Ikea comes to Tampa and other craziness.

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Ikea has just opened up a huge store in Tampa, the first one here in fact. The Colonel and I trotted off there today to have a look around but did not get to do much of that. The place was brimming with the bewildered herd. The hordes were attired in the normal Tampa wardrobe of tight T-shirt and shorts. The weather here is exceedingly hot but please make an effort people. My natural coloured linen dress and gold jewellery, (well gold plated anyway), looked a bit too fancy for that crowd but one will continue to gad about looking fancy rather than blah, as long as one still has the will to live that is.

Trying to walk around in there was no fun, shoulder to shoulder with the sweaty hoi polloi and hardly any room to move. Stuff that, we gave up and went to the cafe.

Princess cake.

The Ikea Swedish cafe is such a cute concept, a little Oasis in the midst of all the mad shoppers. We got to feast on Swedish meatballs and the tastiest dainty European delicacies. Called 'Princess Cakes' or Frodinge, they were fancy treats fit for a Princess, or a Countess. Wrapped in Marzipan, with jam and creme centres, they reminded me of cakes once eaten in Vienna. A touch of Europe in Tampa, it was lovely.

Scrumptious!

Later on I had coffee with my Aussie friend Andrea and heard a few stories that made me nearly burst into a conniption fit. On a recent date with a local man, she had an altercation about, of all things, Tasmania. The guy insisted that Tasmania was not a part of Australia. Andrea has lived in Tasmania, and being an Aussie, it does give her opinion some credence on the matter. When she corrected him, the fellow insisted she was wrong and he was right. Refusing to back down she averred in the strongest manner that it was all one country. He was offended at being corrected. That's just plain silly.

The insanity does not stop there my friend, she also had an experience when working as a nanny where the child's school teacher taught the class that Sydney was the Capital of Australia. Andrea sent the child back to school with the correct information, only to have the teacher send her a note stating that the Capital was Sydney and that she did not know what she was talking about! Such an ortund statement from someone who most likely, no more than likely, has never even been downunder. Unfathomable.

We all make mistakes but to to be so offhand and rude to someone, to be such a know it all when one really knows very little indeed is such bad form. Shame on you lady.

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