a bed. In the Leeds store I sat on them, I lay on them and apart from ones costing more than my house, they all seemed the same. The sales people saw my confusion and baffled me with techno babble about innerspring coils, tempur-pedic memory foam and the number of layers of latex used to make the mattress comfy enough for someone with 1st degree burns to bounce about on without a whimper. Then I got it home and it was like lying on a concrete slab.

10 years later and I've still got it as I just know if I went to replace it, I'd end up with one the same.

I'm not 100% sure about the one I bought last Thursday either. Seemed fine in the store, even though the model name was Newcastle. It was from a range named for UK cities and if they'd had a Leeds, I'd have bought it on the spot. Faced with a choice of Newcastle, Nottingham or York, I went Geordie.

We picked it up this afternoon and I'll be trying it out for real tonight. Watch this space.

Finally, a few yards from both these stores is our favourite eating hole. Ok that doesn't sound right. How come watering hole sounds good but an eating hole sounds like somewhere best avoided ?

Well it's the Olive Garden and it's not so long ago that you'd have stood more chance of seeing me at an Oasis concert as in an Italian restaurant. But last winter I fell in love with Olive Garden and then last summer I went to Italy for the first time and fell more deeply in love. Yes there are now at least three items on the menu I can eat !!! There is hope for me yet.

So I've got the bed, ordered the oven and will be eating the meal in a about an hour. Three locations about 50 yds apart.

It's almost tempting to walk.

8 comments:

Daphne said...

I hope you've struck lucky with the bed this time and that it's really comfortable. I think Bed, Bath and Beyond should have a bed-softness-measuring-gadget.
(nb how clean is this comment? Did I introduce ANY smut? No I didn't.) I did answer my own question and include some brackets though, just so you know it's me.

Debby said...

Hmmmm telling people where you are and what you're doing....good idea? Thinking not so much anymore. Anonymous? Ideas on the subject?

Jennytc said...

Do they sell indestructible lavatory seats is what I want to know. I've just had to go and shell out for yet another one. (Keith keeps breaking them!)

Lisa said...

Won't they let you return the bed and get a different one if you decide it's not right? The last bed I bought had a one-month return policy.. It's a big purchase normally and that's how they get you to be comfortable with buying, usually.

How did it go?

jay said...

Ah yes, I have been in the Bed Bath and Beyond stores, I know not why.. must have been looking for something.

I have a similar problem buying mattresses, I try them all out, pick the most comfy, and three months later I'm waking up with backache. :(

I'm with you on Olive Garden, too! They have things I can eat in there.

Silverback said...

What's Keith DOING in there, Jenny ?? Probably best we don't know.

Lisa, I don't know of any place that would let you take a bed back after a month but I'm sure they exist and good for them. Most other items you buy for $2000 or so can be taken back if they're not what you want.

Olive Garden was awesome as usual last night but the jury is still out on the bed. Maybe if they got off it, I could get a decent sleep !

rhymeswithplague said...

I have heard that extra-firm mattresses are best for one's spine. I have discovered, though, that how far one sinks into the bed doesn't matter as long as one has a good pillow on which to lay one's head (no brackets required).

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Good job you didn't get a Liverpool bed because in the morning your clothes would all have disappeared. Regarding these holes you keep going on about. An eating hole is the mouth - yes? A watering hole is an aperture for urination - I won't go into details and isn't there a third kind of hole popular with Irish priests?

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