Last Thursday Fiona and I after a fair bit of researching decided to buy two Futon sofa beds to replace our functional but not quite right furniture for having guests around. So, the previous day we went up to IKEA at Gateshead near Newcastle but we thought the Futons that were made by the Futon Company may suit our purposes better so we went down to York on Thursday to test out their sofa beds.

For us, this is a very big issue, because we rarely buy furniture and it was only a few years ago that we got rid of a smashing armchair handed over to us by Veronica, Fiona's mum, recently deceased, which was supremely comfortable as a reading chair and for guests. So, the Futon Company in York was our destination and we spent a very pleasurable one hour roughly, just sitting around on their furniture to ascertain whether it will suit our purposes particularly as we were going to spend what for us is a lot of money on something we would merely sit on!

There was another issue that we had to resolve because two of our friends recently mentioned about stopping over with us and we realise we would like to offer this to everybody. So, we had to make sure that the sofa beds were suitable for oldies as well as youngies. It was good fun deploying the sofa bed into bed mode and then just laying on it to make sure they would be comfortable enough. The saleslady, a fine woman from Belgium, who I mistakenly thought was American because of her American accident, which she had acquired by learning English through American radio, thought this was highly amusing. She had recently become engaged and was a bit wide-eyed about the way these two middle-aged customers were behaving. Not quite as dignified adults should? I hope so.

Anyway, after we had purchased 2 sofa beds we were going to have a mini walk around the highways and byways of York City but Fiona started to feel dizzy again so it was straight to Bells Coffee establishment, which revived her somewhat, as did seeing some nice pussy willows on the market, which she managed not to buy, and then further restoration was brought about by getting one of the excellent pasties from the Cornish Pasty Company. I get a bit worried about my lovely wife's health sometimes, considering last summer she was throwing yourself up and over 3000 foot mountains. The more I have read about sinusitis and these catarrh problems they are more widespread than I knew and some people can have them chronically. Oh well we are here to benefit from life as well as deal with the tests that it throws as.I am a cripple so I should know!

One observation I must make about the York trip is about busking. Because more musicians are using amplification, which I think is a good idea, it can get fairly loud, and there was a classical singer right at the top of Parliament Street in front of Browns shop and her amplification was that loud it dominated the whole of the street which is about the 300m long and 50 m wide. From my busking days, Parliament Street would take at least three buskers none of which could hear each other. I'm going to bring this matter up, even though I'm not a resident of York, with the excellent City Manager, who I have contacted before about a Baha'i stall, because it is a problem no doubt about it. I find it strange that I feel very connected with North Yorkshire, Richmond, York, as well as what goes on in the North East, Darlington, Durham,Teeside. I have a strong multiregional identity and care about both places. Good stuff!