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Monday, July 5, 2010

Fleamarket at Furuboda

Tuesday last week I took the train + bus to Vinslöv, the town where I grew up. It was my mother's big birthday and she didn't want to be at home. She had been invited to a friend of hers for dinner, and we all joined her there. My sister and her family came by car from Borås. We had a great salmon meal, and strawberries with icecream for dessert.

Wednesday morning my mother and I started working with the fleamarket at Furuboda. It took two and a half days to unpack all the smaller items and to get the furniture out of storage. But when we were done it didn't feel like there had been as many things as last year. I don't know the sum we sold for, but it can't have been higher than last time. Still, it was great fun to sell the books. Another woman who was the cashier at the auction had such a good time she didn't want to take a break. Among many other things, we sold a loom, collectors china, teak items (lamps, sideboards), sofas, camping chairs, clogs, curtains & fabric, Christmas decorations, old radios and an endless amount of kitchen utensils and household ornaments. I actually bought a bed at the auction there. It was almost brand new, it had been used in a guestroom. Very expensive if I would have bought it at a store, now I got it for one tenth of the regular price. Now the problem is to get it to my apartment, but I'm working on it.

Saturday we were tired, but made it to Åhus for a short visit to the merry-go-rounds near the marina (my nephew took several rides) and lunch at a café. In the evening I borrowed my mother's car and drove to the "Goldcoast", which is a nickname for a beach at a lake in the middle of Skåne. One of my friends from school (same class until 9th grade) celebrated her birthday there with a barbecue party. It was a wonderful Swedish summer evening with a magnificent sunset. A very nice party. Main meal was steak & homemade potato salad, dessert was icecream, whipped cream, meringue, strawberries and chocolate sauce.

Sunday we opened the fleamarket again for a few hours in the afternoon. The kids who were there at summer camp came and bought some small things. The things that are left will be given to a second hand store. In the evening I returned home by bus and two trains. My house plants had survived the hot weather. It has been very warm and sunny.

Today I returned to my regular job. There is just one other person working in the stacks, so we are quite busy. I drove the storage round, and it was a challenge for several reasons. There is lots of road work in Lund during the summer. I had to look at a map to see what roads would be open. I still didn't get it right, I missed the turn to the first storage and had to go back. The round is much longer now, and takes at least 20 minutes longer time to drive. In addition to this, I had to call my colleague twice to get help with call numbers and titles for some books I wasn't able to locate. The second time I called he laughed at me - it has never happened before that I have such big problems finding the right books. There are no computers in the storages, so we are quite meticulous when we sort the requests at the main library (or at least we should be), so that we have all the info we need when we get out there. In this case I blame the hot weather. It's not at all pleasant to sit at my desk at work. It's too hot to even think.

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