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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas holiday

I have just returned home after spending the holiday in Göteborg and Borås. It was a very nice Christmas with lots of good food and interesting people to talk to. I felt sorry for many of the other family members, because they had bad colds and were not doing well. I'm still ok, but I might get sick later.

We had the main meal at my sister's sister-in-law's house, for the first time. It worked out very well, since the house is in three floors. The kids were of course excited about Santa, but they have figured things out already. They got lots of presents, naturally. I got some very useful presents; three pairs of socks, hand lotion, apron (made by my mother), knitted scarf (made by my mother), gift certificate at a spa and a book with 500 cookie recipes! The present I got from my employer was an envelope with four gift certificates to go and see movies. Earlier my father had given me a new microwave oven (the one I had was about 20 years old I think)...

The after-Christmas sales started Monday, and my mother and I went downtown Borås to see if we could find any bargains. I got two tops and several pieces of beautiful Christmas ornaments at very low prices. Basically everything was half price off now. Tuesday we went to the shopping center area and got even more things. I made some purchases in the (expensive) plus size store, but the amounts were very moderate. A top and a pair of leggings. Apart from this we have taken it rather easy, we have been watching TV and solving crossword puzzles. My mother also gave me a hair cut before I returned home today.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Last week before Christmas

The last part of the work week was rather slow. It seems like most people have gone home for the holiday. There were quite a few returns, though. We were just two staff members in the stacks today, and we managed very well.

This week we were treated to even more cookies. It was the last end-of-the-semester coffee with the current organization. I will get a new boss next year, and there will be a new boss for the entire library also. Lots of other changes have happened and will happen.

I have received some nice Christmas cards, both real ones and a few e-mails. It's fun to hear what people have been up to this past year, and how they will celebrate the holiday. I was surprised to get a card from one of the patrons at the library, mainly because I retrieved one book for her that she ended up not picking up. She praised me on my hard work - for one book! There are patrons asking for 50 books a week, and they never say thank you.

Today I did the very last of my Christmas shopping and it was an ordeal. There were huge amounts of people in town doing the same thing. This evening I have baked a few cookies to bring to Göteborg tomorrow. It didn't go so well, actually. I was sure of the fact that I had walnuts at home, but I didn't. I had to change the recipe a little and the cookies turned out to be thin and hard. They were supposed to be thick and chewy. I'm bringing them anyway. I will go by train in the morning, and will celebrate the holiday with my mother, sister & family and her in-laws. Return date is Wednesday.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Great party

The amount of Christmas related events are increasing. Last week we had the traditional saffron bun for coffee one day, and Wednesday we were treated to the Christmas lunch with herring, ham, meatballs and a few other good things. Very nice, I must say.

The reorganization at work is progressing, we have now been told the library will get another boss in March. There will also be changes at the middle level. We have had quite a few meetings relating to these changes, one more boring than the other.

This past Friday I was invited to a party celebrating the fact that a colleague of mine had published her thesis. It was the woman who gave the lecture on Queen Christina's librarians a few weeks ago. Her thesis was approved of Friday after spending years working on it. It was about the queen's manuscript collection, now housed in the Vatican Library. The party was great; there were so many interesting people, the speeches were worth listening to and the food was incredible (especially the salmon). I enjoyed the evening very much and left later than I had planned on.

Today my boss placed goodies (chocolate and fruit) in our room, so there was even more snacking. It's the last week before Christmas and we thought the students would go home. They asked for so many books today that we had problems handling all the requests. I hope they calm down soon.

And where is the snow!?

Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas party

Last week was busy. Several meetings, some colleagues were on vacation and there were a few other things going on also. We had a cake celebration for the guy who retired. His absence is already noticeable. I have driven the extended storage round for a week and it's not particularly fun. It takes longer time and I hardly make it back for lunch.

There was a new exhibit opened last week. We have received a donation of books about pigeons and some of them were displayed. It sounds odd, and I didn't think it would be anything to look at, but it was rather interesting. The collection is apparently very large with about 4000 books, several only existing in one copy. The earliest was printed in the 1600s. The handcolored illustrations of extinct species were interesting to see.

Friday evening we had the Christmas party. This year we had to have it at a restaurant, because of renovations at the library. We ended up chosing the most expensive place of all, Grand Hotel. The food was amazing; six kinds of pickled herring, several kinds of salmon, lots of meat, ham, sausages, ribs, roast beef, cheeses, paté, cabbage, eggs and lots more. For dessert there was rice pudding with raspberry sauce, cookies, crullers, pyramid cake, almonds in chocolate, dates, toffee candy and almond cake with whipped cream and cloudberry jam. There was so much food you couldn't even try all the different kinds. Very high quality also, most of it was from local producers. We were almost 70 people, and we had a very good time.

It was a little difficult to get out of bed Saturday morning. Around 11 my father and his girlfriend came to visit. We went to the mall. There were a lot of people doing their Christmas shopping. I didn't get anything there, actually. I did buy some heavy and/or canned groceries in town because I had access to my father's car. Later we exchanged presents and then they returned home.

Sunday was spent cooking lunches for the upcoming week and decorating the tree. I did watch some sports on TV also (the winter season has started with biathlon and downhill skiing).

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas concert

Since my own (by now rather old) computer takes forever to load a website, I will have to use the one at work even more for private reasons. I might have to get a new computer at the sales after Christmas.

Last week at work was rather boring. I spent a lot of time correcting items in the database, and that is not fun at all. I must have checked many hundreds of entries. One fun thing I do recall we did was to go out for lunch with a colleague who is about to retire (tomorrow, actually). We will miss him, because he helps out retrieving books at two of the remote storages. The rest of us will get a bigger workload starting Wednesday (the position will not be filled).

This weekend was again very windy. I stayed at home Saturday, but Sunday was the Christmas market in town. The local societies and clubs were selling baked goods and decorative items, there were pony rides and music entertainment. I did shop a little. One other event was the Christmas concert in the church. It was the Skåne Region Police Choir and Band giving a very nice concert with the traditional tunes of the season. One tune was particularly familiar to me: Sleigh Ride!

At home the fake tree is installed, but has no decorations yet. The Christmas candles and tomtens are all out on display. Now all we are waiting for is the snow.