Yesterday was a day for domestic excitement.
In the morning we took delivery of our new mattress-in-a-box*, which my still-hunky husband hoisted onto his shoulders and carried up two flights of stairs before unwrapping it (who needs John Lewis?). There, as instructed, we left it to breathe and puff itself up.
In the meantime, I managed to score a pair of Rush tickets at less than half-price for excellent seats in the stalls at the Bridge Theatre, so we headed up to London for the evening performance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The production is their Christmas one, but goes on until February and was still pretty well-attended. Apart from the appearance of Father Christmas (and he is, of course, in the original CS Lewis story), the festive nature was not too heavy. The production company had really gone to town on the costumes and stage dressing, with fantastic live-action draping of white silk across the stage to depict snowy landscape. The doors of the eponymous wardrobe were huge and had a collection of actors wreathed in fur coats behind, through which the ‘children’ could push their way into Narnia.
This play was not my usual cup of tea perhaps, but it was so well done and a hugely entertaining evening out. A great spectacle.
As usual, I raced my husband home, and as usual he won (because he’s on a motorcycle and I walk and take the train). Then we sat for a while discussing the performance before I retired to the bedroom – to find, beside my own capacious wardrobe, not Narnia, but a brand-new mattress and its discarded packaging on the floor! Which we had forgotten to deal with before going out.
Needless to say, excited to try the new mattress as soon as possible (those 100 ‘test’ days already counting down) we swung into action and carried the old mattress down one floor (took two of us this time – awkward shape) and completely remade the bed. At midnight! Could have done with Aslan’s help, to be honest…
*We bought the Emma Original foam mattress, as recommended by Which? It will be interesting to see whether I wake up less creaky than on our old one.