First week of the semester

Last week was the first of the semester. We noticed this very much. There were incredible amounts of requests. At the same time the system we use for processing call slips decided to break down. The printer also. When I finally managed to get the right call slips printed, several of them lacked both title and author. Those details are quite important when you search for books. I'm glad I have strong nerves. Getting the call slips printed and sorted is my most important task at the library. If that fails, the consequences are quite serious. Most books did get out to the pick-up shelves but a few hours later than normal. We missed the noon deadline most days but that's understandable.

The weekend was spent at home. The weather wasn't that good, it snowed and rained. I had things to do in the kitchen. Both some cooking and moving items from there to the attic.

Archive open house

This Saturday some archives had open houses with lectures, book sales and information booths. I drove to Malmö City Archive to attend a lecture on old photographs. The archive was very crowded, it's incredible how this particular place attracts visitors. There were so many people that I didn't get a seat for the lecture. I had to stand outside the room and look at the presentation through a window.

While I was in that area anyway, I did a tour of the thrift stores. Again, I bought books for the library. This shopping has meant that I have been able to fill gaps at the Royal Library in Stockholm also. After the visit to central Malmö I went for lunch at Ikea and in their food store I got a jar of cloudberry jam. It's very tasty.

Over the weekend I removed all the Christmas ornaments and did some cleaning. In preparing for that big renovating project mentioned earlier, I started to get the kitchen items into storage in the attic. At the same time I tried to weed a little. It's amazing how much stuff you gather in cupboards and drawers.

Start of new year

The beginning of the work year was pretty much like expected. I have had time to do a few minor projects and the number of requests have been rather low. It picked up this Monday and of course that's also when the system for handling these requests decided to break down. After some TLC from the technician it started again. He couldn't explain why it went down. We have the two extra workers another two weeks so I try to make the most of it now. Last week I attended a course in advanced Excel for librarians. I use Excel some in my job for statistics and collection lists. The teacher was a 22-year old guy and I have rarely had such a good teacher. We were all amazed. It was a very useful course and we all discovered new aspects to the system.

Sunday a week and a half ago my father came to visit again. We had lunch at a local restaurant and then watched sports on TV. We also discussed a large renovating project in my apartment.

This Saturday I went on an extensive fleamarket round in Malmö. It was daring of me because I can't really find my way in that city. It's large with lots of traffic. It turned out to be no problems at all driving there. Not even finding parking spaces proved difficult. I visited five second hand stores to buy books for the library. Also went shopping at a mall and had lunch at a burger place.

The weather is rather rainy and windy. There were some traffic problems this Monday morning, when it snowed, but apart from that it's not really a typically Swedish winter yet.

Christmas and New Year's

It was a very nice Christmas holiday. I travelled by train and bus to Borås already on Dec 20. The shopping started the next day. My mother had spotted a newly opened outlet store selling my size of clothes. I ended up getting a few items there; a cardigan, a pair of jeans and a top. I also went to several of the thrift stores and vacuumed the shelves for books to my library. I'm looking for fact books from a specific publisher that never sent the depository copies to us. Over the weekend we decorated the (real) tree at my sister's place and had some glögg. On the Sunday I got a present early: we went to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. A very good choice, it was definitely worth seeing.

Monday the 24th was the celebration at my sister's house. We followed the usual routines with Disney clips on TV, tomten/Santa, presents, lots of great food and a board game (at which I excelled, of course). My presents included a bracelet, a wire stand my mother had made, a Christmas ornament my niece had made and a gift certificate for a spa treatment.

Thursday after Christmas I travelled by car with my mother and her boyfriend and my niece to the summerhouse in Skåne. It was pretty cold there but we got the heaters going rather quickly. On the Saturday my father and his girlfriend came to visit and helped us weed some dead branches and trees in the back yard. That same day the rest of the family from Borås also joined us. Sunday we went to the new shopping mall in Kristianstad, where several of us bought shoes on sale. We had Asian buffet for lunch and then we drove out to a hiking area. It was about 7 degrees and somewhat sunny. It was a nice excursion.

New Year's Eve was this Monday. We prepared a three course meal. My sister made toast with goat cheese for starters, my mother made a chicken dish for the main meal and I made chocolate mousse with strawberries for dessert. Very tasty, all of it. At midnight we stood on the sandy beach watching the fireworks both to the north and south of us. We can see most of Skåne's east coast from there. Since I had to work today I returned home yesterday.