Billy, Benno, Ivar, Malm and so on … Have you ever enjoyed the experience of assembling furniture from that Swedish company whose name is spelled with four capital letters? Just the other day I was really proud of myself. Martha was obsessed with remodelling our guest room. She said that the old bed and the antique mattress were no longer good enough for our guests.

Well, I thought, hardly anybody visits us anyway, so what’s the big deal? OK, her mother turns up every year at Christmas. But otherwise not much really happens at our place. Nevertheless, Martha insisted on buying a new bed. The Swedish model was her preferred choice – and I had the honor of putting the thing together. In principle the furniture-in-a-box idea is quite good, because it lets anybody, regardless of skill, build their furniture with their own hands, just the way they want it. Idiot-proof – you can’t complain about that, right? The project was completed in a jiffy. I put the bed together, attached the slatted frame, unpacked the mattress and put it into place. But that is all that I remember. I only know that Martha was suddenly shouting and shaking me back and forth. Then I woke up. Yep, a nap can really be a pleasure…