(ad – pr) Over the years, I’ve been running this website, my email address has earned a place on many diverse and generally irrelevant mailing lists. Quite why Georgia Ports Authority think I’m interested in their frequent updates, I have no idea, but when a message dropped from a PR firm offering a free Simba Original Hybrid Mattress in return for a post, my interest was piqued enough to reply and gently point out that this is a website about food, generally in York, and whether they were happy to send one out on that basis. They were, and I’m not the type to kick a gift horse in the teeth, so a few days later, I found myself dragging off the ropey old mattress that I’d been meaning to replace for years and taking delivery of a shiny new Simba Hybrid replacement.
Delivery was impressively quick and I was soon staring at a huge cardboard box, which proved easier to manoeuvre than expected, though I was happy to have a second pair of hands to help drag it up the stairs. I’d read about the concept of vacuum-packed mattresses to facilitate easier delivery and placement in the home, so was curious to see what would unfold, literally and figuratively, once I got it in situ. When I had it roughly positioned on the divan base, I carefully set about the plastic packaging with a pair of scissors, following the admirably concise instructions, to create a rush of air and see the mattress begin its six hour journey toward being expanded enough to use.
Fast forward through most of a working day, numerous cups of tea and the child’s tap-dancing lesson, and the Simba Original Hybrid was ready for dressing. It was interesting to note it filled our divan base a lot more accurately than its aged predecessor, though the provenance of that is lost to the mists of time. The layered construction features an “Aerocoil” spring layer consisting of 1,900 springs and a “Simbatex” foam layer with nine zones to help isolate movement. There’s also a removable cover on the top layer to help you keep things nice and sanitary. A good smattering of buzzwords, but what does that actually amount to?
First impressions were strong, with a luxurious give to the mattress that seemed to offer support across the body evenly across the hips and back to support the whole body. The Simba Hybrid original is described as medium-firm which seems about right to my entirely subjective assessment. The firmness appears uniform across the entire width of the mattress, not tapering toward the edges, and it immediately felt comfortable to me. The days of being able to fall asleep on any random floor are long gone, but I appreciated the reassuring firmness on offer here. As an aside, it also looked rather smart… largely irrelevant for something that’s covered in a sheet for the vast majority of its lifespan, but pleasing nonetheless. I’d expected to take a few nights to adjust, but immediately felt at home and realised how unfit for purpose the old mattress had been. The difference couldn’t have been starker and I was immediately a convert. I even felt like the occasional stiff neck I pick up had softened – perhaps psychosomatic but equally likely a function of sleeping on a battered old mattress that wasn’t fit for purpose. There aren’t a huge number of beds in this house, but I immediately feel a pang of guilt for allowing my daughter to continue on her cheap mattress that I picked up without much thought – perhaps she’s due an upgrade too.
