This weekend, dearest and I headed up to Melbourne overnight on Friday to attend a birthday party for a friend. More on the party and Friday's adventures later, but now, we'll talk about Saturday's big adventure: we stopped at Ikea on the way home. That was an adventure all unto itself.
The Springvale Ikea is the anchor at one end of a home-furnishings mall. All the other stores in the mall sell either furniture or home-furnishings. I think that alone is interesting -- the mall is anchored by Ikea, but the other stores are in direct competition with Ikea. It surprises me that all the stores can stay in business. Of course, the mall has only been open since last September, so the newness of it all hasn't worn off yet.
We didn't really plan the visit to Ikea, which we later found was probably a mistake -- we just decided on a whim to stop by, because it was on the way home. We entered the parking lot (big bonus for having ample parking!) and found a spot. Neither one of us are the kind of people who have to have the closest spot, and both of us quickly lose patience driving around parking lots, in the vain hope that there might be a spot. We found a spot a bit away from the crowds, but still in the sight line of the door and set off to begin the adventure.
We entered the shopping mall at the end furthest from Ikea, and decided to wander through the shops as we came to them, rather than going straight to Ikea and backtracking. We are shopping for bookshelves, and we stopped in almost every store that may have stocked shelving units. We saw some options, but none that were perfect. We want adjustable shelves, but also the option to purchase additional shelves. As dearest noted, the shelves sold as "book shelves" are designed "vase height" not "book height." And as you know if you have read this blog, what I have are books, not vases. I need book shelves to be functional as book shelves, not as vase shelves.
So, on to Ikea. Wow. We entered the bottom floor, and went forward, not up. My mother will tell you that I have to be contrary, that I have to buck the system. She is right. In college, I went to a walking track at the hospital, which had a sign posted indicating that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, walking proceeded in a clockwise direction; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays were counter-clockwise, and Sundays alternated. I annoyed my friends regularly by pondering what would happen if I were the only person on the track and walked in the opposite direction to the day? Yes, I am contrary. So in true Lynn-fashion, my first introduction to Ikea was though the Ikea Food section and the checkouts.
We turned around and entered the store through the escalators like the thoughtful Swedish designers intended. And what was the first thing we saw? The most perfect bookshelves available right there, first display. The shelves were displayed with real books, albeit Swedish versions, not the printed cardboard boxes most other stores use to indicate that the shelves may be used to store books. Now that we found the perfect bookshelves, how do we buy them?
Ikea has thoughtfully painted arrows on the floor leading to, what I could only assume was the checkouts. I had picked up a map/shopping list, but had really paid no attention to it, thinking that Ikea would be like other furniture showrooms and have salespeople on the floor ready, willing, and able to sell me all kinds of things I did not want or need all in the name of commissions. I led dearest along the path of the black arrows, meandering our way deeper into the maze. We finally came upon a salesperson and asked our questions and armed with the information, needed to head home to discuss our options. The only problem is, once you have made a decision, or gathered the information necessary for decisions to be made, it is near impossible to head out without wandering through the entire store.
It took another 20 minutes to get to the restaurant cafe, which marked, what we thought was near the end, but we found was only the half-way point. Down the escalators we traveled, hoping there was a direct route to the exit, but found only another maze, this time with arrows projected onto the polished concrete floor, rather than painted. Another 40 or so minutes of wandering, and we were at the checkouts. Here we were faced with an interesting situation -- there is no easy way out of Ikea if you are not making a purchase. It seems that there is a toll, in the form of a purchase, that must be paid for the use of the air. We managed to escape without a purchase, but only by declaring so to the self-checkout observer. While we managed to wander through the main showroom and the warehouse without a purchase, we did not escape Ikea without purchasing anything. Dearest bought a "festive Swedish drink" and I bought a "blueberry drink" for much needed re-hydration from the Ikea Food area.
Back out in the shopping mall, dearest found a JB HiFi, and needed a wander through the cd section to decompress. I agreed to the request and off we went.
Some years ago, my younger brother and I were watching a science news show and there was a story on Seasonal Affective Disorder related depression research in Sweden. The reporter on the story suggested several humorous reasons for the unusually high incidence of S.A.D. in Sweden: the fact that there are no pubs in Sweden? the shape of the Volvo? I can now add another reason: the idea of a visit to Ikea.
Actually though, I was glad we went. And we will be going back, just as soon as we figure out the logistics of getting the perfect bookshelves home. And I will be trying the Swedish Meatballs on the next visit.
In other news, I have been awarded The Versatile Blogger Award by Eva at Eva Bakes. (Thank you so much, Eva!!!) Please stop by and check out her recipes. The homemade granola bars and 2-minute chocolate cakes are well worth testing out in your own kitchens.
According to the award rules, I need to:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Select 15 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly.
4. Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
5. Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
6. In the same post, include the set of rules.
7. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.
As honored as I am to receive the award for something I do mainly for myself, I don't know that I have recently discovered or follow regularly 15 other blogs that either have not already received the Award, are eligible for, or open to the Award. So I do not know to whom I would pass on the Award. Sorry to be a party-pooper.
Now for 7 things about me:
1. I collect crayons. I have 8 boxes of 64, with the built-in sharpener, unopened and still pristine, as well as about 20 other boxes of assorted crayons, most of unopened and unused. I still use the box of crayons I had in grade school.
2. I tried out for the College Jeopardy! Tournament. I did not make it past the first cut, despite the fact that I answered 48 of the 50 questions correctly. I did, however, get a vacation at Disney World as a consolation prize.
3. Despite the existence of this blog, I really prefer old school writing with pen and paper.
4. I would really like to be a redhead, but I am too lazy to even consider having my hair colored, as I would never keep it up.
5. I have had a Hollywood crush on Pierce Brosnan since I was 9 years old and saw him in Remington Steele. I sat through the Tailor of Panama and Mars Attacks merely because he starred in both.
6. I was born and grew up in New Orleans, but cannot peel a crawfish to save my life. When I go to crawfish boils, I usually manage to peel about 5 so that they are edible, but generally eat substantially more corn and potatoes.
7. I choreographed a tap-dance routine to the rhythm of the copier at the law office where I worked. It was an intricate dance, with interludes for refilling the paper drawer and for clearing jams.
No comments:
Post a Comment