Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Hammer and tongs

I went furniture shopping last night. To the IKEA, a good 75 miles away. I had seen a couple of computer/writing desks that I was interested in and wanted to see them first-hand, rather than purchasing it online and trusting the glossy photo that accompanied the description.

When I saw the two of them the same old question reared it ugly head. Style or simplicity? Should I buy the cheaper, nondescript one or the slightly more expensive, better-looking one? In the end, looks won (don't they always?!!). I also bought a simple looking chair to go with the table (maybe to assuage my guilt over having spent so much on a flat piece of wood with 4 legs). Naturally.

So this evening will be spent assembling the table, trying to make sense of instructions that are in 4 languages, but not really explicit or helpful in any one of them. We can send a man to the moon (or so they say) but we cannot write clear instructions on how to assemble pieces of wood into a table.

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