while others isolate
Apr. 10th, 2020 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaDifferent countries are approaching the pandemic differently, and Sweden is at only medium level restrictions compared to many other countries--it is forbidden to have gatherings of more than 50 people, and encouraged to work from home where possible, but small gatherings are still ok, and many are still going in to work. In the past week I have seen only one person wearing a mask.
Since I am working half-time at the Norrbotten Museum Archives, and they don't really want people to take home the archive documents to sort them so that the data entry on what is in there can happen, I am still going in four days a week (because if one works half-time four 5-hour days is nicer than five 4-hour days). Some days I take my tricycle in (which was why I saw one person wearing a mask--they were walking on the bike path), because exercise (never mind that there are places where it is still icy or slushy making those bits difficult going). Other days I drive because more sleep, or an errand to do directly after.
In the afternoons I am doing LTU work--the Uni encourages everyone who can work from home to do so, but it is still permitted to come in for lab work or other things one can't do from home. In the evenings I am mostly tired so I read a bit, do yoga, and then go to sleep, and wake up again at 05:30 or 6:00 so that I have time to do a few things before heading to work. Some days I do a video call or zoom meeting, which means sewing progress.
This weekend in a holiday in Sweden, and it started already Thursday afternoon. Therefore I made no attempt at any LTU work, and instead used that energy to finally clean off the extra table in the office, which had become a catch-all of sewing projects in progress, debris from completed sewing projects, chunks of fabric I ran out of energy to record in my Trello inventory when last I was updating that. Yarn balls that were also awaiting time to get added to the Trello inventory, and random event site tokens. It was nice to have energy to deal with that, at a time where there was also enough daylight left to get photos of the fabric and yarn for the Trello cards.
Then, in the evening we attended a Virtual Medieval Week event in Visby. Caroline had noticed a couple of days ago that it was going to be on, and contacted me to be certain it would be ok to come watch it on the big screen, and could she invite Sara-Olivia and Ellinor too? So we gathered here, in our medieval costumes, didn't hug one another (Don't like social distancing, even if I understand it), and all worked on projects. Three of us were sewing, and two knitting, and on the big screen behind us we, and a couple of hundred other people all watched the Virtual Medieval Week. It started with a short film advertising Medieval Week, with lots of footage from past years. Much to our delight, one of the first bits of film is a close up of our friend Cajsa doing a fire performance.
Then Björn, who is an SCA guy who is originally from Luleå, and is one of the main organisers of Visby's Medieval Week, and another lady I recognise, but whose name I forget, acted as our hosts for the evening. They had three different Visby locations set up, and the Zoom meeting jumped from one to the other, with each speaking in turn, and then introducing the next act. There were sessions with musicians performing, one with some jousters (practising social distancing of one-lance length away since the original middle ages), fire performance, and more. For the performers they put on screen a Swish number to which the audience could send money, and in between performers they gave people the opportunity to use Swish to buy a virtual beer or other beverage at the pub, Kapitelhusgården, or contribute directly to Medeltidsveckan. I have no idea how the fund-raising portion of the evening went. I didn't contribute, since I know that my job is ending, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone did.
Björn assured us that Medeltidsveckan would happen this year, in some form, no matter what. They hope that the 144 days between now and then are enough to permit it to run as normal, but if necessary they would do what it takes to make it possible virtually. So those of you who live far away, and have never had the opportunity to attend, if things don't go well, and we still can't have large gatherings in August, perhaps you can at least check it out from a distance.
(Funny aside: In the Zoom meeting some people were using the chat window, and one guy said "Hello from Kansas!", to which someone else very promptly replied "You are not in Kansas anymore!")
Since I am working half-time at the Norrbotten Museum Archives, and they don't really want people to take home the archive documents to sort them so that the data entry on what is in there can happen, I am still going in four days a week (because if one works half-time four 5-hour days is nicer than five 4-hour days). Some days I take my tricycle in (which was why I saw one person wearing a mask--they were walking on the bike path), because exercise (never mind that there are places where it is still icy or slushy making those bits difficult going). Other days I drive because more sleep, or an errand to do directly after.
In the afternoons I am doing LTU work--the Uni encourages everyone who can work from home to do so, but it is still permitted to come in for lab work or other things one can't do from home. In the evenings I am mostly tired so I read a bit, do yoga, and then go to sleep, and wake up again at 05:30 or 6:00 so that I have time to do a few things before heading to work. Some days I do a video call or zoom meeting, which means sewing progress.
This weekend in a holiday in Sweden, and it started already Thursday afternoon. Therefore I made no attempt at any LTU work, and instead used that energy to finally clean off the extra table in the office, which had become a catch-all of sewing projects in progress, debris from completed sewing projects, chunks of fabric I ran out of energy to record in my Trello inventory when last I was updating that. Yarn balls that were also awaiting time to get added to the Trello inventory, and random event site tokens. It was nice to have energy to deal with that, at a time where there was also enough daylight left to get photos of the fabric and yarn for the Trello cards.
Then, in the evening we attended a Virtual Medieval Week event in Visby. Caroline had noticed a couple of days ago that it was going to be on, and contacted me to be certain it would be ok to come watch it on the big screen, and could she invite Sara-Olivia and Ellinor too? So we gathered here, in our medieval costumes, didn't hug one another (Don't like social distancing, even if I understand it), and all worked on projects. Three of us were sewing, and two knitting, and on the big screen behind us we, and a couple of hundred other people all watched the Virtual Medieval Week. It started with a short film advertising Medieval Week, with lots of footage from past years. Much to our delight, one of the first bits of film is a close up of our friend Cajsa doing a fire performance.
Then Björn, who is an SCA guy who is originally from Luleå, and is one of the main organisers of Visby's Medieval Week, and another lady I recognise, but whose name I forget, acted as our hosts for the evening. They had three different Visby locations set up, and the Zoom meeting jumped from one to the other, with each speaking in turn, and then introducing the next act. There were sessions with musicians performing, one with some jousters (practising social distancing of one-lance length away since the original middle ages), fire performance, and more. For the performers they put on screen a Swish number to which the audience could send money, and in between performers they gave people the opportunity to use Swish to buy a virtual beer or other beverage at the pub, Kapitelhusgården, or contribute directly to Medeltidsveckan. I have no idea how the fund-raising portion of the evening went. I didn't contribute, since I know that my job is ending, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone did.
Björn assured us that Medeltidsveckan would happen this year, in some form, no matter what. They hope that the 144 days between now and then are enough to permit it to run as normal, but if necessary they would do what it takes to make it possible virtually. So those of you who live far away, and have never had the opportunity to attend, if things don't go well, and we still can't have large gatherings in August, perhaps you can at least check it out from a distance.
(Funny aside: In the Zoom meeting some people were using the chat window, and one guy said "Hello from Kansas!", to which someone else very promptly replied "You are not in Kansas anymore!")