My Thursday morning walk was postponed due to drizzly weather, and Stephen and I ventured out by car. With snowdrops the only things flowering in the garden at present I wanted colour inside, and thought I’d buy a cyclamen. Oderings at Barrington had sold out of mini cyclamen, and I bought one with large blooms. It was thoroughly pot-bound, so as soon as I got it home I repotted it in a larger container.
We stopped at The Colombo for coffee – a smoothie for me. The Underground Coffee kiosk has a menu board with a wide selection, but all their meals and smoothies actually come from the café at the Colombo Street entrance to the mall. It makes good sense for them to have this extra kiosk where you can sit and watch the passers-by.
Coffee Kiosk
There are some new shops in The Colombo and a sign indicating that an independent book shop will soon open there – a good spot for this. One shop called Nordic Chill stocks attractive items from IKEA, all clearly labelled ‘assembly required’.
IKEA furniture
I’ve read that IKEA has plans to open shops in Aotearoa, and this is an interesting taste of their merchandise. I remember in the early 1960s my mother bought several kitset items of furniture, which she assembled herself. It occurs to me there may be a career opportunity for someone to set up as an IKEA assembler. When we once bought an office chair with arms from Warehouse Stationery assembly proved to be quite a challenge, and we thought afterwards it would have been worth the $10 charge to have someone else do it.
The flat pack furniture looks good.
Does it assemble as it should?
Ruth's Reflections 
There are one or two (or more) small businesses in Christchurch that assemble flat pack furniture at one’s home. I’ve used them to assemble a bed with drawers under it. The service I used is called Kitset Assembly Services, if you’re ever looking for one.
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Thanks, Katrina. That’s useful information. We don’t plan to buy more furniture, but there may be blog readers who will.
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The Colombo is my favorite place to shop and get my hair cut. There is a cafe over the other side that sells Vegan and raw food and I get a Tumeric coconut latte there.
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There are places that cater to a wide variety of tastes. I was almost tempted to buy a slice of lamington cake.
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I am envious!!! But I do have a man coming on Monday to build an Ikea daybed I bought for the spare room before I came to visit you. I would do smaller things myself, but this is a bit big.
Ikea are a real mixed bag – they are putting a lot of effort into being sustainable, and have definitely brought good design to all of us, but they have also created a throwaway furniture culture which is getting out of hand in this part of the world.
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We were fascinated to see some of the items available, and at a reasonable price, although not so cheap if you have to pay someone to assemble them.
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