Furniture!
Today was pay day. Coincidentally, but fortuitously; because today was visiting Ikea day (courtesy of A, who lived in this room before me, and his station wagon). I had budgeted “around 250€” and walked out with everything on my list and a receipt for 250,73€. So I was pretty chuffed (particularly since that estimate was based on about as much hard fact and prior experience as the cost of a software project at tender time. heh).
Now my clothes have a more respectable home than a co-opted laundry rack, my books and papers no longer need to lie in piles on the scavenged corner table, I have a real desk, not just a trestle table, and a real bin rather than just a shopping bag. Photographic evidence follows. Apologies for the quality, but I figured that I could save myself some film costs by using the webcam for its intended purpose (instead of just a paperweight).
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Ikea Where’s Wally! Find: a bin, a desk, a small set of drawers, a rolling set of drawers + filing cabinet
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The wardrobe. I picked a cloth/metal poles one instead of a wooden/Narnia one for two reasons: it was cheaper, and I thought it would be easier to transport (also for possible future moving of house). I didn’t reckon with just how enormously heavy those metal poles are – this was the heaviest thing I bought today!
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The bookshelf. I found a bookshelf I was quite happy with, and wrote it on my little Ikea notepad with my little Ikea pencil. Then around the corner I found an almost identical one, for 5€ cheaper, so I crossed off the first bookshelf and wrote this one instead. And around the next corner, again a very similar, yet cheaper one, so another edit to my notepad. And the next corner again. In the end, I found this for 13,50€. The red box is also from today’s Ikea haul.
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The mirror. I would have preferred a straight mirror, but that would have involved a large jump in price, and that wasn’t going to happen. The mirror is in fact hanging straight; it just looks crooked due to a combination of optical illusion from the ladder and the fact that I can’t hold the tiny webcam upright.
I must confess that although I expected any Ikea to be rather like any other, I was rather astonished to find that (true to the McDonalds principle of “never surprise your customer”) this Ikea was practically _identical_ to the Melbourne store – right down to the food in the restaurant! I mean, obviously it’s the same furniture, but the same menu?? (Well, if it works for McDonalds…)
[For the benefit of T. and others who object to Ikea Swedish Minimalism, be assured that I did manage to find things that were not aesthetically offensive, even within my primary constraint of it-must-be-incredibly-cheap. Which nowhere does as well as Ikea.]
To add to the pleasures of today, when I got home from Ikea, there was a DHL “we tried delivering but you weren’t home” note in the mail for me… that’ll be my 10€ Ebay ricecooker. Happily, the post office is open Saturday mornings too, so I can go pick it up tomorrow, just in time for me to cook something for lunch. Yum, rice.
I am now rather exhausted from the effort of carrying all that furniture up two flights of stairs, and putting it all together. But I’m rather pleased that my room is now much neater than it was before. After all that excitement, it’s probably well-deserved time for bed.
