Friday evening

Report writing day is over.  I refuse to say how many reports I have written as I don't wish to incriminate myself, but this evening I took a trip with DD and DG to B&Q so that DD could order her new kitchen.  And I have to say, it was a very, very enjoyable experience, much to my surprise.

DD has planned and saved and saved and planned for a long time for this kitchen.  She's drawn up plans, discarded them, revised them, altered them and generally, within the restrictions of her budget and the room layout (small and awkward), made sure she has got just what she wants.

So off we went this evening.  B&Q closes at nine so we left plenty of time - a good two hours.  Such a shame about the traffic around the Army and Navy roundabout . . .
DD knew exactly what she wanted so it was just a case of talking to someone helpful and getting it all sorted with all those additional extras that one never remembers at the time.  The place was practically empty so, after confirming the sink she wanted, we grabbed a very pleasant and helpful assistant who sat down with us and got started.

Well, I never realised it was so complicated!!  Nice lady took DG off so that he could choose the taps he wanted (DD said he could choose, brave girl), two very pleasant ladies got the order all sorted out, managed to find a discount that took a huge amount off the final bill (DD was SO pleased), threw in a free ceramic hob and generally made the whole experience an absolute pleasure with plenty of laughs and jokey asides.  I am convinced that DG's quirky charms won the two ladies over very quickly.  After a while DG decided he wanted to practise being independent in large shops (he is autistic, remember) so off he wandered, back he came, off he wandered . . . he coped brilliantly.
And while he was doing that, everything was programmed into the computer which spat out a very realistic mock up of what it would look like - more or less.  It took some time but the print out was well worth having.

Two hours later, after the store had closed, the whole deal was finally done.  The bill was paid and we were escorted out through a side entrance, tired but happy and excited.  It's going to look jolly good, I think.  And finally DD will have a dishwasher.  Yay!!!

And we couldn't fault the B&Q service.  Obviously, evenings are a good time to go.  I will remember that for the future!