Monday, November 16, 2009

Petty scofflaws

So apparently it is the law that you can't go to IKEA without buying tealights and napkins (see yesterday's comments).

Well, I may be incriminating myself here, but we didn't buy either of those. In the interests of full disclosure, this is what we came home with:

* A steel vegetable dish with a ceramic lid
* Four white pasta bowls
* A washing-up brush
* A sieve
* The famous salad spinner
* A shower curtain
* Two venetian blinds (for the bathroom and the downstairs loo)
* A Billy bookcase

J is not very big on candles, being afraid of fire, so I don't think I have ever bought tealights from IKEA. We have a small box of Sainsbury's Basics ones in case of powercuts, but they have remained unopened since we moved here, I think.

Come to think of it, I would normally call little candles in metal casings "nightlights". What's the connection with tea? Do you put them under your samovar, if you happen to have such a thing?

Neither the venetian blinds nor the Billy have been assembled yet. My family have meanwhile been suggesting that buying a new Billy is a bad idea, because it may provide more book storage but doesn't address the real problem, which is that I buy too many books. A bit like extracting oil from tar sands.

I have pointed out that it was J's idea to buy another Billy (which may make him an enabler of my book addiction, but there we go). Also, if you have lots of books, you're sequestering carbon. Right?

7 comments:

Rosemary Riveter said...

I think the tealight thing is indeed something to do with samovars, or a similar tea-warming device from another culture. I've always wanted a samovar. Also, a salad spinner. My dad used to put the washed greens in a mesh basket and take them outside to swing around vigorously.

You might as well get the other bookcase, since it's unrealistic to get rid of books yes? I reorganized the bedroom a bit yesterday, including adding a small bookshelf on "my" side to corral knitting books, unread pop science, and some of the yarn stash. The bulk of the yarn stash now fills three (3!) of the narrower style underbed drawers. Yikes. Perhaps sequestering it around the flat in smaller mini-stashes was a better idea...

Rosemary Riveter said...

"It's not a hoarding disorder, it's carbon sequestration"

Loth said...

Being West Lothian-raised, I used to call them "wee candles". If I had to name them according to what I use them for, they would be known as "those-moveable-table-top-sort-of-hotplates-you-get-in-chinese-restaurants-and-once-a-year-pumpkin-lantern-lights". Catchy.

We have Billys too. Plural.

Thimbleanna said...

Hmmm. I always thought they were tea lights because you'd want to light them at "tea" to set the mood and make your guests feel special. And we don't even do tea here. Yay for a book habit -- I can think of far worse habits, so, I applaud your recent bookcase purchase!

Mildawg said...

Lack of napkins and candles aside, I approve of your list :)

Warty Mammal said...

Egads, it's possible to buy too many books?

I'm glad I didn't hear about this during my twenties or thirties.

--V said...

If you're just using them for decoration and not to go under a chafing dish, you could use little electric tea lights. They use teeny tiny watch batteries. And they flicker too--simulating real flame without all the burn-the-house-down potential of real candles.

I got a set of six at a local craft store. They had them in with all the real candles.