Two weeks of vacation

These past two weeks have been rather hectic. The same day my vacation started I visited the Malmö festival in the evening. I went mainly for the food, which is a little different with international influences. That day the weather also changed. In my opinion for the better. It's about ten degrees cooler now and it rains occasionally.

Saturday two weeks ago I went to the summerhouse and the next day I joined my mother and her boyfriend on a trip to Gotland. First we drove through Småland and made a stop at a very weird museum with several different displays; alarm clocks, figurines with accordions and tramps and the folklore related to them. The main reason for visiting was the handcraft items these tramps had produced from wire and metal. There were things like coasters, whisks and candleholders. My mother has done some of this type of handcraft and wanted ideas and inspiration. In the evening we made it to Oskarshamn, where we drove onboard a large ferry. After three hours we arrived at Visby. It was after midnight when we came to the B & B (where my sister and her family were already installed).

The week on Gotland contained a lot of sightseeing, we drove out every day. The island is known for rock formations ("raukar", sea stacks), sheep and an agricultural landscape. We visited a light house, nature preserves, geology & history museums, a cave with stalactites, a herb garden, several old ruins, the Visby botanical garden, a sock knitting factory and quite a few outlet stores and shops both in Visby and the countryside. My niece and I started every day by jumping into the swimming pool. It was truly marvellous.We also went to the beach, which was near the B & B. We all had one day of the week where we would be in charge of dinner. On my day I opted for as little cooking as possible and offered hamburgers and corn on the cob. It was well received. Our visit was at the end of the tourist season and my mother made some bargains when she got large flower pots at 50% off and souvenirs at 20% off. I found out that the souvenirs were cheapest in the grocery store! In all, we enjoyed our visit to Gotland very much.

After getting back to Oskarshamn on the ferry we drove west to Borås. The week there was also nice with a visit to the outdoor pool with my niece, shopping at second hand stores and a road trip to another town. During my visit I gave myself a present - a car. Yes, after 32 years as a train commuter I have given up and bought a car. It's a grey Hyundai, last year's model. Yesterday my mother and her boyfriend drove back to the summerhouse and I drove home. On the way I made a strategic stop at Ullared, which is a large shopping place pretty much out in nowhere. I limited my purchases to four pieces of garment and some small kitchen/decorative items.

Time for vacation

This Monday my mother called to say her sister was very ill and in intensive care at the Kristianstad hospital. I went there directly from work that afternoon. We got to see her one last time, although she was not really conscious. She passed away that night. Her health had been failing in recent years so it was not a shock but still sad.

The week at work was the same as the previous ones; hot. Wednesday there was an all-time record in Lund of 34.4 degrees. It has been a terrible summer. Despite this we have accomplished a lot of things. Much more than I thought we would. Mostly thanks to the extra workers. Today was the last day here for them and we had fika to thank them. This is also the last day before I get vacation. I'm very happy about this. It may take a while before I can write on the blog next time.

Excursion to Ivö

One more terribly hot week passed by. I spent the mornings at the storage and the afternoons in the basement level. I was asked to help out at another department so I have registered a lot of books in our catalog recently. There is a backlog because they couldn't get the book entry transfers working from the new national catalog to ours until last week.

Our two extra workers have been very efficient. So efficient that we have problems finding tasks for them. They have shelved, retrieved, sorted, moved, boxed and rearranged books. They also vacuumed part of our storage. We were told to take it easy with the vacuuming because the engine was getting overheated. Apparently it draws air from outside (where there is about 35 degrees) so it doesn't get cooled properly.

It was another great weekend at the summerhouse. My sister and her family were there also. Saturday we did an excursion to the island Ivö in the the northeastern part of Skåne. The only way to get there is by car ferry across the lake. We brought lunch which we ate in a natural preserve. Ivö is a place of geological interest, with an old kaolinite quarry and fossils in the sandy soil. We hiked along a trail in the forest, near the beaches. We also looked at the church, a well (without water) and ruins of the castle Ivöhus (where an archbishop had lived in the 13th century).

The ocean water was warm so we jumped in a few times. My niece is like a water animal. She spends more time under the surface than above it. Crazy kid.