When I lived in Sabah, there were very few furniture shops and those that were there were owned by Chinese. There was no competition and the customer just had to cough up whatever price they demanded.
In 1994, I paid 700 RM for a cupboard! ( my lovely salary was 1080RM)

What a change it was to move to KL and find IKEA !! I loved Ikea’s storage solutions. I remember the first shelf/cupboard I bought for 200RM andthe excitement to own a shelf paying 1/4 the price I paid for in Sabah.

For me the best part of visiting Ikea was their children’s section. By then I was already told by my Gynae that I will never be able to carry a child. But when you walk through the children’s section you will first walk past the ball pond. Little girls in pig tails jumping amidst those colourful green, blue, red and yellow balls. Watching the kids gave me hope, that the Dr’s be damned, that one day I will have a child, to hold and cherish and I will bring my child to Ikea and let her play in that ball pond!
As I walked through the children’s section, I used to touch all the baby cots. the soft toys..the little cupboards..because one day I was going to furnish the second bedroom of my house..for my baby..
I had left the second bedroom empty..it was meant for my baby and I wasn’t going to give the room to anyone. ( It used to bother my mother a lot that she had to use the smaller 3rd bedroom when there was a perfectly fine bigger 2nd bedroom)
And then one day, after driving off road from KL to Kuantan, I came home to find that I was 7 weeks pregnant. I was asked to take complete bed rest. I did. With the ikea catalogue. A part of me was scared to take a deep breath..what if I lost the baby..and the other part of me wanted to be in Ikea, so I could buy all the furniture..and then there was the fear of jinxing..that something will go wrong if I bought the furniture and clothes before the baby was born.
I waited patiently for 34 weeks to be over ( I still don’t know how I survived bed rest for that many weeks).. and then I went to Ikea.. proud of my waddling gait..the baby kicking in my belly..I wanted everyone to see my belly.. to tell the world that I got what I wanted.. against all odds..
I bought the cot, the mattress, changing table and the long green snake..
I have an aversion for snakes..but that snake soft toy was part of my dream.. and I had to buy it for my baby even when I knew it would take years before my baby will play with soft toys.

Yesterday I went to Ikea..they have a lot more new stuff in the kids section…and I was looking for furniture for my son in the adult section..