Tragic play

Last week at work was busy. Already Monday morning at 8 I went over to an old building nearby to look at shelving systems. We had been offered it since the place will be completely remodeled and everything will be thrown out. We said yes, provided we could get a moving company to dismantle it and find space at one of our storages. The rest of the week was about retrieving books for the students. It was a tough job since it's at the beginning of the semester. Today was the real peak so far, we had a huge amount of requests. I went to the storage with a colleague and we spent longer time than usual there.

This Friday evening I made use of the theater ticket I had been given for Christmas. It was a rather odd version of Shakespeare's tragedy Richard III. There was only one actor, a stand-up comedian. He did all the speaking parts himself. I was impressed by the fact that he could remember all of it. He was rather true to the original. It was both funny and tragic at the same time. There was the underlying theme of how men of power aqcuire their positions and what means are acceptable to reach those positions. It's a play that says a lot about also the time we live in now.

This weekend was all about research. I didn't even watch TV.

20 years

Last week I had been working at the library for 20 years. I really can't believe it. It sounds like an eternity. I have seen incredible developments in the field of work, mainly because of the internet and the technological advancements. The job is, in essence, the same as when I started - retrieval and shelving of books. But nowadays we get the request slips printed in picking order. 20 years ago it took a long time every morning to get each request printed and manually sorted into the right pile. There have been many changes over the years, most of them for the better.

For the Friday morning coffee I baked some cookies, which were well received. It was to "celebrate" those 20 years. Apart from that, it is business as usual. The semester hasn't started officially but we get many new students asking all sorts of questions at this time. There was a sharp increase of the  number of requests all of a sudden, so they have their reading lists already.

This weekend was a research weekend. I spent it at work. The computer there is larger and better, and there is access to a printer. The new project concerns emigrants from a parish near my home parish. It is very challenging, since the church records were destroyed by fire. There is almost nothing before 1860. But I can see that there were emigrants also before that year, since there is a database of passport applications 1783-1860.

The weather is typical of a winter in Skåne province. Just below freezing and occasional snow that melts quickly.

Happy New Year

All the best for the new year! Time really flies. I spent the new year's weekend mostly cleaning and tidying up. I threw out old calendars, receipts and catalogues. I tried to organize my documents by filing them. The desk does look a lot better now.

The actual celebration New Year's Eve was modest here. I watched TV and solved crosswords. The meal was salmon baked in the oven, with cream and cheese. Very, very tasty. Chocolate mousse with raspberries and blueberries for dessert. Nothing wrong with that either. I had a good view of the fireworks from my balcony.

This holiday season the work-free days were very few. I have been working all the days this week, except today. For some reason Swedes celebrate Twelfth Day. We were rather busy at the library this week, it seems like some of the new students have already arrived and are asking for textbooks. One colleague was off sick and that meant some problems as we couldn't do all of her duties.

The weather was mild, wet and dark up until yesterday, when it changed to a little drier, cold and dark. It's about ten degrees below zero. No snow at all. So boring. I spent most of today cleaning the stove and the fan above it. Not fun, but necessary.

Thank you for the letters and e-mail greetings I have received for the holidays. The Fleet Farm calendar is hanging on the living room wall!

Christmas

At work there are lots of candies and cookies (especially ginger snaps) at this time of year. I even got extra for helping a colleague with research. Last week I made one more trip to Ikea for their Christmas buffet. The herring was so good.

The Christmas celebration was the shortest in history - I spent about 28 hours in Göteborg. I had to leave early because there was a storm coming Monday. But we managed to do most of the things we normally do. There was great food, for instance herring, Jansson's Temptation, meatballs, homemade bread, cheeses, roasted ham and much else. Santa arrived very conveniently after dinner, bringing some presents. I got a ticket for a show, a bar of soap, a fridge magnet, a veggie peeler(!), a cookie tin and five pieces of Christmas ornaments. On the Sunday the mall in the city center was open and the sales had already started. I went with my mother and sister on a shopping trip. We got even more ornaments, this time half price off. After the lutfisk meal (which I can't stand so I have meatballs instead) I went home by train again Sunday afternoon.

The storm was pretty bad, parts of the roof fell off my building. It was impossible to sleep so Tuesday at work I was not at my best game. Few of us were. This time of year there are not many visitors but at least two people have to be on duty in the stacks. I have done the storage round myself twice this week. It happens that people who are not normally patrons here use the library over the holidays. Today we had a large request, 20 years of an economics journal, and the person wrote a message saying he wanted all of it at once because he was only in town for a few days. It filled up a double-sided cart.

I sent out the usual Christmas letter last week via e-mail. If anyone feels neglected, let me know.

New project

I haven't written here in a while. There are lots to do at the end of the year. Last Monday we had one more Christmas party. It was only the main library employees attending. We had a potluck style event and it turned out to be incredible amounts of food. All of it very tasty. Some had made their own pickled herring and Jansson's Temptation. I was not that advanced. I bought a box with red beetroot salad in the store. It was a great party with a complicated quiz and lots of talking and eating. We had leftovers for several days after.

I have a new project at the library. After a re-arrangement of the microfilmed newspapers there was space left. I was asked if we wanted the microfilms in the stacks moved to those open shelves so that we didn't have to retrieve them. I said yes without thinking too much about it. It turns out that our microfilms (which contain monographs) are not properly catalogued and many of them need to get a new roll. The boxes are from the 1950s so they need to be exchanged also. This became a bigger project than I thought. I have started reviewing it but we didn't have that many boxes or rolls so I can't do much more right now.

This past weekend I did most of my Christmas shopping. There were lots of people at the malls of course. I also had to go to work this Sunday to clear my desk. It looked terrible. I had a lot of my own research-related material there so it was time to get it out. The piles of paper tend to grow large very quickly.

My apartment is now decorated in the style of the season. There are santas and other decorations everywhere and an overloaded tree in the livingroom. I have already received a few Christmas letters from overseas relatives. Thank you!

Christmas party

Last week was relatively busy. There were really only two noteworthy events. One was the opening of a new exhibit at the library. It was about the Botanical garden and its history. Especially one of the managers and his efforts to make the garden a place worth visiting in the early 19th century. We have lots of seed catalogues and garden books on display, along with garden tools and actual plants (some of which allergic visitors have complained about). The other event was the Christmas party this Friday. It was one more successful party arranged by the social club. We had it at a restaurant. The food was great, even the vegetarians liked their food (this is not that common in our experience). We had gift exchange and I got a red rubber spatula with Christmas decor. We also had a theme but it was quite difficult (something beginning with V). Not many had dressed in costume but one woman dressed as a plant (green dress with plastic wreath in her hair and spruce tree branches in her hands) got the first prize. Plant = Växt in Swedish.

This weekend I was tired but still went on the bus to the closest mall to get more craft items. It turned out to be rather fun to make ornaments for the Christmas tree so I got some more supplies cheaply at the second hand stores. Also got groceries.

Sunday the timetables changed for trains and buses. Surprisingly, not for the better. They have re-routed one of the trains so that it does not stop in my town anymore.The trains are already overcrowded. We didn't need fewer trains per hour, we need more. Life as a commuter is sometimes challenging.

Today the catalogue of a donated collection of serial stories was finally published at the library. It involved several people and it took much longer than anyone thought. I was the project manager and I'm glad to see the end of it. We got access to a small display case to put some of these books in, to advertise the newly added collection.

Christmas ornaments

It was a bad week at work. Many things I tried to do turned into failures. I had to go to the storage several extra times to shelve dissertations. On one occasion I started out from the library reversing the car and ran right into the university book transportation van. All my fault but there was no sight of that van in my rear view mirror. The van will have to be repaired and I'm pretty sure that will be costly for me. Sigh.

Saturday I went to Malmö to do a tour of the second hand stores. Got some small things. I had a chicken salad for lunch in a cozy cafe. Unfortunately, I got food poisoned from it later in the evening. Very unpleasant. My plans for today had to be cancelled because of that. I have instead brought down the Christmas ornaments from the attic and started to decorate. I even got the beads and craft items out and have managed to make four ornaments for the tree. There was also sports on TV, biathlon and down hill skiing.