my new bureau
I’m not good with ebay, bidding usually turns me into a nervous wreck as I wait till the final seconds count down and I check and check again to see if the price is still green. But last week I decided that if I was going to get seriously crafty I would need to have some type of workspace with storage and after scouring the autumn winter catalogues it was obvious that ebay was the only affordable solution. So I took a deep breath, reminded myself it would be a challenge and placed my bid. After a week of doubt and determination, nervous lunchtime checking and late night bidding my hotmail account congratulated me on my win. I never win anything so I always get excited even if I have to pay for it! I managed to persuade my husband that we needed to drive to Leeds to pick it up and decided to research the local cafes for good measure.
On Saturday morning I plied my husband with lots of postcodes for the sat nav and we set off up north. After a few minor traffic jams and some fascinating observations of cars adorned with football scarves we parked our car in a multistorey and went for a wander round Leeds. My research had pointed out that Leeds Museum had a good cafe so I turned my city centre map round several times until I found our location and headed in the direction of Millennium Square. What a great square! – I really love the buildings especially the electric press and the one with the golden owls!
The Museum cafe was quite good although my carrot cake had buttercream icing instead of the usual cream cheese but that’s the problem with carrot cake in general, there’s no set recipe and you get something different every time. You can never go wrong with a coffee and walnut cake or a slice of Victoria sponge but it’s always a bit of a gamble as to the consistency, nut content and icing when you go for carrot cake. Still it went down well with the cappuccino! A bonus was the museum which is well worth a visit and very interactive – however it would have been handy to check the smells display before I sniffed the cut grass sample! (I’m a great sneezer). On leaving the cafe we wandered round the streets of Leeds which had been taken over by Barclays bank trying to cheer people up in the credit crunch by spending lots of money on music, balloons and men dressed in blue beefeater outfits. My favourite part of Leeds are the Victoria arcades – a great place to see quality architecture.
At 3 we headed to pick up my bureau – thank goodness for sat navs when it comes to finding your way in cities! I like the feel of a real map but I just can’t instruct people to stay left and bear right in the way that the sat nav woman does. We reached the house in just a few minutes and I was really pleased that we managed to fit the whole bureau (it came in two pieces) in the boot. I now have a lovely little Queen Anne style bureau in a mahogany colour just waiting to be sanded down and painted.
So one of my teatime challenges will be furniture restoration and I’ll keep you informed of what I decide to do with it…
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