Category: ikea in action

.. where Ikea builds a stone castle

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

for a start, i have a little question for u -why do you think is Estland called ‘Estonia’ in English? this, for a giraffe, is a gr8 mystery. but i have one idea – because they have a lot of stones!!

so, instead of all these great stones going to waste, i decided to build an eSTONEan castle, so to speak, hehe! and there is no better place to build a castle than Saaremaa, it seems to me. because, u know, Saaremaa is quite flat. like Holland for example. so, it is good to build a stone castle there – because you can see it from very long ways away. or, u know, when it is ready, amd you climb the tallest tower – and you are giraffe with a long neck – then you can see quite far too u know! in fact, i saw two rainclouds coming REALLY far away. because they only arrived in the evening. so, they must have been far. OR they took a really long detour…
but, before that, i had to actually build the towers. so, here’s me building:

so, this is going to be one of the small towers. u can see lots of towers in the background – i guess everyone wants to build a stone castle these days! but they only managed a tower or two, not more i’m afraid..

so, here’s me building some more. this is going to be a stone wall with a hole-y stone on top of it. quite fun stone, actually, hehe!

and here, something interrupting the building of the stone wall – woohoo! it’s a shadow!!
i have to tell u that giraffes are not very fast stone-wall builders. quite slow actually. but with all these fun shadows everywhere… it takes almost three times as much time!! i could say that building a stone wall with gr8 shadows like this one takes many more times the time it takes to play all levels of the giraffe apple-eating game. that’s quite a lot!

but, after all this great fun building, it’s ready! please, come look a little closer!

see, this is the courtyard. please, do come in.

no need to take off shoes, there are still stones everywhere! and mind your head! especially, if you are a giraffe! it’s because of the gate that i built here. u know, i wanted to build a gate with closed top because that way u can walk around the stone wall without ever needing to come off. so, it’s a bit like a carousel really. except that u need to walk or run yourself. i must say i ran three laps and my head got all dizzy. it’s probably because of my long neck, u know..

also, it is very well known fact that stone castles are REALLY good for playing hide-and-seek. here’s me showing the gr8 hide-and-seek potential of the stone castle. see if you can find me, hehe!

so, this is pretty much it, really. gr8 fun! ooh, almost forgot – finally this is where you need to climb in order to enjoy the view. it’s nice! have u built a stone castle this year? if not, let me know, we can go and build a couple more before the winter comes. not so much fun building a stone castle in the winter i’m afraid. much nicer to stay inside and play yatzy!
or read a book! because, u know, a really nice book came out, which has almost more than 1 MILLION giraffes inside!! it’s quite a big mystery in fact, how did they get there? but it sounds really good. u can check out this book over here! ps. if you have the book and u found me, Ikea – let me know!!!! until then,have fun and cu l8r!

.. where Ikea goes to small zoo and meets Pippi Långstrump’s horse

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

how are u these days? i am doing gr8, thank you for asking! it is kind of fun, being a giraffe, it seems to me! like for example, i went to this very nice small zoo on Muhumaa – another island, i’m afraid, hehe! although a very small for a zoo, they have really fun animals, u know. birds mostly, in fact. for example they have these really big birds with big eyes called ostriches!! check it out:

i have to tell u, i kind of like them already. because of two things: 1. they have a long neck. in fact, their neck is actually longer than mine, giraffe’s. [also – a note to my friend otter – if u read this: if they lower their head, they look kinda like a hoovers!!] but u should not be afraid, i have heard from my other friends giraffes, who live in Africa that they have many friends ostriches actually. and 2. they like running a lot. u know, sometimes my giraffe friends in Africa don’t like ostriches – because the ostriches beat them in the marathon running sometimes, hehe!

so, here u can see the small ostriches. they are not so scary at all, are they? :) but they have some other birds in the zoo too. like for example nandus and emus. i don’t have fotografs of them, but they have on their homepage. they are all ostriches actually, but because they live on other continents, they have a new name. like for example me, i have name Ikea here in Estland, and when i go to Holland my name is Olaf! jei!
but, they also have a big red kangaroo called Gunnar and lots of wallabies there. here’s one wallaby (two actually, i think), because of the small one in the pocket!

kangaroos are quite fun too! u know why – because they have a pocket! u know, my friend Undu also has this sheep costume and this sheep costume also has a pocket! Undu has a cow inside the pocket! i don’t know why.
i have to tell u that i liked this zoo a lot. because these animals that they have are really fun ones. for example, look at this pony over here:

i guess u already know why i like her – she’s half-orange! here i am telling her to come a little bit closer, so i can hop on.

so, here we go!! jei! i guess this is first time ever giraffes have been riding on a horse, hehe. lot’s of fun!! although i have to say that we could not go too far, because of the fences. so, maybe next time when i go travel, i go on a horse. a small one like this?
anyways, she was not the only one horse there, there was another one with spots!! have u read about Pippi Långstrump? Pippi Långstrump, (like Nils Holgersson) is a compulsory reading for everyone in Sweden. because of all the fun things she does. and if u have read that, then u know that she had a white horse with spots. so please meet – a Pippi horse! (say hello!)

well, i guess she is not the horse that the book-Pippi had. so, if there is a Pippi horse, Pippi must be nearby. so i went looking. and i have to tell u, i did not find Pippi, nor the spunk, for that matter. but i did find some huge eggs! very nice big ones in fact. oh, wait! i remembered i have to go now. so, let me know if u have found some nice eggs recently? u can also guess who’s eggs are these: (below) until the, have fun and cu l8r!

.. where Ikea goes to Saaremaa and finds boots!

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

Guess what? last weekend was very much fun! and, despite all this rain, i took a lot of fotografs! so, it will take some time to sort them out, i’m afraid.. anyways, if u remember from couple of weeks ago i visited Hiiumaa, the second largest island in Estland. and i helped to build a little bit of bridge – over here. so, after just a couple of weeks, many giraffes and other friends were asking how the bridge is coming along. i had no idea. so, instead of sitting at home, we went to check it out – from the other side – Saaremaa!!

but, i’m afraid i have bad news. the other side is not coming along very well at all! check out – they even have put up a sign – it is all falling apart!!

and, i have to say, it is no wonder this bridge building takes so much time. because i went to investigate this mystery a little bit, and i found out!

1st of all, they are using very much ancient technology. consider this for time-keeping: a sun dial!

even we, giraffes, know that this is well outdated! because, u know, it does not show time when the sun is not outside!! like this exact day we were there. in fact, not only was it not sunny, it was actually totally clouded, with some of them leaking really badly. plus the wind. in fact, i had to squeeze the dial just to keep myself sitting straight.

2ndly, just a few miles (that’s like about 8 kilometres) away, the sun was out! what a bad selection of place to start building the bridge (and the sundial) where it is raining (and no sun). see below, it is very much clearish sky’s don’t u think?

3rdly – they use old windmills as workers!!!!!! take a look at this old guy Tõll (he is supposed to be in charge) here:

and, if u ask me, a giraffe, he has his eyes set not the bridge, but the bride, right next to thim, also an ex-windmill, Piret:

and, although i am not an expert on windmill sociology, there is one main problem with windmills as workers – they are stuck! stoned to the ground, so to speak. and they move, if at all, extremely slowly. so, it is no wonder the bridgework is not going on very well. mystery solved!!!

although the outcome was not so great, it was very much fun to investigate, i have to say! also, in the investigation process, i found some quite old boots, supposedly from the last century or so. quite nice ones, in fact, hehe! they fit perfectly.

i can secretly tell u that i went to test these out on my morning run. shhh!
so, what about you? have u visited any islands lately? let me know! have fun and cu l8r!