The longest to do list and the world's biggest market

I love a good list. My to do list for tomorrow runs to 5 sides of A4. I wrote it in the car on the way to a furniture market this afternoon where I went to price the cost of furnishing the 2nd floor and 5th floor of The Phoenix. I was issued with a driver (yay!) and two men to accompany me.　I am not sure why there were two of them but there are lots of things I am not sure about so we shall not dwell on it.

We drove through a large gate that said "Nine Stars Market" and I was told that it was the biggest market in Shanghai. I asked where we would park the car, and the driver said he would park in the furniture section of the market. We drove on and on and on...and on and on. The market continued. Forty five minutes later, we arrived in the furniture section of the market. It really is the biggest market in Shanghai and certainly the biggest shopping place I've been to. I am sure it could rival Meadowhall or Blue Water! The furniture section had a sofa city, a table city, a PVC floor covering city...you get the picture.

After 2 hours I had a bad case of IKEA syndrome - desperate never to look at another piece of furniture (as all chairs had started to look the same) but with a strange desire to by remarkably low priced bowls with brightly coloured lids that nest inside one another. The prices seemed high until I sat down now and looked through my notes and photographs - £50 for a dining table and chairs, £400 for an 8-seater leather sofa! Even with the rapidly decreasing British pound, it's still cheap!

Somehow I have to select chairs, tables, sofas and bookcases - all within a very modest budget - and make the Phoenix lounge look very far from low-priced. Quite a funny job for a woman who only owns a few book cases and a miniature chair and chest of drawers as her only bits of furniture! Good job I played with my dolls' house a lot when I was little!