Nobel Prize winner books

It's the same thing almost every year. It takes just a few minutes before someone orders all the books we have by the author who is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The winner was announced today at 1 pm exactly and three minutes later a scholar ordered the books by Herta Müller. We had eight books in Swedish and one in German. I have never read any of them, but I recognized some of the titles.

Yet again I somehow blacked out and forgot the 8.30 meeting today, but this time they went looking for me. The meeting resulted in even more work for us in the stacks, so I would gladly have missed it. The entire circulation department will physically move up two floors to the same level where I have my desk. The process involves making a total review of all the routines we have, both in common with them and separate from them. The flow charts we will have to create will be rather complicated.

Tomorrow I will travel to my father's place outside Hässleholm. Early Saturday morning we will go by car to the province of Västergötland. My first cousin will get married in a small country church and we are looking forward to seeing the other relatives also.

Cauliflower soup recipe

In a large pan fry a chopped onion a few minutes until soft and golden brown. Add a cube of vegetable stock, 2-3 dl/1 cup of creme fraiche/cooking yoghurt and about the same amount of mushroom soup/sauce (chanterelles preferably). Finely chop a cauliflower head and put in the pan. Add more liquid if it doesn't cover the cauliflower. Cook for 15-20 minutes. If it's not thick enough, add grated cheese at the end. Salt to taste. Also nice to fry fresh chanterelles and bacon or ham with the onion.

Ordinary work week

I can't believe it's already October. Time goes by so quickly. It's pretty cold here (especially in the mornings), and very windy. There are some pretty amazing rainshowers also, often with hail.

It has been a fairly ordinary week at work, except for the fact that I have desk duty today (normally it's on Thursdays). There is a total of one visitor. I'm glad I brought some work with me, otherwise this would be very boring.

Apart from the hair cut I got yesterday, there isn't really much else to report. Everyday life in Sweden isn't that exciting.

I have (had?) technical problems with the blogspot-page, which often means that it takes a long time before the page gets updated. Sometimes the automatic sending doesn't function and those who get these blogs as emails don't get any messages. The last blog posting was 27 Sep and I think most of you missed that one.

Cooking

I was in Lund yesterday to visit the last fleamarket for the season. Found three egg cups for my collection, all with chickens on. There was a stall where they sold items for necklace making, and it was pretty cheap, 5 SEK per bag. I got five bags with beads and other things and paid 25 SEK. They really wanted to get rid of it, because the seller added more bags at no extra charge. I will share these items with my mother. There was a farmer's market in the square, and I couldn't resist the fresh cauliflower and broccoli. The quality was outstanding, this is really harvesting season. I roasted the vegetables (also red beets and shelling peas) and sprinkled olive oil and spices on top. I ate it with the hamburger I made the previous day. There is a spice mix for Swedish meatballs which is very nice to use also for hamburgers. The meal was one of my successes in the kitchen, without a doubt.

There was more cooking done today and it was also rather successful. It was one of my standard dishes, sausage casserole. It turned out to be enough for eight future lunches (not in consecutive order, though). The freezer is filled to the brim now.

I have also been tidying up at home, been to the recycling place nearby and shopped for groceries. Since I don't have a car, I have to go grocery shopping quite often. One project I have started is to get rid of things I don't really need. I'm filling a box with stuff like Christmas ornaments, fridge magnets, books, kitchen utensils and (duplicate) egg cups that I will give to one of the secondhand stores in Lund.

Three Americans

Yesterday I left work at 11 am and walked down to the Church of Dome. After a few minutes three Americans showed up, all eager to learn more about the country their ancestors came from. In 2006 I was contacted by Cal from Minnesota, since he had seen on the internet that I do research in Norra Strö records. His great grandfather was born in Norra Strö, and it was rather easy to find the details about his ancestors. He is not related to me, but our ancestors lived in the same village. I went with Cal, his wife and son to the church at Norra Strö, where a local resident explained the images on the mural paintings. That church was built around 1150 and the renowned paintings are from about 1450. The visitors were really impressed. We continued on to the site where the ancestral home had been, on the border between Strö and Övarp villages. Several generations had lived there until the end of the 19th century, when all of them decided that America was a better place to live. We also visited the historical museum, where there was a painting of the house. We viewed the exhibits too, both the school room and the local memorabilia section. Very nicely done exhibits. Afterwards we had dinner in Kristianstad, and they all expressed gratitude for the guided tour. It was great fun to be a guide, and I'm glad my knowledge of Norra Strö history comes to use sometimes. Later in the evening I returned home by train.

The weekly routine of going swimming at the indoor pool in Lund started again last week. I usually go on Wednesdays, so I was there today. I have to say that the best part is the 20 minutes in the hot sauna afterwards. The actual swimming can be rather stressful, since the kids in swimming training splash a lot in the next lanes. For some reason everybody else seems to swim faster than I also.

There is just one detail from the workplace I must share. Today a sign was displayed in the restrooms, explaining proper handling of the liquid used to keep our hands extra clean and free of bacteria. It was short and simple statements in Swedish on one half of the paper and in English on the other. After reading the English version I burst out laughing. First of all, they called the alcoholic liquid detergent (which to me sounds totally wrong), and then there were a total of four spelling mistakes in the text (flue instead of flu, for instance). This sign is displayed all over the university. I lack words.....

New glasses

I would have written on the blog earlier, but I kept getting error messages when I tried to log on. It seems to be working again now.

The week at work was tough and I have yet again back issues. It was too ambitious to shelve eight meters of folio format books on the same afternoon. The backlog was one of the worst I have seen. It is better now, but I really don't want to have to work that hard to keep the flow of books at an acceptable level.

It has been interesting to ride the trains this week. There are even more commuters than before. The highway between Malmö and Helsingborg is blocked by road work, and many more people are taking the train. The train company has tried to extend the trains, but failed most of the times. One driver, whose train was 20 minutes late, told us an entertaining story of the worst work day for him so far. His train set had been locked in by railroad construction at the freight station, and it took a long time to get it out. In order to make up for lost time he drove fast, and was forced to brake hard at a red light. This produced smoke that set off the fire alarm onboard. We forgave him for the delay.

Saturday I picked up my new glasses. I got the others five years ago and it's incredible what a change it was to get new ones. I didn't realize how scratched the old ones were. I also went to the fleamarket and got some necklaces cheaply. I will use the pearls to make new necklaces. When I write pearls, I really mean glass beads. Sometimes plastic. Today was also a shopping day. I went to the mall, but only bought some small things. A new box with compartments to keep the beads in, for instance.

Back to work

This weekend I did even more cleaning and tidying up. The apartment looked really messy and I had a large load of laundry to do. Sunday my friend Eva visited to get some of my discarded clothes. In return I got apples and pickled herring. I used the apples to make a pie and it turned out pretty good. I was cooking lunches for work also, but the result wasn't that great. It was edible, but I should have taken cream instead of lowfat milk in the shrimp pie. The crust wasn't crispy either.

It was the first day at work today after four weeks of vacation. There were no surprises, just the usual technical and staff problems. The amount of returns not shelved was enormous, and it will result in a very serious talk with my boss when she gets back next week. We can't continue like this, there must be enough people shelving the books.

The main topic of discussion in the lunch room was the pandemic flu. The daughter of a colleague is sick, but it was uncertain if it was the really bad flu. There is no escaping it, it's just luck if I don't get it. I don't meet that many people during work, but I ride a (packed) train every day and the virus is airborne. We have been told to wash our hands thoroughly and often, but I already do since I work in the (dusty) stacks.