The Bedspockalypse

Aweh, guys!

This was an amazing showcase of altruism here in the Netherlands. So, we ordered a mattress at IKEA, and we paid 40 euro for delivery apparently on a lark. So, I’m at the new flat in Woerden waiting for them and they come to drop off the mattress. We have a narrow staircase with a bend, and they tell me “no way, José”. They can’t deliver it up the stairs, cos it’s in the packaging and it’s too large, and they won’t take it out of the packaging because they aren’t insured for it. So, they speak to Hubby over the phone and agree to leave it in the doorway as some worksmen have dug up the alleyway outside the door. Now my door can’t close cos the mattress is in the way and I can’t leave it in the alley because it’s been laid to waste. Thanks IKEA…

During all this, the worksmen outside who have been working all morning digging up the alley noticed the mattress situation. I tell the gent, Yen, that I’m just waiting for Hubby so we can unpackage it and get it up stairs. So, he arrives and the two of us just can’t seem to do it. Yen then lends us straps so that we can sandwich the mattress and get it up the stairs, but I am still too weak to provide the necessary force needed to get this 48kg POS up the stairs. Before we know it, Yen is helping Hubby and it was a MISSION. It required a lot of coaxing, readjustments and brute strength and I was told to leave the room as I really wasn’t helping with my verbal encouragement. Eventually, working as a team, they got it up the god forsaken stairs. We offered to buy Yen lunch or a beer, but he told us not to worry before going back to work. I’ve only been here for about a month, and I can say that I’ve never met more helpful, hardworking and honest people like them before…

It’s a boy!

We stay behind to put the bed frame together to make sure we have a place to crash for when we move in on Saturday. IKEA didn’t provide us with all the required tools like a hammer or screwdriver so do bare this in mind as not all can be solved with an allen key.

So, we get home and immediately have a heart attack. Exactly what was needed after the mattress saga.

We are still staying in an Airbnb while we wait for our new home to be ready, and every Monday there is a lady who cleans the flat. I wasn’t home but decided that she could let herself in to do her job. She is very nice and careful about the cats.

So, we get home after the gruelling day that was bedpocalypse and I joked about how I hoped none of the cats escaped while the flat was cleaned… We enter the flat and we notice that the cats aren’t lying in their usual spots. Eventually we locate Ripley, but we can’t find Spock anywhere. I look under all the furniture, fill their food bowl and open the door to the coveted spare bedroom they aren’t allowed in… Still no Spock.

We head outside, dread filling my heart. I notice how cold it is outside and he’s a Devon, he doesn’t have fur and he is so little. I take their food container with and shake it. I call him, search the flat a few more times, opening all the cupboards, lifting furniture and calling him still. I am in tears. After 45 minutes of searching, I take his crate, line it with blankets, some of our clothes and my winter coat over the top so he can stay warm and put it outside. Hubby takes me inside and I decide I want to sleep on the couch in case he cries at the door in the night. I take my duvet, get settled and start to sob, when all of a sudden, I see a shape on top of the fridge!

I thought I had searched high and low, but clearly not high enough… But there he was! I didn’t believe it at first. Hubby was still outside looking for him, so I rushed out screaming that he’s on top of the fridge. We had to use a ladder to get him down, so we had no idea how he managed it. He is terrified of the vacuum, a fact I learned when I did some cleaning of my own and he literally turned as still as a statue and I could basically knock him over without losing form, so we think that’s how he found his spot to hide… we didn’t think he was physically capable, but he demonstrated his party trick again, using the tap as a springboard! I am so grateful to have found him, because for a few moments I knew what it was like to lose him… The only positive that came out of this is that one of my dear friends, Shana, did an illustration for the event. This day will forever be known as bedspockalypse.

Thanks Shana!