Free Pencils for Artists at IKEA

How thoughtful is IKEA, providing free pencils for us starving artists? Here I was thinking the only time you ever get free pencils is on a government election day and today I discover you can get a pencil, free, every day at IKEA.

You can also get free, paper tape measures too - not quite as cool but still useful.

More worrying than cool is seeing a sign that says 'Pick up your kids here'. Hmmm... I didn't have kids when I came in but when you're in an IKEA super store a lot could have happened by the time you come out. You just never know. I mean, a trip through IKEA does take you through every room of the house...

If you're not familiar with IKEA furniture stores (a description which I'm sure IKEA executives would balk at - they'd probably prefer a description like a home, lifestyle store) then IKEA is that company, famous for flat pack furniture that you put together with a trusty allen key. If you need more explanation then click the link in the first paragraph.

IKEA's super store in Adelaide, South Australia, is probably one of the biggest in this country and possibly even the world. You can drop your kids off at the entrance and pick them up, flat packed, ready to be put back together with an allen key when you get home.

Well okay, not really, but you can drop your youngest kids off in the supervised, indoor play ground whilst you go watch the free movies for the older kids, eat in the cafe... or you can browse the rest of the store.

Spending a couple of hours shopping (or just browsing) a furniture store isn't my idea of a particularly exciting day but it isn't boring either. IKEA has full room displays where you can get a feel for how their furniture and furnishings might look and feel in an actual home.

You can sit in a lounge room, pretending you own the place, whilst hundreds of strangers walk past (and through) making comments about your furniture. Just like being present at a 'home open' of a house you are trying to sell.

I've been to an IKEA store before when I lived in Perth, Western Australia, but never one quite this big. What surprised me most was how crowded it was. This is a store that has to be as big as a football field, with two levels, and yet it was still crowded.

Perhaps word about the free pencils has really started to get out?

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

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Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav

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TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

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