Swedish design delights

My flatmate and I made a long journey today, out to Ikea, which is a home furnishers dreamland and with my tendencies of liking interior design and "stuff" - I was a kid in a candy store.

It is, however, a long journey and not one that one would want to take often. First, a walk to Tulse Hill, a nearby train station, 5 mins.

A train from Tulse Hill to West Croydon, average, 22 mins.

A walk around West Croydon to find the tram stop and a side excursion in a shop to find out how much a purple wig cost, some minutes.

A tram from where we were, not sure, to Ampere Way, probably around 15 mins.

But, after all this, to approach the big yellow and blue warehouse filled with delightful things that you probably actually don't need - awesome.

First, needing to refuel for hours spent wandering around Ikea, they have their own cafe. In come the Swedish meatballs. Except, I had

fish and chips, and couldn't finish it all. I should've also had the kid's meal.

The place is a maze and has concept rooms set up to show how cool your place could look if you spent all your money on all their things and used their design service and if only...

We drooled over the kitchens, lounging chairs and outdoor type hanging chairs that looked very comfortable.

Though, not being able to settle down and "nest" as such, buying furniture, not such a good idea, but, also, knowing me, I had to buy something from Ikea. So, I bought something cute, stupid and cat-like.

It is a lamp - for kids. It glows purple, blue then red continuously. Or you can keep it on one of the colours solid. It charges up and then can work off batteries for around 4 hours.

Practically useless, not too expensive and I love it.

They have a food shop just before the exit, so before leaving we managed to buy some Swedish sweets, elderflower cordial and blueberry cordial, Swedish beer and Swedish cider, adding to our horde of stupid cat lamp, cheap fry pans (to discard some crap ones at home), tea lights and then more cheap tea lights from the bargain corner. Ikea did well out of us today.

Tourist

I spent the last four days being a tourist.

Friday: I met with a friend and starting in Covent Garden, we had a bit of a trek around London, resulting in having to put a plaster on a broken blister from my jandals (flip flops in English-speak). This trek ended at Buckingham Palace.

Saturday:

I went on a tourist bus ride. Mistakenly sitting under the cover on the top deck, which, as it was a sunny day, I thought would be cooler as it was in the shade - wrong.

I had chosen one of the hottest days of the year to sit on a vinyl bus seat in a enclosed hot space.

I did manage to half way through the tour move to the open seating, which although was in direct sunlight, had a great cooling breeze. But, as I have found out now, the UK sun is not as scary as the NZ sun, in that one would have to be very silly to get burnt. Sunscreen is still important, but the UK UV index only goes up to 7.

Sunday:

I had a day of not being a tourist and lazed around at home.

Monday:

I went to Saint Paul's Cathedral. I got an audio guide and sat and listened and walked around the cathedral. I walked up the 500 something stairs (all up that is) to first, the whispering gallery - I had no one to whisper to me from across the gap and had to make do with the other tourist's whispers.

Then the outside galleries where I took some pictures for proof that I went there as no photos are allowed inside the cathedral.