COLUMN
Stories from GG’s Toy Box
By Grahame Grassby
Story 14 — LazyTown – Thank You but Please Don’t Come Back
In 2008, Stella Licensing was the Australian Licensing Agent for the children’s TV series LazyTown and I had been invited by the management of LazyTown to visit their offices and studio located in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.
I had great expectations of seeing the Northern Lights, of seeing volcanoes, lava fields and glaciers and of course visiting the LazyTown TV studio to witness production of one of the most expensive children’s TV shows ever made.
Boy did I get that all wrong.
Not that these things don’t exist in Iceland but rather it was more that I didn’t get to see them.
On the first morning of my visit, I arrived at the LazyTown offices on-time at 10am Monday morning 6th October.
The office seemed to be very quiet and after waiting in reception for about ten minutes, the LazyTown International TV Sales Manager, Haukur Gislason, met me and took me for a coffee in their staff kitchen.
“Grahame, I’m not sure if you have heard but this morning one of Iceland’s largest banks, Kaupthing Bank, has gone into liquidation.
No one wanted to meet with me that morning including the principal of LazyTown and star of the LazyTown TV show Magnus Scheving, who was tied up with his accountant and trying to speak to his bank.
So after an hour at the LazyTown offices and with nothing else to do, I headed back into the city on my own and gave myself a guided tour of the Reykjavik city centre and harbour.
That evening I had dinner with Haukur and Alister Kent, the LazyTown International Licensing Manager and they had chosen a restaurant that served Iceland’s specialty dish of reindeer – so I ate Rudolph for dinner and no, it didn’t taste like chicken.
The next day back at the LazyTown offices I arrived to the news that the second major Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, had also collapsed into liquidation and that the planned tour of the LazyTown TV studio was not going to happen.
I briefly saw Magnus who said that he was busy that day but was looking forward to having me over to his home that night for dinner and that he would be cooking a traditional Icelandic meal.
“Reindeer?” I asked feeling my stomach turn and last night’s dinner beginning to repeat on me.
“No – not reindeer – you’ll see tonight”.
And with that I was, once again, done for the day and it was back to the hotel.
Dinner at Magnus’s home was pickled herring.
I can’t stand pickled herring and I had to eat every one of those pungent fish – swallow, gag, retch and smile, swallow, gag, retch and smile.
After dinner Magnus drove us out to see the famous Blue Lagoon and there was some hope that we may see the Northern Lights – fat chance as it turned out.
The Blue Lagoon was a black lagoon in the dark and unfortunately there were no Northern Lights that night.
On my final day in Reykjavik the third and final major Icelandic bank, Glitnir Bank, went under, leaving Iceland effectively bankrupt.
I was back at the LazyTown offices for the third time and the LazyTown CEO, Gudmundur Magnasson met with me in his office, apologised for not being able to see me earlier during my visit but with the financial crisis gripping Iceland, he was sure that I understood.
I said, “Of course I understand and I hope that things will get better for Iceland soon.”
Gudmundur then suggested that instead of getting a taxi out to the airport that he would drive me.
On the way Gudmundur asked, “Grahame I was wondering if you could do me a big favour – when we get to the airport could you go to the foreign currency exchange and withdraw as much as you can in US dollars because no one will trade with us in Icelandic Krona and I can’t pay my European based staff?”
So there I was at the airport handing Gudmundur US $500 which was now the maximum amount of foreign currency allowed to be withdrawn per day in this bankrupt nation.
“Thank you this is greatly appreciated Grahame but please do us another favour and don’t come back to Iceland – you’ve been here for three days and you’ve bankrupted one of our banks each day of your visit.”
And with that I was off to London still not fully realising that a major global financial crisis had just begun.
This article originally appeared in Edition 15 of The Toy Universe Magazine
