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Sunday, May 29, 2011

A little shopping

Nothing much to report from the week at work. We had two meetings and we decided to try to manage the summer with the staff we had planned for. The number of requests went down considerably at the end of this month. At the same time the returns increased. When I had desk duty Thursday there was a scholar from Harvard visiting to look at some manuscripts. One other scholar from Italy also came this week. There was a new exhibit opened at the library this Monday, and the staff usually have to show up to fill the seats. Not this time, though. It was about a famous painter who lived in Lund, so lots of locals were interested in it. Even the press came.

This Friday evening I got a hair cut, and that was very needed. It was a new hairdresser and I told her to cut it really short, and she did. This weekend I have been doing a little shopping. I don't think anyone is surprised by this. Saturday at the mall and Sunday at the trunk flea market. Not so many great bargains, only some necklaces (we usually take the beads and make other pieces of jewelry with them) and a top at Kappahl.

And if anyone of my relatives in the US would like me to visit in August/September, but haven't heard from me yet, will you contact me, please. It looks like I will be in Minnesota ten days (starting about August 9), Chicago area 3-4 weeks and New York one week. This can change, though.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Flea market weekend

It has been a tough shopping-weekend. My mother has been visiting. We started early Saturday morning and managed to browse one large fleamarket, three second hand stores and a mall in just a few hours. My mother had a list of things she needed for the summer house, and we found some of those items. A wicker basket, for instance. Back at the apartment she engaged herself in my sad-looking flowers. I got some additions to have on the balcony. One plant was really beyond hope, so I threw that one away.

Today there was yet another large flea market at the soccer field in Lund. People park their cars, open the trunks and sell the items from there. Very affordable goods and we found lots of things worth buying. It is very unusual to find plus size clothes at such places, but this weekend I found a curduroy jacket, a jean jacket, two pairs of pants and a pair of leggings at a ridiculously low price. All of it fits me also. My mother bought lots of candles, colorful napkins, pots, several bracelets, two more wicker baskets, CD records, a small electric heater and some other various things. We were both very happy with our findings.

This evening I cleared even more things out of my closets and cupboards and gave those things to my mother for further transportation to either charity or the dump. There were a few things to give away, definitely. It's strange how things accumulate. We try to recycle the goods, there might be other people who can use it.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Competition prizes

It was an easier week at work and the weather is also cooler. The new employee gets challenged every day and she seems to cope with it. She asks a lot of questions and that's a good sign.

The only way I could get a pair of white leggings was to buy them on mail order, so that's what I did. And some other clothes also, of course. I have just been to the second hand store with two bags of clothes and shoes, so there was a little room in the closets. I don't like throwing clothes away, but I had several tops that had stains on them that I couldn't get off even with the best detergents, so I had to give them up.

This week I got a package in the mail, containing two books and a dvd (detective stories by a Swedish author). It was the consolation prize in a competition where first prize was a weekend at a hotel (which my sister won)!

Yesterday I went to Lund to go to the flea market, but I never got that far. I bumped into a former colleague in a store and she was very talkative. There were also sales in several stores on the way, so I got distracted. One (of the three) Kappahl stores had a closing down sale. They had everything 70% off. There wasn't much left now, but I did my shopping there earlier this week, when it was 50% off. I got a top and underwear at a very affordable price.

I have been in Lund also today. I spent a few hours at work to delete emails. I have three email addresses and there were hundreds of messages in each one of them, both received and sent messages. It was getting difficult to manage, so I printed most of the older ones and then deleted them. In this process I noticed that I have forgotten to answer a few of them. They drowned in the flood, apparently. Not good. I also re-organized my word files, so that my private ones are now separated from the work related ones.

Speaking of emails, I have received a "final message" from Lester in Minneapolis. He is the one who started my interest in emigrant research, when he and his wife came to Sweden in 1991 to search for his relatives. He found us and it was the start of an educational journey for me and several others in my family. It opened up my eyes to the world, basically. He helped me get in touch with many other relatives in the US and the network we have created is quite large. Lester now feels that he has reached an age and health status when he no longer is able to use the computer, so he sent out the last message, saying goodbye. It was so sad to read it. It took a lot of mental strength to answer it, but I did.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Bad week at work

Last week is really a time I would like to forget as soon as possible. It was a terrible week at work. The new employee got sick, one was on vacation abroad, one was sick but physically present (and not very productive), and the two or three remaining staff members worked like mad to get things done in time. Really exhausting. I hardly ever fall asleep in front of the TV, but I did one of the evenings last week.

This Saturday I went with my friend Eva to Lund. We attended a lecture/speech event with several authors. There were both writers of fiction and non-fiction. One talked about her new book project, another read out loud from his book, and another discussed her (and other people's) retirement, for instance. It was an interesting event, the first one of this kind I have been to, I think.

Sunday there was a trunk flea market in Lund. Did some minor purchases, a nice necklace for 10 SEK, for instance. Very cheap. It was windy out and it made commerce a little difficult. Their items sometimes blew away.... I continued on to the mall and got some small things. There is a brand new grocery store near there, and it looked quite nice, but I don't think they can compete with the two other stores.

It's getting rather warm outside, and it has been sunny for a long while now. It's about 20 centigrades. The room where my office is has no air condition and it's already now getting unbearable.

Monday, May 2, 2011

New colleague

The big party weekend in Lund, with 25 000 participants, just passed. The young generation celebrates Walpurgis Night by partying in a park. This year broke all records, not only for the number of participants, but also for the very few issues the police had to deal with. It had been a success, apparently. Even so, I make sure I don't even go near Lund that day. I had planned on spending the weekend at home. There was a note in the staircase saying that my neighbors were going to have a party Saturday and they apologized already beforehand for the noise. They started really early, at 10 in the morning. And they were quite loud. Loud and happy, though. I quickly decided to take the bus to the mall, so that I would escape at least some of it. There were two new stores I had never been to, but they turned out to be not so interesting. There are several empty spaces in the main building, and there aren't that many visitors anymore. The competition is tough from the new malls in Malmö, I think. But it's nice to shop when there isn't any waiting in line. The tulips in the balcony box had completed their life cycles, so I got some new flowers; two yellow ones and two light blue. Apart from that, I didn't get much. When I returned home the party downstairs was still going on. I think they gave up early the following morning.

It's a little colder out now, so I haven't been using the balcony much. They are doing work on the main road through town, so they have rerouted the traffic right past my apartment building. Not very pleasant to get all that traffic here. I hope they finish the work soon.

This past Friday my colleague went on paternity leave. Today his replacement started working, a young woman. She already has some experience from working with our database and at a circulation desk. I showed her some of the storages and also brought her on a tour of the library. It took most of the day and it was rather tiring, but it was a good day to do it, because we had very few requests (most of the students had been too busy partying, probably).