The stereotypes live on
Together Myles, one of my workmates at Bam, and I came up with a great driving game to keep everyone entertained during the longish drives across Sweden (which was a while ago now, I know, this post has been a long time coming).
As someone coming from Australia, where umlauts and agraves rarely see the light of day outside an Ikea catalogue, crazy all-caps words with funky characters has become somewhat synonymous with random Swedish homewares.
And so begins our driving game. While motoring along Sweden's highways, plenty of cool-sounding town names flash past as exits. The aim of the game is to decide what sort of product that town's name would be if it were sold at Ikea.
Read on for a sample round from our first day in Sweden...
- Children's loft bed
- Magazine rack
- Children's coat rack
- Wicker garden chair
- Aluminium desk lamp
- Set of kitchen measuring cups
- Kitchen jar holder which grips the lids of jars, storing then underneath cupboards, etc.
- Modern-styled vanity unit for teenage girls
- 50 cent pot holder
- Birch-veneered coffee table with magazine drawers
- Metal mesh desk organiser
- Salad spinner (unchallenged)
- Modular home entertainment centre
- Halogen strip lighting
- Metal dish draining rack
- Set of earthenware plates
- Children's wooden train set
- Cast-iron effect ornate curtin rod
- Black-and-white checked doona cover
- Short speaker stands
- Plush snake children's toy
- Swedish meatball dish
Breaking News!
During our pilgrimage to Ikea-mecca in Stockholm, we noticed a familiar phrase:
Turns out JARPEN is actually a shelving system, not a chair, lamp, or one of two kitchen utensils.
Comments on The stereotypes live on
Trevor says:
I'm disillusioned... for some reason I held the notion that the Swedish Ikea would have product names such as "Bendigo", "Fremantle", or "Mt Isa".
Comment added on Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Myles Eftos says:
HA HA HA!!! I laughed about this on MSN, then forgot about it, and am now ROFLMAO. I'm glad I helped with the entertainment.
Tossberg. Brilliant.
Comment added on Saturday, October 7, 2006
Rosemary says:
Classic. You'll have to check out the Ikea housing and give us the low down. Happy traveling.
Comment added on Saturday, October 7, 2006