It’s been an outrageously hot day in Sydney.

At 6.04pm when I started to write this blog post, my computer tells me it’s still forty-one degrees.

“Where are we? In the Middle East?”, I said to Graeme as we walked out of the air-conditioned comfort of Rhodes Shopping Centre to the “blast furnace” that is Sydney weather today.

We visited IKEA for two reasons today. First and foremost, because it’s my final Swedish class for the year on Thursday, and I was on a mission to pick up a few bits and pieces to take along to eat.

And second, because it’s so bloody hot.

I was reminded of my days working for Coles New World, as it was called back then. In Brissie in the middle of summer, there was no better place at Coles Sunnybank than to walk into the chiller room where they kept the fruit and veg.

I was also reminded of all those years growing up in Lismore without air-conditioning, and where Lismore Square was the best place in town.

Rhodes Shopping Centre was a bit like that this afternoon.

It wasn’t overly crowded, though. Well, not as crowded as the 393 bus which, in its over-crowded state, can feel a little like The Black Hole of Calcutta.

So Graeme and I wandered around the shops for a while.

And once again, they were playing ABBA on the sound system at Dick Smith. But not anything most people would know, it was more your classic B-sides.

There was nothing terribly exciting at IKEA. Though I’m a little impoverished this week as I save towards my holiday, and so only had the intention of buying some sweets for Tuesday night’s Swedish class.

In the end, we ended up buying dammsugar, some chocolate balls (the Swedes used to have a less-PC name for them), some gingerbread hearts, and a few cans of pear cider.

PS. Graeme has a far more entertaining post here about the afternoon.