Ibicenco impatience is a virtue8th December 2015

We live in a world where we know what we want and we want it now.  We buy an item online and we pay the price of it again to get it the next day; hell, we’d pay more than the cost of the item to get it here right now.  I’ve previously shared with you my suffering, my brave adjustment, at having to give up online grocery shopping and the virtue I have found in foraging for my family’s survival in Ibiza.  I hadn’t fully anticipated the effect of the loss of easy access to other essentials, whether shampoos,  toddler pull-ups, socks and tights or the kids’ friends’ birthday presents.  I live in the campo*, we have no formal address, no street name, no house number.  Gone are the days of same day, next day, within 3-5 working days delivery.  I have got round my book snobbery by slumming it with a Kindle but the rest has been a slow and steady process of acquainting myself with the all the couriers on the island.  I have a spreadsheet populated with email addresses, office numbers and mobile phone numbers of drivers and now deliveries happen smoothly, usually within ten days of ordering – and that’s the express service.

So imagine my delight when I started searching for furniture for my house.  I’ve lived in London and I’ve waited six weeks for a kitchen table that was in stock. I’ve waited four months for a couch because it was being made in Italy. But here, in Ibiza, I am used to seeing it in the morning and sitting on it in the afternoon.  I have admired something in a shop at 11 am and shown it off in my house by 5 pm.  I saw a painting in a window one night after dinner and and by elevensies the next day it was hanging in my hallway.

Just the other day I was driving from Santa Eularia to Ibiza Town when suddenly I had cause to slam on my brakes so hard that I smelt rubber and my littlest one gave a little yelp from his car seat behind.  I had glimpsed an outside umbrella so beautiful, with billowing white fabric and glistening warm wood on a granite base, that I willing to risk crashing my car to see more of it.  For years I had been buying basic parasols for my outside terrace from the fabulous Fita, which is like B&Q but so much better because it sells emergency Nespresso capsules for when your order is in transit (please refer to delivery situation detailed above).  As I slammed on my brakes I knew I had to upgrade.  I had an epiphany: outside spaces are as important as inside ones in Ibiza, for heaven’s sake, we have more than 300 days of sunshine a year on this bright island.  Give a little more respect to your outside choices, I told myself and stop undermining the all important parasol!  I hovered outside Cocoq Ibiza, a fabulous new emporium, a treasure trove of unusual brands of homewares, clothes and accessories. The gorgeous, charming manager came out to see me.

“What’s it made of?”

She answers perfectly. Check.

“How much is it?” A quick whatsapp to Other Half and another ‘check’.

“When can you deliver?” And then came the magic words:

“When will you be home?” Check mate.

I was giddy with joy. After a short payment delay, (for bigger items always shop with a few credit cards in Ibiza, one always gets rejected, it’s never our fault, always the machine’s… or the bank’s…) and the eventual decision to make a bank transfer, I was on my way.  I was literally racing the delivery truck home because of course the driver needed to follow me for the last part of the route.

Within two hours of the first sighting, the umbrella was erected and now hangs suspended like a sculpture beside our pool.  I even whatsapped a photo to the lovely manager to show her how perfect it looks in situ.  She, of course, in all her loveliness, agreed.

If it’s on the island and you want it, it’s yours as soon as you can get home. It’s an enormous compensation for the length of time you have to wait for your kids’ socks, your baby’s bio nappies or your son’s friends’ Star Wars Lego.

* countryside

‪http://www.cocoqibiza.com‪ On the road from Eivissa to Santa Eularia. Quite a landmark with its wood clad facia.

‪Fita www.fitaibicentro.com At the Jesus end of Eivissa. Open all day except Sunday.