Ascension weekend

The past three weeks things have been pretty much the same. I work, eat and sleep, basically. At work I have attended several online meetings. There was also one physical meeting at the Economics library but only three people attended so it was not crowded. My department also got to meet the new boss. It's a very experienced woman from a faculty library. I know her from before and think she is an excellent choice for this job. She starts mid-June.

About once a week I have been to the storage. Mostly to bring returns there and do some shelving. We still have no retrieving service from the storage. It's a problem for the students. The faculty libraries are forced to order those titles on interlibrary loan instead. It's absurd.

The previous weekend was the Ascension weekend so we had four days off. I spent it at the summerhouse. My mother, however, was in Borås. Instead my sister and her family came to visit. I hadn't seen them in a quite a while. In a moment of weakness I agreed to join the others on a 12 km hike in hilly terrain. It was an ordeal but I survived. Another day we also went on a drive in the countryside, stopping at a very old café. The walnut cake was very nice.

Interesting research

The service level at the library is down to record breaking low standards. This really isn't good. Many students will have problems later because of this. The bosses are worried about the staff, but so far we have no problems managing even though two people are at home.

The first weekend in May was spent at the summerhouse. May 1st is a holiday here, so it was worth the trip. We didn't do much, really. We sat in the sun on the deck or on the grass, depending on the sun's movement.

I have reviewed some of my research projects. One of them I can't finish because I need archive material placed in Stockholm. It's not possible to go there now. Recently, both me and a colleague have found more details about our respective seafaring Danish ancestors. Denmark had colonies in far away places. My ancestor Helsdingen sailed a route of Copenhagen, Cape in South Africa, Madagaskar, east coast of India, and sometimes also to China. These voyages took months and were very dangerous. I have found more details about his career and the ship he sailed with, Holsteen. This research is so interesting I borrowed a 400-page book in Danish about these colonies in India.