Welcome to Tessa's blog

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Booked trip

Several afternoons this week I have taken trips to malls and clothing stores to see if I can do any bargain shopping. Right now, many clothing stores have half price off the sales price, so it's very affordable. But there are not that many clothes worth buying, since it's at the end of the season. I did get some underwear and a pair of black jeans. Yesterday evening I went by train to Helsingborg, a very nice town on the west coast of Skåne. There is a great place to eat called Ebba's. It's decorated entirely in the 1950's style, with a jukebox, posters of rock'n'roll bands of the era and ads for old chocolate brands, for instance. The food is good too, with homemade french fries and very large cookies. I especially recommend the raspberry cheesecake.

I'm making preparations for a trip to the United States this fall. I have recently got a brand new passport and also a new driver's license. The trip is now booked, and I will arrive in Boston on September 5. I'm flying with Icelandair this time, it will be a new experience. Return date is October 29. In between these dates I was thinking of visiting some of my relatives, engage in genealogical research and do some serious shopping. The exchange rate is favourable for us right now. I might have to get an extra suitcase on the way home...

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Historical Society

Friday evening I went to Kristianstad, where my mother picked me up. Saturday we went to Yngsjö, where there are lots of summer houses. We visited the guy whose grandfather was lost in America. He showed me the letters the grandfather had written and sent home to Sweden. It's clear that something had happened, because the letters indicated that his wife was upset with him. There were also some returned letters written in 1934, so his family never got hold of him after that. I have ordered the death certificate for the person with a matching birth date I found dead 1974 in Florida, to see if that was really him. If it was, his family members in the US will get a surprise.

Saturday evening my mother and I engaged ourselves in work around the house. I mowed the lawn and she tried to clear out and re-organize the stuff in the small house in the back yard.

This morning we filled the car with things we didn't have a need for, and drove about half a mile down the road to the annual fleamarket arranged by the homeowner's association. Anyone living there could set up a table and sell things. There were about 12-15 tables. We had brought four beach chairs my mother once won in a slogan competition. We sold all of them pretty quickly - it was the right kind of people there. My mother lives in an area near the beach where there are mostly summer houses. We also sold some clothes and small decorative items.

After a quick lunch (tuna salad) we drove to the Historical Society in Norra Strö. It was open for business, meaning they served coffee and cakes. The Leroy Anderson exhibit was still up, and we decided that it will continue to be there until early November. It was a nice afternoon with lots of chatting about family and local history.

The train ride back to Kävlinge was the hottest I have ever experienced. Something had happened to the air conditioning system, it had totally freaked out and was blowing hot air. It was definitely over 40 centigrades in the train. It was awful, and people were about to pass out.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Cakes

The only noteworthy thing today was the three different cakes our boss had placed in the lunch room for us. It is her namesday (Kristina) today and thought we should celebrate it. It was very nice of her. They were very tasty. All three of them.

I'm still doing several people's jobs, but it's not as stressful as last week. It has slowed down even more. There are only two visitors in the manuscript reading room right now.

A few weeks ago I was asked to locate someone's grandfather..... He had emigrated from Sweden alone in the 1920s and wrote home during the next ten years, but then stopped. He was divorced, but I still don't think that's a reason for not writing home for the additional 40 years of his life - I found out that he died 1974 in Florida. His children had no idea about this. I'm not saying this is the worst case I have been asked to solve, but it's making the top ten.

Can anyone guess where I'm going this weekend?

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Funeral

Friday at noon I took the train to Kristianstad. My mother picked me up at the station. We went to the funeral of Inga Lundblad, my mother's first cousin. She was very interested in family history and helped me a lot with information about the Mattisson part of the family. Her mind was clear until the end (she died at age 85), and we often spent time talking about "the old days". She was the kindest, most generous person you can imagine, and her death is a great loss to her family.

Saturday my mother and I went to the flea markets in Åhus. She hadn't been there in months. We didn't shop that much, just some fabric my mother will make into rags and weave with. She has a loom set up in the small cottage in her yard, and she weaves table runners and sometimes rugs. In the afternoon we visited a friend of hers in Tollarp.

Today we had the usual lunch at Furuboda and then I went back to Kävlinge again. The bus and the train were unbelievably crowded, and the busdriver (who was ten minutes late already before leaving Åhus) broke all possible traffic rules so that we would make the connection.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Flea market

Last week I spent three days working with the flea market at Furuboda. My sister and her family had come down from Borås also. She and I sold books, my mother sold textiles. We had stalls with differently marked prices, starting at 5 SEK (1 Dollar). Also special tables for technical stuff, Christmas ornaments, paintings and lamps. The most valuable things were sold at an auction at the same place. It wasn't such a big event as it was last year, but it was still very exhausting. But also very fun! Some people who bought books didn't want their change back, because they knew the money went to charity. We had very nice customers and I sold books I never thought anyone would be interested in.

On Saturday we took it easy. We needed to rest. Sunday my mother and I opened the flea market again for a few hours. There were some things left that were worth buying. I reorganized the books, weeded four boxes to be thrown out and put the rest in a storage room for next year. Later my mother drove me to the bus stop in Åhus, and I went home to Kävlinge again.

One other thing we did last week was a very nice dinner at a local fish restaurant with a great view of the river, Helge Å. We (my sister, her husband and I) each got a big bowl of prawns, bread and three different dips. Chocolate cake for dessert. Very tasty.

Back to work on Monday it took a while before I realized that I was the only one in the stacks..... It is July and not that many requests, but it was at the top of my ability to do seven people's jobs. The worst part is driving to four other locations (remote storages) to retrieve books - it's so time-consuming. And then of course the compact shelves at one storage had to malfunction just because I was in a hurry. Today was better, two others had a few hours left and helped out in the morning.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Swallows

I got this week's only desk duty today. I'm going to my mother's place tomorrow evening to help out with the flea market at Furuboda. They get donations from people and sometimes that can include household items, furniture or entire estates, so they have to sell the things to get funds.

This past weekend I actually stayed at home. I can't even remember the last time I did that. But it was hot and humid and I didn't feel like going anywhere. I stayed inside and did the laundry. And I started sorting the piles of documents on the floor. It will take a while to get that in order. I spent some time on the balcony also, and that clearly disturbed the swallows that have built a nest under the roof. They have been very messy in general, and also rather loud.

Friday, July 4, 2008

July

There isn't that much to do at work in July, and that's rather nice. I got the desk duty today instead of Thursday, because someone else wanted to go on a birthday party. Right now there is just one visitor here. During the summer we often get visitors from other countries, yesterday there were people here from Australia and Dubai, for instance. We have already done several of the summer projects, so now there are only the boring things left.

The past ten weekends (except one) I have spent at my mother's place, but this up-coming weekend I will not. I've been thinking of what to do, and I might go to a city and be a tourist. What I really should be doing is clean the floor in my apartment, get all the photos into albums, mend three pairs of jeans, do laundry and clean the windows. But it's not as fun.