Welcome to Tessa's blog

Friday, July 27, 2012

Article about the book move

The weather changed Sunday, so now it's stifling hot and very sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. It's difficult to get any work done right now, because people are taking very long breaks and go home early. I do too. I might have mentioned that there is no air conditioning in my office. I try to spend as much time in the climate-controlled stacks when the weather is like this.

Last week there was a reporter from the local newspaper here. It must be a general shortage of news to write about, because he interviewed me about the book move. The article published Saturday was surprisingly large and accurate. They took several photos of the guys who move the books. I ended up on one photo, thankfully not a close-up. I haven't heard that many comments about it, there are very few people working in July. We had about 70 requests in total today and that's extremely low.

I have made a few excursions in the local area, to Helsingborg and Malmö mostly. There are sales everywhere, but I haven't bought much. I have enjoyed my balcony also, it's a nice place to sit and do nothing.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Flea market weekend

There is still some activity at the library, even though it's July. Our library is one of very few which remains open through the summer. The staff situation is not that great, so I have had to do lots of tasks I'm not used to. Yesterday I just passed by the information desk and was then asked to help a patron, because the attending librarian didn't know enough about the catalog.... Sigh.

My mother came to visit this past weekend. The colds we both got two weeks ago still affected us. It's a lot better, though. My mother engaged herself in the sorry state of my balcony flowers. She threw some of them out and planted new ones (marigolds and tobacco flowers). Saturday we went to the outdoor flea market in Lund. I hadn't been there this year. Not that many people selling this time, but the weather wasn't good. We also went to some stores in town and had lunch at a cafe. We made it back home before the massive rain clouds rolled in. Sunday we went to the flea market in Malmö. It's at a square and we got several things there. For instance, a pair of short jeans for 10 SEK, and they actually fit me. Then we walked maybe ten blocks, and took the bus to Ikea. It's a huge place. We started by having lunch and then we browsed through the lower level, with kitchenware, fabric and rugs. I got a new bathroom mat. Later my mother returned home by train.

The summer has been really bad weatherwise. One of my colleagues returned to work much earlier from vacation, because the weather is not good. It's cold, windy and very rainy. Lund has had so little sunshine it's an all time low. The forecast is pessimistic about the next few days also.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Flea market at Furuboda

The Midsummer weekend at the summer house was nice. It was just my mother and me. We didn't really do much, just one excursion to a store to get some new summer toys for the kids. I also started arranging the books for the flea market. I worked two days after Midsummer, and then Wednesday I went to the dentist in Kristianstad. I had a large cavity, because a part of an inlay had cracked. It was no problems fixing it, though. After that I went on to the summer house, and by then my sister and her family had arrived there too. We spent Wednesday-Friday preparing for the flea market and auction at Furuboda Friday afternoon. We unpacked boxes with all sorts of things to sell. We are rather particular, we decide beforehand what many of the items will be sold for. We were about 25 people who worked with all of it. My sister sold paintings and clothes, I sold books and my mother textiles. It's quite fun, but tiring. On the day of the flea market, we also celebrated my mother's birthday a little. One of her friends had made a very tasty cake that we all enjoyed.

Saturday we rested mostly. Sunday morning the others drove back to Borås, while I stayed a little longer. I arranged a second sales day of the flea market. There were still things left worth buying. It went well, even though it wasn't properly advertised. An ugly green kitchen table with four chairs, which had been standing outdoors in the rain, was sold, to my great surprise.

The week at work has been tough. I'm glad the movers are managing better, because I could only work half days this week. I caught a very bad cold from the other family members (mainly my mother, I guess). It's difficult to think when the brain feels that fluffy. I'm doing better now, but it's still affecting me. This was the first time since February 2011 I got sick.

I have made some use of the summer pass on the trains and buses this year. I have so far been in Skurup, Ystad, Burlöv, Malmö and Helsingborg. Primarily to go shopping. The weather hasn't really been that great, it has been raining a lot. It's about 20 centigrades right now and very cloudy.