The Wonderful Everyday Book of Calm

According to the IKEA website: “The IKEA Catalog was retired – but IKEA brochures are here to make finding affordable furnishings and awesome inspiration easier than ever!” Alas, I neglected to seize a copy of the final 2021 paper “catalog”, so the pre-pandemic 2019 one will sit forever on my bookshelf (Billy of course!) alongside Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, et al. Last night I flipped through it: tea-stained and dog-eared though it is, page after page of horizontally-oriented furniture, vistas of household linens in shades of non-challenging taupe and teal and slate-grey, redolent of sea and sky and forest. I could mull forever over those endearing wooden toys that look as if a master craftsman has spent hour upon hour fashioning each one, yet aware they are very definitely mass produced – brochures go hang! Who needs a Tibetan monastery when you can foray at will into the wonderful, everyday book of calm that was the IKEA catalogue?

The war on terra continues

Readers of this column will know how much I have, in the near and distant past, expounded on the unfairness of our differing attitudes to masculine and feminine footwear, questioning why men get to wear comfortable shoes while at work and play, while women, etc. For a while, the comfort brigade seemed to be winning the argument, what with Nicola Thorp marching to victory in her flatties, and female movie stars standing firmly in jewelled trainers on the red carpet in Cannes. But lately, the past has returned to haunt us, in the form of the female Apprentice candidates flaunting their spiked heels as they dash across the TV screen, intent on bagging the quarter-of-a-mil business investment from Lord Sugar. So what, you might say? But what message do Victoria, Marnie, Rochelle, et al, send to young women, anxious to succeed in any walk of life, wearing foot appendages that will certainly cause problems later on? And please don’t tell me, as they struggle to sell buns and run tourist companies, that comfortable footwear does not make the task easier for the young men. Besides, I thought the proliferation of comfortable, fashionsble and femminine footwear in recent times, had won the day? For example, just look at these marvellous, bejewelled pumps by Carvelas, retailing £55.50, from Shoeaholics, suited with both skirts and trousers. Aspiring women, please take heed.