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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Viking Museum visit

The trip to Denmark last Thursday was very nice. We went to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. They have five ships on display that were found in the ocean outside Roskilde. They have also made replicas of them and they sail with these vessels regularly. It's a working science museum. More info here: http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/ We took the guided tour in Danish, which was a challenge for some of my colleagues. We can watch Danish television, but we often find the language difficult to understand in speech.  We had a quiz during the bus trip with questions about vikings. One of my colleagues got all of them right, including a translation of a sentence in the runic alphabet. Impressive. After the return to Lund we had dinner at a restaurant, a bbq buffet that was outstanding.

Friday I went to the summerhouse. Saturday it was Play Day for children at Furuboda and both my mother and I helped out. I got an easy task, I was in charge of the staff lunchroom starting at 1 p.m. By then most people had already had lunch so there was not much to do. There were more than 3000 visitors, and they took part in a large number of activities like riding horse carriages and old cars, playing tennis, lawn games and other sports, going on the merry-go-rounds, watching pop stars perform and much, much else.

My mother and I had a nice time at the summer house. It might have been the last weekend with good weather, so we basically sat in the sun and just relaxed. My mother is dog sitting, she takes care of a small dog for about a week, so we got at least some exercise walking her. The dog had a good time chasing the rabbits, deer, hedgehogs and even a small lizard (difficult to catch since she was on a leash the entire time, but still fun). I returned home yesterday. Today was the first working day after my vacation and there were a few things for me to attend to. To put it mildly. Things haven't been working out the way we hoped in the stacks. The movers also showed up and expected me to find tasks for them. I seized the opportunity and told them to go to the new storage and clean it. It is amazing, but the there is (after a year and a half) still no functioning cleaning service at our new storage. It has legal reasons.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Festival in Malmö

It seems like the nice summer weather is gone for this season. Last Wednesday it rained very much, with heavy thunder storms. I stayed inside the entire day. Thursday was the last day on the summer pass on trains and buses, so I went to my favorite mall, Väla. It's outside Helsingborg. There were some new stores, and all places had end of summer sales. Got a new cushion for my couch and some small things. The department store Åhléns sold a set of school supply with images of old books. Even though I don't go to school anymore, I thought it was appropriate for a librarian to have, so I got some folders. Friday I had to go to work to administrate the social club activities. I do my best to hide when I'm at work to use the computer, but my colleagues spot me anyway. I had to solve some issues with books they hadn't been able to find.

There is a street/music/cultural festival going on in Malmö and I went Sunday afternoon. There are all sorts of food inspired by kitchens all over the world and street vendors selling necklaces, bags and candy. You can get mooseburger and many variations of kebabs, for instance. There are several outdoor music stages and I watched the concert orchestra performing popular classics and movie themes. It was also a music crossword puzzle at the same time, and I participated, of course. Haven't heard if I won any prizes, but it was fun anyway, despite the pouring rain. Most of this week I have been very lazy and stayed at home, apart from visiting the new local grocery store. Today I went to the archive and did some research. I have vacation also this week, but I will "work" tomorrow. The social club is arranging a bus excursion to Denmark.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Vacation with fleamarkets

The weather has been good during my vacation, sunny and warm. Some days up to 30 centigrades, which is a lot. The long weekend at the summer house with the rest of the family was nice. I basically sat in the sun, went to the beach, solved crossword puzzles and was served food. The others worked (the moss on the roof had to be removed), but I somehow managed to avoid all of that.

Wednesday morning my mother and I went by bus, train and one more bus to get to a small town in northern Skåne, Vittsjö. We visited some relatives there. They have their old family farm as vacation house. They took us on a tour of the area, it's pretty with lakes and forests. Thursday it rained so we went to Hässleholm on a flea market round. In the afternoon my mother and I went on by train to my apartment. Friday we made a trip to a place I have never been to before - the island of Ven. It's a ferry ride away from Landskrona, it takes 30 minutes. Ven is a very picturesque place, situated in between Denmark and Sweden. It's mainly farmland with small restaurants, amazing views, a medieval church and the Tycho Brahe museum. Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who lived 1546-1601. We walked or took the small bus to get around the island. The ice-cream made locally was very tasty.

Saturday we went to Lund to the fleamarket along the esplanade, where people sell household items, books, children's clothes and toys and much else. Sunday we went to yet another fleamarket, this time in Malmö. I found a long tunic there, very affordable. We continued on by train to Ikea and a fabric store, and then back to another train station to see the fairly new mall called Emporia. My mother had never been there, so we went through most of it. We only made some small purchases (I got a living room lamp and kitchen curtains), but it was still interesting to visit.

Monday the weather started changing, with dark clouds and rain showers. We still went on a trip to the place furthest south in Sweden, Skanör-Falsterbo. It's on the southwest corner of Skåne and I can't remember ever having been there either. It took an hour and a half to get there by train and bus. It's mainly a summer town with beaches and we didn't really see much. We just had pizza and then went to Lund to get some good ice-cream. Today my mother was tired from all the walking, and she went back to the summer house. I'm at work to do some research, and I was told I was missed. I try to ignore it.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

First vacation week

Last week was the last at work for a while. We got the chance of hiring the movers to continue the project that was interrupted by the fire alarm problems earlier, so they are now re-arranging a book collection at the main library. They are still working on it, one of my colleagues took over as manager during my absense.

The first real vacation week has been warm and sunny for the most part. Up to 29 centigrades some days - hot. I have enjoyed sitting on the balcony. I have made some short trips, to Landskrona and Lund. I hadn't been in Landskrona (a town 15 minutes away by train) in ages. It's kind of a cute town, but there is not so much to see or do there. Several of the souvenir stores were closed, so there were only the usual chain stores open.

The vacation so far has also been used to do research for others and clean the apartment thoroughly. Especially the last thing was an ordeal, doing hard work in this climate is not recommended. Later today I'm going to the summer house for about a week, and I hope the ocean is warm enough for a swim.