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I don’t understand why I (and a large percentage of the Western world) have such a fascination with Ikea.  But there is just something about that place… I found myself out Rhodes way this evening and convinced myself that I needed to purchase more containers to transport my lunch to and from work in.  So into Ikea I delved, fully aware that like on all other trips to the blue and yellow warehouse, I would emerge with many items that I do not actually need.

It is impossible to go to Ikea and stick solely to buying the items that you intended to buy.  The purpose of my mission this evening was to buy some plastic containers.  I was also allowed to buy a new doona cover (as long as it was cheap) because I have two doonas of different sizes, and only one cover to fit the larger one, which doesn’t work with our wash cycle (either the cover would be stinky or I would have to be cold), especially since we don’t have a dryer.

Anyway, so I got the containers, and I got a doona cover for $20 (which included 4 pillow cases).  It is a funny yellow and white pattern, but I was like, whatevs, it’s cheap and cheerful enough.

But of course, I didn’t stop there.  I also purchased;

1. Numerous small bowls, priced at 85 cents each.  I can justify this one, because I was buying them for my dad, who after reading the work of a certain influential blogger (see below) decided that he might also like to sell coffee in bowls.

2. A massive stoneware coffee cup thing.  It’s huge, about the size of a small milkshake container.  I don’t know why I bought it.  I think I justified it to myself by saying that because it was microwavable I could use it to heat up soup and then drink the soup straight out of the massive cup and it would be great and it would vastly improve my quality of life.  It was only $2, so no big deal.

3. A colourful scrubber that has a suction cap so it sticks to things.  Once again around the $2 mark. I bought this because our other scrubber smells funny and I think the bacteria living in it is starting a civilisation that may put up a candidate in the Federal election or something (could be a positive, who knows).  I also bought it because it is the same as the one I had when I was in London and I was all like ‘awww warm fuzzy memories’ or something.

4. A new powerboard with heaps of sockets.  This is useful for plugging more of my electronic things in to, because I only have one power outlet in my room.

5. Two new pillowcovers for my two European sized pillows.  Because I realised that the wash cycle thing also affected them.  And it would be a complete drama to sleep with two less pillows for a night or something.

To be honest, this was one of my better efforts at restraining myself at Ikea.  I successfully talked myself out of buying more of the patterned cardboard storage boxes that fit perfectly under my Ikea bed (they are so handy!)  I lose all powers of reason once I enter Ikea.  I have even been known to eat their shit food!  I don’t understand why I feel so compelled to buy stuff there, especially when I know there is nothing unique about any of it and millions of other homes around the world are decked out with the same weirdly named furniture, budget bedding and suction capped dish scrubbers as my house.  It is soooooo unbelievably mass produced… when I was in London I bought the exact same kitchen items that I have bought here in Sydney.  But it is cheap.  And cheerful.  And useful.  And like a kid in a candy store, I just can’t resist!  I really don’t get it, I’m normally a reasonable person!

At least on a Thursday night it was peaceful in there.  On the weekends it is full of young power couples getting supplies to deck out their homes, pushing the thoughts of interest rate rises to the back of their minds.  The place is always full of crazy children on weekends, running around, climbing on everything, and continually getting in the way.  Or having loud tantrums where their screams reverberate through the concrete warehouse pick up zone.

Anyway, while we are on the subject of all things blue and yellow, I thought I would share this link to a cool Ikea-related blog that I stumbled upon.  Ikea Hacker shows you how to make Ikea furniture unique and funky, and how to ‘hack’ it so it works for you.  There are some cool hacks on there, which go against the idea that Ikea is bland conformist furniture… they show how you can use the basic structures to essentially build your own unique items of furniture.  It’s a really cool DIY blog with a strong concept and design.

And it gives me many more reasons to be irrational at Ikea… maybe I should go back there soon, those boxes really are handy, I should have bought them…

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Today I was home from work.  I had a killer headache, and felt really clammy and ick this morning, but after sleeping most of the day, and conducting a few interviews over the phone from my bed for work, I am feeling much better now.  I am supposed to go to a party tonight, but having a headache before you go to a party is never great. It’s supposed to come after the party!

I found a great website though via Emma, which made me laugh a great deal. PassiveAggressiveNotes.com is a website where you can submit photos of the best passive aggressive notes left my housemates, co-workers… anyone.  What a laugh!  I have worked places where passive aggressive notes have been the main method of communication from management.  And I have written quite a few passive aggressive notes to terrible flatmates when I lived in student halls of residence.

They went something like this;

"Hey guys! Because I’m really busy working three jobs and doing full time uni and not eating or cooking at home because I’m never around, I get a bit annoyed when I go to take the rubbish out and discover the bin is full of festering mould.  If the bag breaks in the bin, giving the bin a quick rinse would be great.  Thanks!"

"Hey guys, if you are going to leave dishes on the bench, could you give them a quick rinse out first at least?  Because yoghurt smells pretty bad after a couple of days.  Thanks!"

"Hey, I know we are all really busy because it’s the end of semester and stuff, but if you have mouldy stuff in the fridge, could you just bin it?  It’s pretty gross.  Thanks, and good luck with the study guys! It’s almost holidays, yay!"

Once another flatmate and I even penned a whole set of kitchen rules that we stuck all over the walls.  It was a completely pointless exercise.

Because I was ‘working’ from ‘home’ today (aka sleeping in bed), I spent a large part of the day distracting my collegues from working in the same way I would as if I was in actually in the office. So I sent the link to passiveaggressivenotes.com to my collegue. We both share a similar contempt for the passive aggressive way media officers (particularly in government departments) deal with our requests for information.  Here is an email that my co-worker sent back to me;

*Thanks* Ashlee, it’s really great how good you are at finding blogs, and its definitely a skill I appreciate! But maybe, it would be awesome if you used work time to address really important things like article writing, because remember, we’re all a team! And I love being in your team!

Also, I know you’re feeling really sick, as that right? If it is right, I hope you’re ok. But I’m really impressed that you’ve managed to send me these links despite your illness (even though they are kind of irrelevant and not following [company] email policy- is that because you’re feeling unwell that you forgot the rules? It must be?).

So, maybe I’ll see you at the trash party! I think it’s so great you can miss a whole day of work and still come out to party with us. It’s really interesting!

Remember- put in your bit of effort and the whole team will be great. Best ever regards!

I think she was joking.  I hope so!!  You’ve gotta love passive aggressiveness!

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