You know you're not on vacation in London when...

• You clean the toilets for the second time.
• You go to IKEA for the second time.

(Going to IKEA involves a 7 minute walk, a 15 minute tube ride, a 15-minute wait for the IKEA shuttlebus to come and get you, vigorously defending your spot in the queue against those who do not respect queueing rules, getting the last spot on the bus, talking the bus driver into letting your 14 year old also get on the bus, a 10 minute ride on the bus, forty-five minutes of walking around in a daze in the store with your clipboard, half an hour on line in the cafe to get a piece of cake and a bottle of mineral water, 15 minutes to eat the cake and drink the water, going to the self-service warehouse and finding they are out of carts, giving up and making a bee-line for the check-out, having the 14-year old tell you there are some carts arriving out of a cart-distribution tunnel, vigorously snagging a cart, an hour of time in the self-service warehouse where you locate the desk-top, desk legs, chair top, and chair legs, and bookcase on three seperate aisles, only to find out that the drawers for the desk you want are out of stock and cannot be ordered on-line, so you will have to come back. Another 20 minutes on line for check-out, actual payment at check out (one minute), finding out that there are six people ahead of you in line for the delivery service (additional fee), Waiting 20 minutes to talk to the nice man who tells you that the delivery fee will be 25 pounds for Tuesday or 35 pounds for Today between 5 and 8 pm (it is now 4 pm), two minutes for signing up for delivery Today, another 10 minute wait for the IKEA shuttle bus, a dash across the road to the tube stop in the torrential downpour, the 15 minute tube ride back into central London, where the rain has miraculously stopped, and the 7 minute walk back to the flat on Abbey Road.)

I think I'm done with IKEA for a while. Except I'll have to go back for those drawers.