.. where Ikea is watching Tartu Rulluisumarathon

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

guess where i have been this weekend! in Tartu, South-Estonia! in fact, there was this gr8 fun event called Tartu Rulluisumaraton, which sounds weird, but really is just a 42km race with speed-skates. I don’t have sk8es myself, but it sure looks like fun! and fast too!

for example, here’s the winner. he’s from Venezuela, so this skating must be REALLY fun, because he has come so far. my friend Lotte tells me that it’s really really far. and she knows these things!

so, here i was, watching. in fact, there were two events! or maybe three, even. So, one was sprint and the other was this marathon. and also half-marathon – that is 21km. That’s where my friend Sipsik was participating. i think she did really well because i did not even see when she went by, it was so fast!

and u know what – in the middle of those events, you could go and eat some pasta, hehe! i did not eat pasta myself, but i had ice-cream. i like ice-cream a lot, u know – therefore, no fotografs, hehe!

also, i managed to get hold of this yellow balloon! these balloons are really a lot of fun. because they want to fly away, u know. so i had to tie it to my hand in fact. balloons can be quite mischievous, i can tell u! especially the yellow ones, they are known for that!

but another thing happened while i was watching the marathon – i got hijacked! although my friend Leenu says the right word is kidnapped, but i think she only says it because it was this kid who “napped” me. but she only wanted to say hi, jack. although i am not jack, but Ikea. but i could not talk – see:

but i did meet a Teddy bear in the process, hehe! other than that, it was all good fun! oh, and did u notice the happy carrots a few fotografs back – they’re my favorite carrots from now on, hehe! how about you? did you do any rollerskating over the weekend? let me know! have fun and cu l8r!

.. where Ikea finds a sunflower!

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!
guess what? i found a very nice large flower!! apparently, it’s a Sunflower!! Sunflowers are my favorites (from now on). Look how big:

it seems to me that there are mainly two reasons why i like sunflowers:
1. they are big (especially tall, like giraffes)
2. they are yellow (almost orange, my favorite colour)

also, they look like very fun flowers, don’t you think? what’s your favorite flowers? let me know! have fun and cu l8r!

.. where Ikea is watching xdream in Orissaare

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

guess what! last weekend went by really fast! because i was in Orissaare and Muhu watching the xdream, u know. I have been to xdream before, but not for the night event. so, it was the night event this time! and, best news is that i had my own team, ikeathegiraffe.com also taking part. so, i took LOTS of fotografs (because there were lots of teams). so, i have tried to make a summary here:

this is my team, the ikeathegiraffe.com – Riivo, Märt, Sander and me, Ikea.

as it was the night event, it was at night. giraffes are not so good at seeing in the night, so luckily we had some faster teams with gps tracking. here’s me following my team and others in the canoeing stage.

unfortunately, my team liked canoeing so much that they spent pretty much all night doing so. and i fell asleep. the good thing is that i woke up just in time to see the sunrise, jei! however, i have to tell u that i did not have the time to sunbathe..

instead, we took a looooooong walk in the sea to visit some islets. here’s me on top of the tower on the islet. this tower is a lighthouse of some sort, as u can see. but as it was already morning, no light was on and it was not even a house. just tower.

the tower was very good for observing the teams that tried to sneak by and get to the check point (the tower), but i noticed them from far away, hehe!

and here, it is my team ikeathegiraffe.com, very much alive after almost 11 hours or so. happy times! after small walk around the islet (and i can secretly tell u – some geocaching, hehe) it was time to take the watery walk back and get to the finish area for some special tasks and finish.

here’s the first special task – a team shot-put with some running for those who did not do well. i prefer running myself, if u ask me.

and here’s the instructions for the second special taks – the megaladder!

here’s the blue team showing how it is done properly.

and here – it’s the ladies team who are stuck in the trees i’m afraid..!

and also, our team contemplating their moves after about 14 hours of running and other things. it’s a lot of running! i would not like to be climbing ANY ladders after that, not even the megaladder although it looks fun!
and after that – the finish. my team ikeathegiraffe.com did it very well, they used pretty much all the time that was available. it seems to me that they were the last team that did not have any penalties to complete the whole race, jei! u can track the first 11 hours of the race on this page here (select ikeathegiraffe.com and then click view route at the bottom. they did not drown, it’s just that the battery died :).

so that’s it in a nutshell! lots of fun don’t you think? but this is not all. as i told u, i took lots of fotografs. so i have uploaded them to my picasa. in fact there are two folders. folder number one has the best shots that i got, about 30 with some comments,hehe! and then, there is another folder for all the teams that are looking for themselves :D there’s more than 400 fotografs inside!! take a look and have fun! feel feel to share the links with friends and let me know which fotografs u like the best! cu l8r!