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Sunday, October 19, 2014

One more project

I have been busy doing lots of research. One more visit to the archive was necessary. The book about Olga is almost finished. It will be about 75 pages. I have added photos and images, and I have to say that it was more challenging than expected. Some photos were in my camera, others as pdf-files and jpg-files.

I have already started on a new project. My great grandfather Arndt (Olga's brother) will be the next subject. Olga wrote a fair amount about him also in her almanacs and there are supposed to be letters he wrote to his brother. Arndt died before I was born, so I never met him. I think this project will be more difficult, because there isn't as much material as in Olga's case. We'll see how it goes.

I have made some excursions in Skåne (I have a train pass valid in the entire region). There was a mail order company which had a closing-down sale and had opened their storage to sell to the public. They sell arts and crafts material, like ribbons, Christmas decorations, souvenirs, beads and all kinds of ornaments. All of it was spread out in this large warehouse in random order (at least so it seemed). It took a long time to go through, but it was quite interesting. I got some small things, it was extremely cheap.

It was also time to get new sandals. There is one particular kind that I get, which is very heavy-duty black leather sandals. I walk a lot on concrete floors at work, so I need shoes with thick soles. Sometimes I buy them in Copenhagen, but last time I was there the store didn't have my size. There is another store in the southern part of Skåne which imports them, so I placed an order there and had to go on a long train ride to pick them up.

The fall weather changed from nice and sunny to very windy and rainy just over the last few days. I couldn't find my boots this morning (they might be in the attic), so I had to wear sneakers. Not a wise decision. I was soaked from head to toe (literally) when I came home this evening. It doesn't help much to use an umbrella, it soaks through after a while.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Shopping and research

There hasn't been much written here lately. I have been enjoying my free time. It's wonderful not to have to get out of bed at 5.45 AM. If it rains I can stay at home. Having this much freedom makes you look forward to retirement. The only thing I have to worry about is the book, and it's going better than I thought it would. I have written more than 40 pages now.

There have been some other things going on also. I went on a long train ride to Kristianstad to visit the dentist. Everything was fine. I went on an even longer train ride to far eastern Skåne to visit a large discount store, but that was a disappoinment. For one thing, the hygiene products I like were more expensive there, and the difference was large. I get shampoo for 19 SEK normally, and here it cost 33 SEK. Not what I call discount. I bought nothing. But the local pizza place had nice pizzas.

Two weeks ago it was Culture Night in Lund and I watched some bands play in the streets. The Geological Survey Institute had engaged a rock band to play (and I wonder if anyone gets the joke)... I also went to the History Museum, which had changed several of their exhibits recently. I saw the zoological display, the history of the Church of Dome (it's almost 1000 years old), an exhibit on Death and a few more. Rather interesting.

I have also been on a few shopping trips to different cities. I made one more visit to Ikea and got a new bathroom mat.

Wednesday I went to the regional archive, which is at the same place as we have the library's book storage. I know the people who work there, not only for that reason, but also because I have done research at  the archive on and off for more than 25 years. The staff spotted me right away and asked what I did in the reading room. The answer was research, of course. They have more databases than I can access from the library. One of the major databases, the index of Swedish deaths, had been updated, so it's now complete 1901-2013. I found some more details to add to the genealogy files. I tried to get more information for Olga's ancestor chart, but the old records were very hard to read. Several decades of birth books were missing also, so I didn't find much there.