I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday. I am working for the weekend. Loverboy references make me seem really young, don’t they? I suppose it doesn’t count that I had to google “working for the weekend” because I couldn’t remember who did that song? Baha.
Tonight was bookgroup. In Malmö this time and I was stupid and booked my hair appointment, also in Malmö, about a block away from where I was tonight, yesterday. So I had to drive to Malmö twice in 2 days. On the plus side, Barky looks FABULOUS and I got to go to bookgroup! And before bookgroup, I got to have some me time, which was extremely nice.
I left work late after having a lightbulb moment on a project I’ve been working on that I was really struggling with. I went and talked to my boss, who is not always approachable for stuff like this, but she was great this time: really listened and gave me good solid constructive criticism and kickstart ideas to help me figure out a better way to make things work, and it really helped. I left feeling like I know what to do now and how to proceed and in consequence, I think the results will be MUCH better than what I was worried about before I talked to her.
It’s so dark already when I leave the office, even when I leave on time and this was an hour past that…super dark and a little rainy. I drove straight to the center of Malmö and parked underground at the Caroli shopping center which has just been renovated. They have a nice bunch of restaurants there, including a sushi joint that serves excellent sushi at one of the cheapest prices in town. I’m surprised it isn’t mobbed all the time with mile-long lines, considering the price/quality combo. I sat and read my book (not the bookgroup book, I already finished that one 4.5 books ago), and enjoyed my meal.
Then I walked around the shopping center a bit and then I went into the bookstore. It’s my second favorite bookstore in town and it just moved to this new location, after years on the central walking street. It’s a lot smaller now and feels rather crammed full of books, but that’s not a bad thing. They DID have fewer English books now than they used to, which is too bad, but I still managed to find FIVE books, 3 of which I’ve been waiting for (one of which I’ve been waiting for FOR YEARS) and two others by favorite authors that I didn’t even know had new books out. SCORE!
The haul
Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Winter of the World by Ken Follett
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
We were 12 people at bookgroup, almost too many to keep it to one conversation. It felt like ages since everyone had seen each other, even though our last meeting was the end of September, and the conversations were general catch-up stuff for quite awhile before we settled down and actually talked about the book. Pretty much everyone liked the book despite the sad subject matter and the discussion spiraled off into several interesting tangents about cultural differences in regards to illness, death and tragedy. Really interesting. Plus Swedish apple pie for afters!
And tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend (including Swedish Father’s Day which I need to get on the ball about) and both Martin and Karin have plans for tomorrow evening so Anders and I will be home alone again. SLUG TIME!