Easter Surprise

I realised today glasses from IKEA are a little bit like socks and underwear. You start out with many, but one by one they disappear, until eventually you have to go out and buy more. So today I went on a “glasses and Swedish food” trip to IKEA at Rhodes in Sydney. My purchasing goal […]

Swedishness and IKEA

As you arrive at the new IKEA at Tempe in Sydney, one of the first things you notice are the flags out the front. There’s a NSW flag, an Australian flag, and a Swedish flag all flying high. When it comes to “Swedishness”, however, that’s pretty much where it ends. One of the things I […]

Stolen Moments

For as long as I’ve lived in Surry Hills, I’ve been quite intrigued by a warehouse located on Wiltshire Street. It’s remained a bit of a mystery for me. I’ve never known how many people live in there or what they do. But they’ve always held some fascination for me, as I’ve imagined a “Barbery […]

Sunday Arvo at IKEA

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 […]

Labour Day

“That is SUCH a Swedish thing to do”, Grant commented when I returned from the men’s toilet at IKEA. Although I’m sure you can otherwise get arrested for taking photographs in men’s toilets, my intention was honourable. I was impressed with the “baby seat” located in the cubicle so that when a father needs to […]

Ikea Saturday

Ikea at Rhodes is big. Really big. Much bigger than the one I used to have at nearby Moore Park. I was so upset when Moore Park Ikea closed. It was so convenient, being only a ten minute walk from home. Getting to Rhodes was a far more complex affair, especially since there was track-work […]