B&Q = Irish Home Depot

Yesterday afternoon, Pumpkin and I had to bring the car in for an oil change at a dealership that used to be convenient, but now has moved to the completely opposite side of Cork. Had to do it yesterday because it was dreadfully overdue, and my parents, my TNGreataunt, and my middle brother are coming to visit us tomorrow. Hooray!

So we get out there, drop off the car and the keys, get the keys because I forgot our coats (and her precious blankie), give the man the keys back, get our coats on, ask for the keys again because I forgot the stroller, watch the man chase down our car 'cuz it's getting driven in to the service bay already, get the stroller, and get out of their hair. (I think they were probably glad about that last part.) Then we strolled across the road to a big strip mall thing to do some time-wasting while waiting for them to finish.

We visited a tile and bathroom fixtures store. Pumpkin liked that one. "New bathtub! New potty! New sink, Mommy!" We even saw a l-a-r-g-e hairy spider in one of the display showers.

Then we visited a ... soft housewares store? It had sheets and duvets and pillows. It had curtains and blinds and TONS of furnishing fabric and notions. It also had lamps and artwork, which aren't soft, but whatever.

Then we visited B&Q. Oh, it made my heart hurt! You see, it was JUST LIKE HOME DEPOT. It had rows and rows and rows of stuff. It was high school gymnasium tall, just like HD. It even had signs that were almost the same, and selection like I've never seen in Ireland. And their color was orange - even the receipt was printed on orange paper. And oh, did I miss the days of living in our own house that we owned and could paint or fix or improve if we wanted to. And they had gardening stuff, but we can't really take up our landlady's lawn and put in green beans, you know? And wallpaper and paint and tile. Things that made me want to renovate a bathroom just looking at them. *sigh*

And Pumpkin fell asleep in her stroller while I walked and walked and walked around. And so I bought a bucket for E1.48. And a roll of pretty contact paper to cover a box from diapers to turn it into sightly (as opposed to unsightly) storage. And the oil change guys called to tell me the car was done.

And I vowed to never bring my husband there, because if my heart hurt with my lack of homeownership DIYness, his would just give out.


P.S. With my family visiting, posts will probably be few and far between (if at all) for about the next week. If you're really missing me, you can pop over to here, where I started messing around with another idea.