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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Nice radio concert

I listened to the radio concert earlier today and it was very nice. The presenter had asked me for facts about Leroy Anderson, and I could tell he used some of the material in his presentations. The orchestra played the most known pieces, like Syncopated Clock and Blue Tango. It lasted for an hour and I did get it taped.

One other thing that happened last week was the annual meeting in the "social club" at work. It's a group of people (the board) who organizes the Christmas party, Lucia celebration and the excursions we go on a few times a year. This time I had been asked to be a board member, and in a weak moment I said yes. It will not be that much extra work because the others are very experienced, but I will have to attend the meetings.

This morning my mother, who is visiting my sister in Borås, did something really stupid. She was cleaning the kitchen window, when she lost her balance and fell out of it. She landed about three meters down, on a pile of rocks. Needless to say, she is in the hospital right now. It sounds amazing, but she doesn't seem to have broken any bones. But she is very sore and has a headache. This unfortunate accident means a whole lot of problems for the up-coming weeks, because I will be on my own when the Andersons are here. Tomorrow evening I will go to Kristianstad and (hopefully) pick my mother's car up (if I can get hold of the person who has the key). I will then go and get the rental van at a gas station in Åhus. If I can't get the key I will go by bus. On Tuesday I will pick up Rolf at the train station in Kristianstad. The others will arrive on Wednesday. Since there is no internet access at my mother's house, it might take two and a half weeks before I can post a message here next time.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Mad Friday

It has been a long work week. The desk duty on Thursday was so busy I didn't have time to post a message here, like I try to do. There were many visitors and they asked many questions. Friday was especially busy, because I had to do another person's job also, we had a celebration for two colleagues turning 60 and several people called me during the day regarding the Leroy Anderson Centennial. In fact, it was a crazy day. I was at work for eleven hours.

Leroy Anderson's son Rolf arrived in Stockholm yesterday. He sent a note saying everything was fine. He had been to a museum and was going to a concert last night.

Today I went to the center of Kävlinge to get a cassette tape. I can't even remember the last time I recorded something on a tape like that. With today's standard it's ancient technology. Tomorrow there will be a Leroy Anderson concert broadcasted on Swedish Radio P2 at 1 PM, and I thought I would record it. There might be other ways of doing this, but I haven't figured it out. You can listen to it via the internet also (www.sr.se - click on webbradio).

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Dusty books

I have spent almost the entire weekend in front of the computer. The Andersons will arrive in about a week and there are lots of questions sent back and forth via e-mail. It's pretty convenient to use e-mail, and I'm glad I have a computer at home.

This weekend I have also done the regular laundry and grocery shopping. The work week was one day shorter, but it didn't feel like it. It was especially hard work on Friday, when I loaded nine carts with very dusty books at a remote storage and hauled them in a large van to the main library. It's old dissertations that we are going to discard, but I have to go through them first to see if we need duplicates of any. It's over 140 shelf-meters in total, and we will be happy to get rid of them, because we are in desperate need of more space.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Birthday

I did go to my mother's place this past weekend, despite the risk of getting sick. My mother had been sick for a couple of weeks already, and didn't have so much energy. It was my birthday on Saturday and it was quietly celebrated in the presence of my aunt Elna. She gave me a large chocolate bar, which was much appreciated. My sister had left a book for me, entitled Chocolate Passion, and that was also very suitable. It contained an interesting recipe for brownies, among many other sweets. I might try that some day. My mother was busy making my present, so I didn't get it then. She crocheted a piece of decoration for my kitchen lampshade.

The Saturday morning was spent visiting all the three regular flea markets in Åhus, and one yard sale. I needed a glass bowl for the Leroy Anderson exhibit (for candy) and found one very cheaply. Also a large pie tin made of glass.

Sunday we had lunch at Furuboda with my father and his girlfriend. They gave me a table runner and four table mats. Later in the afternoon my mother and I went to the greenhouse at Furuboda for a garden "inspiration day". We were 12 people attending it, and two instructors. We got to use any of the flowers and plants to make our own arrangements for the balcony/outdoors. I came home with a small wooden box (looked like a tool box) with three flowers in it, and a silver thread decoration in the shape of a heart that I had created by bending silver thread. It was very nice to get access to all those plants, we could choose whatever we wanted. I thought it was fun to make the silver pieces, and helped some of the others making hearts also.

Monday was a long day. It started at the dentist in the morning. Not pleasant, but I had no real cavities. He discovered a cracked dental work and a wisdom tooth that needs to be removed, but he didn't have time, so I got a new appointment in May. Clothes shopping and lunch with my mother afterwards. When we were done we had a few more hours, so we visited my mother's cousin Inga, aged 85. She is in a retirement center and when we got there, she was in the common hall playing bingo with some other seniors. We had a nice chat about family history. At five I had to go to the Leroy Anderson Centennial Committee meeting. The Department of Culture had moved since last time, so it was a little difficult to locate it. There were no signs yet. But all of us finally got there, and we held the last meeting before the big event. We had a lot to talk about. We hope and think that we can put on a pretty good show on the 26th - 700 participants and 1300 in the audience will make it a memorable concert. After the meeting I returned to Kävlinge again by train.

Starting the work week on a Tuesday wasn't a good thing. I cannot believe how many mistakes I made. I misinterpreted some of the handwritten requests, put a request on my desk and then completely forgot about it and a few other things. And the computer system had been changed over the weekend, so when I started it, it spent a long time installing programs and up-dating itself. Right now I have desk duty and there haven't been any visitors the past two hours. It's a little boring.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Desk duty again

Time again for desk duty in the manuscript reading room. There have been a few visitors today, asking for very diverse things. Two scholars from Stockholm were here, one was going to write a book about Mozart's wife Constanze and the other was interested in a Swedish composer's handwritten scores. It's fascinating to hear what projects people are involved in.

The spare time of my life is mostly spent trying to plan for the big up-coming event - the Anderson family visit and the concert. It's only three weeks away now. It will be a hectic week, but we are looking forward to seeing them here and to hearing the music. There will be over 600 participants at the concert, so the logistics is a nightmare. Luckily, it's not my problem. I will do the exhibit, show it at the interval and then take it down. I will undoubtedly get myself involved in other things as well, but that's the main event for me at the concert.

This weekend I was thinking of visiting my mother, but she is sick and I don't know if I want to go there. She has a sinus infection and is not feeling well at all.