The impressionists and the impressionable
I went in to the NSW Art Gallery yesterday to the exhibit of Monet and the Impressionists. I had been wanting to see it ever since it opened and finally made it on the weekend it closes. It was 39.2 degrees Celsius and about 57% humidity when I left, so getting there was no fun, but it was just fabulous, and wonderfully cold, when I did get there. It’s amazing to stand there in front of paintings you’ve looked at it books for years and see the strokes the living artist made. And you can appreciate the master that Monet was at capturing the light, particularly in two paintings side by side of the Valley of the Petite Creuse, painted at different times of the day. And the way he made the Haystack at Sunset glow with the afternoon sun is really something. So I really enjoyed that. I was going to stay in a meet some people for the Symphony in the Domain, but the Art Gallery shut at 5pm and I was too jolly hot to kill three hours outside in the city so I came home.
That’s when I did it.
My current flatmate is moving out soon and taking her couches. So I thought I’d just take a quick look on ebay and see what was around in terms of couches. I noticed that second from the top were these two couches, so far up to $210, which looked pretty good and had 5 minutes left to go on the auction. So I logged in, had another look at the pictures, then without thinking made a bid. There was another bidder online, but would you believe that somehow I won them for $214 dollars!! I hadn’t even looked through the other options. I hadn't even thought about what style I might want, what colour might look best. Nothing.
After I got over the shock of winning I actually read the details on the couches, and that’s when I discovered where they were. I had typed in within 50kms of my suburb in the criteria, but these couches were at a place called Bilgola Plateau. BILGOLA PLATEAU?! I thought ‘where on earth is Bilgola Plateau?’ ‘Is that really within 50kms of here?’ I tried google map, and turns out it is, even though it’s up woop woop and looks like it’s miles away. So I am sitting here thinking 'well great, I just bought two couches, that I need to collect myself, from Bilgola Plateau. How am I going to do that? Who can I possibly rope in to help?’ (At this point I was wishing that I had a relative in town to ask, to help me out of my own ridiculous scrape.) Anyway, I sent my coming flatmate an email with pictures attached, to tell her that I had the couches thing sorted (sort of) and show her what they look like. She wrote back to tell me that she has a Dad who lives about 20 minutes from Bilgola Plateau, who has a trailer and who can go and collect these couches. Amazing! Thank you God for how that turned out!
Now I feel like I can revel in my bargain. So here are my $214 couches (a little on the drab side maybe, but cushions will help):
