Hello September!
It’s the start of a new AIC season and the busiest time of both our AIC year and work, so things are a little crazy at the moment. We kicked off the new AIC season with a monthly meeting that wasn’t really a meeting at all: mini-golf at Ribersborg in Malmö. We had a lovely evening for it, sunny and warm, and a decent turn-out of 17 people, which included the manager of the golf venue and kiosk. I can’t remember the last time I actually played mini-golf. I suck at it, but it was fun, and surprisingly, I came in tied for second in my team! Although we didn’t manage to finish all 15 holes. We just played for fun, really.
Afterwards, we had our first board meeting and nearly everyone was there, except for the 2 absentee activities people who have been basically absent all year, and our FAWCO rep who had a kid heading off to university the next day. It felt very good to sit and hash things out and talk about next year and what’s going on. I’m thrilled that we have a good board going into the year, with everyone who is nominated actually committed, and people who have a proven record for following through. Elections for the board take place at the end of September, which is the OFFICIAL first meeting of the new year and our annual general meeting.
We have struggled the last couple of years with attendance at monthly meetings. After the pandemic, it seems that people just don’t want to bother coming out or showing up unless it’s for something unusual, something more exciting, or something that incentivizes them. They don’t want to just show up for a guest speaker and some fika. We actually only had 2 meetings with guest speakers during this past year, and we had to completely cancel one meeting since no one signed up at all, except for board members. So for the second half of the year, we took the meetings out of the conference room. We had a mingle, we went bowling, we went on a canal boat tour, and we played mini-golf. I don’t know how sustainable it is to keep doing this, though. We NEED actual meetings, too, where we distribute info or have an interesting guest speaker, or time to meet and just talk to each other. It’s also busy because I’m in the middle of tracking dues payments and have already started work on the year-in-review presentation for the September meeting.
And work is crazy as well. Two major events that have provided me with a humongous pile of presentations to spiff up, more than 16 so far, and I’ve still got at least 4 more to go. Plus a big project that’s been waiting for me to finish the PPTs: designing an eBrochure and 3 flyers. I’m already a week behind and probably won’t be able to start until Wednesday. I had meetings eating into my actual work time all last week, so really felt like I was barely staying above water.
And this week is busy outside after work on top of that! Tuesday is a massage (much-needed, as you might imagine), Wednesday is a live performance of Romeo & Juliet in English outdoors at Malmö castle (praying it doesn’t rain), and Friday is a symphony concert with Debbie and Camilla. All good stuff, but not a lot of downtime to breathe out!
Martin has been on a kick of creating crossword puzzles, which has been super fun, though I’m probably a little TOO enthusiastic for him. I’m fast as you might imagine, which means he can’t create them fast enough to keep up with me, haha. He did one yesterday, then found a mistake, and had to redo the entire thing, and I solved it in just under 17 minutes after he sent me the link. 😀 And not because they are easy! Some of them have been very hard, and I had to get extra hints from him, and occasionally resort to Googling, which I loathe doing, as it equals cheating in my eyes, even though asking someone else in person for help doesn’t feel that way.
If you are interested, here are some of them:
Shades of Blue, Feeling Froggy, Octopuzzle, Shades of Red, Shades of Yellow, Record Time, Liz’s Crossword, Karins Korsord
(hint: if a clue is in Swedish (which is the case in a couple of these), the answer is in Swedish)
It’s been really fun seeing how his mind works and how smart he is! Making crossword puzzles is HARD. He got the bug because he’s been doing the NYT puzzle every day for some time now, after playing Wordle for a couple of years. I used to do crossword puzzles all the time when I lived in the States, but I’ve not done them much since moving to Sweden, since American crosswords are quite different from Swedish ones, and they are harder to find here. There aren’t a bazillion crossword puzzle magazines to choose from. I do them on the iPad every once in awhile, but I think Martin has got me obsessed again, which is a good thing, since they are such good brain improvers!
I’ve deliberately not done much this weekend, apart from the usual laundry and some other things around the house. My manager was very firm that I NOT work this weekend at all (I worked last weekend) and that I take the 2 days to really recharge. I confess I am thinking about work ALL the time, when I’m not deep in a crossword puzzle, or reading my book, so it’s probably just as well. I’m going walking with Lisel in a couple of hours for at least a 2.5k and probably a full 5k since walking and talking with her is so fun that the time flies by.
*Who am I kidding? The busy never ends.
Mood: busy
Music: none, just me