tales from an ordinary world
2000-03-18
Whatever happened to the glory days of Ikea ? Back in the 80's, there were Ikea stores everywhere - even in exciting Mulgrave, not far from where I grew up. And so every now and then we'd wander through the shop and look at all the weird nordic lifestyle accessories that existed seemingly to try and help you forget you were living in boring middle class suburbia. Everything seemed to be assembled using an Allen Key (or hex key, or whatever you call them), which seemed delightfully exotic, despite how many geeks tried to tell you that they were actually meant to be scientifically better than ordinary screwdrivers. Or something.
But times have changed. In later years, when i moved out home and bought a nice kitchen table from Ikea, I was horrified to notice that it used ordinary screws. I was disappointed. I wonder if that's why there's only one store left in Melbourne nowadays ? Melbourne has moved on to other, more traditional furniture, perhaps.
So in a bit of a haze after last night's high school reunion, I tagged along to Ikea today with Mavis and Duane as they went looking for stuff for their new place. I nearly bought a few things - a rug with hexadecimal digits all over it (which I felt was kinda fun, but at the same time way too geeky - what I really want is a nice big persian rug, to be honest), and it's really time i got a new bed, but all these things must wait for Better TimesTM. They ended up buying a nice little orange coffee table, plus some little plastic kid's stools to sit on - 2 in red and one in blue - all to complement the purple inflatable armchairs they already had...
