Swedish Disneyland

Today we decided to visit that temple of consumerism and Scandanavian design, (or, as Shara calls it, the Swedish themepark), Ikea. The list of things our "fully furnished" flat was missing was getting quite long, and by all accounts, Ikea is the very place to remedy such a situation. Plus they have the irresistable lure (for a pathological bargain-hunter) of a sale.

Being carless, two bus-rides were involved, and by the time we got there, we were hungry. Luckily, Ikea have thought of this, and there is a cafeteria onsite, serving swedish meatballs and lingonberry juice to add another dimension to the Scandanavian experience. It's school holidays right now so lots of meatballs on the floor and a fair amount of screaming.

We have been once before so were wise to their floorplan - you don't actually have to follow the arrows around the shop (doing so can take hours), and you can definitely cut the showroom experience. Even so, there's a fair bit of ground to cover. You'll be pleased to know that as a result of our themepark experience, we now have a whiteboard (so Andrew's ideas have somewhere to go), coffee mugs, a pink duvet cover (shown here in blue) and bedside lamp (not sure how they made it past A - the meatball effect perhaps?) and more towels. An airbed and pillows picked up on the way home made us somewhat hazardous to other bus passengers, but we are now geared up for visitors :-)

A cup of Swedish coffee (you can buy that there too) out of new mug completes the themepark day, but a slice of banana cake is a more kiwi accompaniment. It would be great if someone put the Edmonds cookbook online, for those craving tastes of home.

I'm listening to Ang Lee talk about his latest film, Hulk, and am reminded of childhood Hallowe'en parties. One year my brother Neil went as the Incredible Hulk - he was painted green from head to toe. Neil and I had a reputation for creative and quite extreme constumes, and I wonder who had more fun - us wearing them or mum and dad creating them.

Off to the pub...happy weekends all round...

To travel or not to travel?

New job day one looms ever closer - less that two weeks till I stop bumming around and start earning money. I wanted to put the pound sign in there but this keyboard only has $s.

These being the last few days of freedom, thought I might explore the oft-feted online travel marketplace to see if I could snap me up a deal. I was pretty flexible about where and when to travel, just keen for a cheap and cheerful flight to somewhere new. But it was not to be. What I discovered is that you can waste hours (days, if you have the patience) looking for this holy grail, and still be no closer to a wee holiday. Despite that panopoly of sites offering travel services, few are comprehensive, and you end up having to trawl through budget airlines as well. The most useful site I found was the Scottish Flight Guide, which at least tells you who flies from where to where.

Then I thought I might take a trip to Stornoway, but to fly or take a car on the ferry is more expensive than travelling to Europe, and any other way takes a whole day, involving at least 3 modes of transport. It all seems a bit complicated. And inertia-inducing.

So looks like I'll be staying home, discovering Auld Reekie and her environs instead. It's not a bad prospect, actually (if you manage to avoid the hoardes of tourists). I'll let you know what I discover...

EH10 - my corner of the world for now

Everything can be pinpointed by two numbers and four letters. Everything has a fixed and mappable location. People look at you funny when you fill in your previous (NZ) address and leave the postcode field blank and then tell them that postcodes aren't really used in NZ. Things are more formal here.

Scotland is very regional, Edinburgh very local. Suburbs have a distinct identity. Like Morningside, where I live now. It's a village in the city (in fact, it really was a village once). It has a reputation for being quite posh, but the reality is somewhat more eclectic. We do live next door to a retired army colonel (who runs the neighbourhood watch scheme with military precision), and I've spotted a few "ladies who lunch" but there are plenty of students and families about too.

There are also a lot of antipodeans. So said the cable guy who installed our telephone. I've noticed it too - definite Aussie drawls in the aisles of Safeway, Kathmandu jackets are sighted daily, and if someone asks you to complete a survey, they usually start with "g'day". I have heard (from a very reliable source) that the upside of this antipodean influx is a definite improvement in service around town. It's definitely better than London (but that wouldn't be hard).

There is no name for people from Edinburgh. Glasgow has Glaswegians, Liverpool Liverpudlians, Orkney Orcadians, but nothing for the people from this city. They remain nameless. I don't know why "Edinburgers" hasn't caught on...