This is one of the craziest busiest weeks I think I’ve ever had. Starting on Sunday, and going through until Saturday this coming weekend, I’ve had to drive to Malmö every single evening except Tuesday. All for good stuff, but still: oy.
Sunday was the AIC Fire Station tour that I organized again with our firefighter friend (also named Anders). We did it a couple of years ago and it was as big a hit this time. We had 40 people all together and Anders and another fireman named Martin (felt like old home week, haha) showed us around the 130-year-old station house. They still have horseshoe decorations in the garage area where the stalls for the horses that pulled the firecarts used to have their stalls. We saw their common rooms: kitchen, terrace, gym, and Anders graciously allowed us to peek inside his “dorm” room as well. Then we went back outside and the kids got to climb up into one of the firetrucks and try to pick up some of the crazy heavy gear they have to handle. Their hat and suit and boots alone are 25 kilos. Lifting the incredibly heavy hoses and equipment would make me collapse! Lots of questions from everyone including all the fascinated kids, all of whom got a fireman hat courtesy of the club. We had fika afterwards up in the firefighters’ auditorium, and Anders gave the kids coloring books, temporary tattoos and floating hackeysacks. 🙂
Anders is planning on retiring next year, just like MY Anders, so we won’t have the easy connection to be able to organize this kind of event but hopefully we’ll still be able to do it at some point.
Karin came home Sunday afternoon with her bike for Anders to fix (something with the chain) and she and I spent a good couple of hours cleaning out her dresser and closet very thoroughly. She was in just the right mood for purging, so that was good, especially considering that she will most likely be moving all her stuff home at the end of the year. She and 2 friends have talked their way into exchange spots for their university program in Bilbao, Spain, so she’ll most likely be gone from January to June next year. Her current roommate Jens said he didn’t want to live with TWO strangers (they just got a new roommate to replace their friend who moved out in July), and he’ll probably give up the lease and get his own place. It’s really too bad, because it was perfectly located, and a really nice apartment. Karin’s girlfriend is also going to be starting school and will be away for the same 6-month period in western Denmark, so she will probably be giving up her current place as well. So all of Karin’s furniture and stuff is coming back again! Good thing we just cleaned out her room, haha. She filled six bags for donation and we pitched quite a lot of old stuff, too.
On Monday, I held a year-in-review presentaton for the AIC Annual General Meeting. We had our board meeting beforehand, and a good turnout for the general meeting. We’ve recently had to update our Social Media and Electronic Communications Policy and add a Code of Conduct, plus an amendment to the club constitution, which provides for instances when someone must be expelled from the club. Due to an incident that was not much fun to deal with, but now we have proper procedures in place if something similar should ever happen again. Ugh. But the meeting was fun and there were some long-time members plus several newbies which was nice. We also had our board elections and I’ve been reelected, uncontested, to the board again as the VP Membership. Weird that no one wants this job. 😀
Tuesday evening I spent at home handling all the AIC web obligations: updating several sections of the website, getting the last of the newsletter ready, etc., and calling and activating one of the new member registrations that came in this past week. I have 2 more, one that I haven’t been able to reach yet, and another that came in today. But I won’t be able to try again until Saturday afternoon.
Wednesday was our AIC board handover meeting, although everyone on the board stayed on this year, which was great, because it’s been another excellent, very engaged panel of board members. The activities team switched around a little bit, but I’m thrilled about everyone continuing. We did quite a bit of planning, came up with some new activity ideas, and are now dicussing a better way for the board to communicate since FB is not working out very well. Someone suggested Slack and everyone has now agreed to try it out, once it gets set up. Sounds like it’s very similar to Teams, which I use at work, so hopefully won’t be too painful a learning process.
Tonight, I went straight from work to Malmö again, but when I left the office and got to the car, there was a note on the windshield from another Axis employee who had “accidentally touched” my car with his. He wrote that he “didn’t see any damage, but could be wrong” and frankly, if he couldn’t see the damage, he shouldn’t be driving at all. The front left corner of the car was scraped, dented, and marked, and the protective lining was ripped up. 🙁 I called Anders on the way to Malmö to see what we need to do. I’ll text the guy tomorrow morning, but we have to do a police report for insurance and we have to get his insurance company info because they will have to pay for the damage. UGH. Very glad he didn’t just hit and run, though.
I had organized an AIC activity tonight painting ceramics, and it was just me, Martin and Theo, and 2 members with one other teenager. We had fun. I did two small bowls that come with wooden lids, in Christmas themes, one red with green wreath and white berries and one green with white leaves and red berries, but I managed to blot one of them badly and then ran out of time as I couldn’t try to fix it with sanding and repainting because it wasn’t thoroughly dried, so will have to go back to finish it up. Martin and Theo and I have planned to go again in 2 weeks. I figured they could be used for raisins and almonds for glögg during the holidays or, of course, Christmas candy. 🙂 We went for sushi afterwards, of course, so that makes 3 times since Sunday that I have had sushi.
Tomorrow I have to leave work early to go get my hair done, then am meeting Debbie, Doris, and Camilla for dinner and a movie. We’re going to see Digger, and all I know is that Tom Cruise is in it. I have no idea what it’s about and I’m sort of deliberately not looking so that it will be a completely fresh experience. 😀 I’ve seen a trailer, but I don’t remember much except gaping at Tom Cruise’s transformation. The movie doesn’t start until 8:15 and it’s a 2-hour+ movie so I won’t be home until quite late. Anders has been gone all week and won’t get home until after I’ve left for Malmö.
Saturday, I have to turn around and go back to Malmö for the Symphony at 1 pm, but I have to leave early as I’m probably going to be driving to Lund, parking there, and taking the train, because the Malmö Marathon is running on Saturday and all the streets around the concert hall and the 2 parking garages near it will be closed off. And Martin is coming home to hang out on Sunday, and hopefully Karin will be able to come too. And Anders comes home tomorrow, yay!
Whew! No wonder I’m tired!
*Lucille Ball
Mood: ready for bed
Music: Sting—Brand New Day