When I first arrived into Sydney I had a very humbling exercise in race relations while trying to find storage solutions for my bathroom. I have already written about the variety stores which can be found in almost every strip shopping center in OZ- most of what I needed could have been found there- but alas- unlike you lot- I didn’t know about them at the time.
I had moved into a fully furnished apartment but the new modern bathroom had no where to store anything- modern, shiny and stark- I was afraid my tooth brush would eventually make a swan dive into the toilet. I set out to find…storage solutions! As a standby- I figured I would go to Ikea. The Ikea I was able to locate in Sydney was down near Moore Park. So far I had been unsuccessful at our North American standby- Target- for what I needed. I figured out which bus to take and headed down towards my adventure. I asked the first bus driver who was of Asian decent- how to get to ikea- he said “ah yessss…you need the Supa Centa. You walk and you will see sign…” He told me which stop to get off- and away I walked looking for a sign that said “Super Center”
I walked and walked and had a funny feeling I had passed what ever it was I was looking for- I had passed a few signs- but certainly nothing that at first glance said “Super Center.” I asked another- ironically enough- Asian person if I was close- he answered…”Ah yessss- the Supa Centa- you passed- turn around- you see sign” Sighing with resignation I turned around and trod back the way I had just come. Still no signs that said Super Center. I decided maybe I wasn’t reading the signs closely enough. Sure enough- the next one I read said…. “Supa Centa!” ARG! Man did I feel about 2 cm tall.
At any rate- the morals of the story are-
1) Super Centers (Supa Centa’s)are monstrous collections of shops – shiny and new most times.
2) Howard’s Storage World (in the Supa Centas) has an AWESOME collection of good quality storage solutions.
3) Always read signs thoroughly- no matter what you think the person giving you directions seems to have said!
