Ikea, again - do we have to?!

So last night saw another trip to Ikea - I'm really starting to hate that place. the reason for our numerous trips to the blue and yellow store is that Jo is single handily refurbishing her office!
I have had to go along to lift the heavy stuff onto the trolleys.

Last nights heavy stuff were 4 shelving units and 4 sofa's! now the shelves weren't too much of a bother for my rippling muscles but the sofas were another story!

The sofas in question come kind of flat packed, but not really, and are delivered to ikea on wooden pallets in sets of four. all perfectly held together with straps and tape etc.
I asked one of the oh-so-helpful staff members if he could assist us by taking one of the pallets to the checkout and then through to the delivery area. He said that this was not possible and we would have to put them on the customer trolleys. So i went to work! cutting the pallet straps and tape which caused the four tightly packed sofas to take a deep breath and fill all the lovely foam filled cushions with air. The things were twice the size that they were a minute ago!
I quickly managed to get two of them jammed onto one trolley with much swearing and cursing at the sofas and trolley and any other person who got too close to me, or stood too long watching me do the tango with the two sofas and a trolley.
the last two were not in the slightest bit flat packed any more so they had to have a trolley each. so from here Jo and i with four trolleys (one full of plant pots) made our way to the checkout. My blood was boiling!

Let me take you back to the start of our Ikea trip - there is one thing i forgot to mention.

So we arrive and i am desperate for the loo, we had been sitting in traffic for ages and my kidneys were starting to hurt. I made a beeline for the Loo and to my horror found that there were no cubicles free. (those who know me will know that i MUST use a cubicle.... extreme stage fright sets in otherwise)
but there was no one using the urinals and i was desperate so i thought id manage OK. everything was going well but in the background i heard one of the cubicle doors open and from it came a guy with his young son. the conversation between them went:

Boy: Daddy what are they?
Dad: Leave those they are dirty, come over here and wash your hands.

from the corner of my eye i could see this young boy peeking into the furthest urinal, he then proceeded to go along the line having a look in each one. by this time his Dad was over by the sinks washing his hands.

i did my best to ignore all this and concentrate on the job in hand. the thing was that this kid kept getting closer! it got to the point where the young boy had looked in all the free urinals by which point he was standing next to me. (by the way, it was about this point that I'd realised i was having the biggest wee of my life...)
to my horror this little chap decided he wanted to see what was going on in my urinal! he tried to poke his head round and get a good look. I managed to turn my body enough to block him from getting his head wet. (where was his Dad?! - had he forgotten about him or something!)
thankfully he went away and i was able to finish what i was doing.

I am never using a urinal again!

one positive outcome was that i was able to use the XLerator again - wicked!