The wonder of IKEA...

So, I have long heard of the wonder of IKEA. You know, that Swedish based store where you can get stylish, serviceable furniture that you put together yourself. But I had yet to actually set foot in the place. I'm a member of a web community called The Community of Sweden. We're people from all over the world who have an affinity for Sweden, Swedish style, Swedish food, and, well, sometimes Swedes. The sub-group I hang with from that site is called the "fikaganget". Fika is the Swedish equivalent to a coffee break. Ganget is a made term for gang. We have never met but we know all about each other's lives, where we are in the world, what we do for a living. We send each other warm greetings, laugh at each other's jokes, cry when one of us is ailing or experiencing something bad in life. We just get along and all came together because of our love of Sweden.

But I digress...the reason I brought the fikaganget into this blog is because every last one of them, but me, had already had the IKEA experience. So, last Saturday, Alex and I made the 90 minute drive to Schaumberg, IL to what I can only describe as the second happiest place on earth. IKEA loomed over the highway like a giant blue and yellow monolith. Swarms of eager shoppers, people searching for just the right lamp, or dresser, or end table were teeming in from all ends of the LARGE parking lot. We entered the glass front doors and were immediately swept up the escalator by the throng. Actually, going up at the entry way was the only choice we were given. What laid before us as we ascended was amazing! I mean, we were literally in furniture Valhalla.

We knew exactly what we wanted. We had staked out our plan via the IKEA website before we even left Kenosha. But the yards of bedroom sets put before us was unbelievable. Ironically, the bed we wanted was the first one right off the escalator. We got the specs and the numbers and off we went. As we headed toward the self serve aisles. (Oh, IKEA is all self serve, did you know? I mean totally self serve...even for large items like the pillow top mattress we purchased.) Anyway...as we headed toward the self serve aisles, we filled our cart with pillows (like heaven!), a comforter (like heaven!), new bedding, (heaven again!), new waste baskets, lamps, garbage can, end tables....until our cart was almost toppling over. Then we got two flat carts and loaded it with the bed frame, beams, slatted matt, and queen size mattress! We shuffled all of that to the check out line. Paid up, hauled it all across the store to the Home Delivery line (no way could we get all that home in my Dodge Neon!) and then...we loaded up the car, moved it across the lot, nearer to the door, and went back inside the store to load up a cart chock full of Swedish food! We got meatballs, gravy, potatoes, chocolate, Bilar (chewy marshmallow cars, yum!), cookies, coffees, cereal, hard bread and, yes, the best thing to ever come in a tube, Kalles Caviar. A mere four hours later, we were done. But I tell you, I would go there again in a heart beat. For all that we bought, we paid blessed little. And now, tonight, at last, I will be sleeping on a brand new queen size pillow top Swedish bed with new bedding and new pillows.

Leave it to the Swedes to come up with an idea that reaches the inner recesses of the American consumer. It has it all - style, low price, convenience and food. What's not to love!!?

Eurovision from a non-European POV...

A couple of years ago, Alexander's sister Jessica, introduced me to the wildly wonderful world of the Eurovision Song Contest. I had, of course, heard of it before but never had the...erm...pleasure of seeing it for myself. I can honestly say there is no American equivalent to the sheer extravaganza that is Eurovision. I can also honestly say that I love every minute of it.

Every year many countries in Europe hold their own song contests with the winner being moved on to compete at Eurovision. The songs that make it to Eurovision are heavily touted and are usually sung by either the song writer or writers or by some well known recording artist from that country. The winning country gets to play host the following year. The first year I ever watched (live stream on eurovision.tv) I had no idea what I was in for. There were some seriously beautiful songs, some so-so songs sung badly, and then some that can only be described as "WTF was that??" I remember distinctly that that was where I first heard of Verka Serducka from Ukraine. Google it...you can thank me later. :D

This year the contest was broadcast live from Russia. The first semi-finals were on Tuesday, the second on Thursday and the grand finale was tonight. Having seen a number of pageant like shows in the US (again, NOTHING like this) I am pretty amazed that it all runs without too many intrusive hosts and goes from one song to the next quite smoothly. At the end, the "world" aka Europe gets 15 minutes to vote and, here's the catch, you can't vote for your own country. Televoting counts for half of the votes and the other half is from music professionals. They manage to get a winner in that 15 minutes. It takes us months to get a new American Idol.

Norway won this year with a cute song that didn't have a whole lot of substance. There were other countries there who, IMO, had much better songs and better singers but, eh, I can't vote so there you go! The set was enormous. I mean ENORMOUS! And it had more lights than the Vegas strip. Some countries chose to just have the singer sing and leave it at that and others seem to run with the idea that more is more. There were dancing girls, dancing men, dancing BEARS, something that, I think, was supposed to be dancing but I'm not sure, women in short, short skirt, women in long skirts, women in just a sheet of fabric, men in Lycra and spandex and traditional Moldavian costumes and then there was the Russian Army (no...not kidding...they were there) on stage with a hot pink tank and the Russian Folk Ballet and then there was some Greek guy in the tightest white pants I've ever seen and then there was some guy dressed in what looked like a green sequined pickle suit. It was over the top and FABULOUS! I love this show. Truly. I'm hooked. It makes me wish I was living in Europe so I could vote. Cause I totally would.

I suggest you Google this. Better yet...go to Eurovision.tv... you can watch the whole thing right there. Have fun!