As I was wandering back to the hotel from a visit to the awesome Wollongong Bunnings Warehouse (and a big hello to Leanne here), I came across one of the more *cough* elegant and sophisticated interior decorating stores in Wollongong. Oh very well, I admit it... if I had a really, REALLY big home the pirate would probably find a place in it. In an average sized lounge room, though... probably not so much. But I know EXACTLY who would go for the elle-phunk...
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Edit August 2023: This shot was taken several years before I moved down to Wollongong and when I had no idea how the city was laid out. This old curiosity shop was at 63 Flinders Street, which also goes by the name of the Princes Highway, the road leading from the north into the Wollongong CBD. I could identify the location from the reflected sign for "Charlotte Street" in the store window.

You can't see it from this shot but the shattered remains of a sign showing this as a business named "Furniture Mart" stood above the entrance. I wasn't sure whether that was a former business name given the decrepit state of the sign... but apparently it wasn't as we'll see in a moment. Also not seen in this shot, but still sitting outside the store, was a figure of a triceratops (dinosaur) which I believe ended up being repainted lime green and stuck on top of the Corrimal Car Wash. There's a shot of it somewhere in one of my PAD galleries.

By December of 2013 the place had tried to smarten itself up and had a new sign above the door branding itself as furnituremart.net.au (a domain that is now dead). They wound back some of the more outlandish merchandise like Pirate Pete and the elephant, and added the logo "Stylish. Affordable. Unique." Looking at the furniture that I could see in the shop window from back then, I think you may have scored two out of three of those and you know which two I refer to. Unfortunately this place seemed to be hard to maintain in good order, because by August 2015 they were back to a situation where large chunks of their signs were missing from the top of the building.

By November of 2016 they were gooooorrrne, and the building was "For Lease". It wasn't until the last half of 2018 that the building was repainted red as a prelude to the tradesmen's supplier Sydney Tools moving in. They're still there at the time of writing.

Oh, and Leanne? I remember her being really friendly and helpful when I went in to buy a tape measure. I remember pretty much nothing else about her. And that Bunnings? That also closed earlier this year.

Also, the one who would want the elephant? She died 10 years ago, almost 6 years into the future from this shot.

Time. It passes. It passes relentlessly.

Sorry, that wasn't really a "fun stuff" note to end on, but 16 years can alter perspectives. I'm still amused by the pirate, though.