Soon gone

Next week it’ll be six months since I moved into my new apartment. I’ve settled in nicely and am enjoying my new, damp-free surroundings.

You remember that I did quite some decoration work (well, had it done, to be precise) and that I bought new curtains, a sideboard and a kitchen cupboard, a carpet and two new armchairs. The shopping and decoration part was fun … but also rather demanding on my credit card. So there were still some ‘loose ends’, things to take care of when my savings account had regained its normal ‘stamina’.

One of the ‘loose ends’ is this lamp - called a 'lampe de braconnier' in French (poacher's lamp) - hanging over the dining room table. There are two more like this: one in the bedroom and one over the drawing room part of the living room. The bedroom is not really an issue, as I have a nice bedside lamp which is largely sufficient to find my way around the room. So the solitary lamp against the ceiling doesn’t really bother me. The drawing room is a bit of problem from an aesthetic point of view, but that’s all.

The real problem, however, is this little guy. So two weeks ago I decided to go and buy a new ‘chandelier’. My friend and I visited a store called Massive, which is part of the Dutch Philips Empire. The showroom is huge and the assortment gigantic. I had a vague idea of what I wanted: something modern, aluminium or stainless steel, with LED lamps. We toured the showroom several times and saw four fixtures that were really nice. I quickly ruled out one when I saw the price, though: 1,140 euro! Of course, it was the one I liked best, but one has to remain reasonable, hasn’t one?
 
One down, three to go. We toured the showroom a fifth time, undecided. But somehow I kept returning to the same one, time after time. My friend, who knows me as if we had been made out of the same block of clay, immediately knew what this meant: this was the fixture that would shine over my dining room table!
 
If you expected to find a picture of it here, I must disappoint you. The ‘chandelier’ was available but they didn’t have the required LED lamps. We therefore put in an order. And then, yesterday I received an e-mail saying that my order was waiting for me in the showroom. We will be picking it up next Friday. I can’t wait to see it hanging in its place. It’ll make a huge difference from the solitary light bulb I have staring at for the last six months, and from the French 19th century bistro-style chandelier I had in my former apartment.