Pride!

The talk of the town today - especially in my old home town - is certainly the Pride march that happened earlier today. In small-town Jakobstad, a town of just about 20 000 citizens; in Ostrobotnia, western Finland, which is considered quite a conservative area - or the "bible belt", 2500 happy people marched together through town together, watched and applauded by a similar number of spectators. Amazing! I wish I could have been there to witness it all and participate myself! Instead, I sat at work following the facebook and twitter feeds from the event, looking at all the pictures and comments and, for once, feeling a growing pride in my home town!

I don't think anyone could have anticipated just how many happy people would take part in the event, either to express themselves or to show their support for others, nor quite how positive the general feedback was, once it happened. The organizers started planning this event about a year ago, and since then the debate has been on, reminding us all of how much prejudice there is, to the point where you simply have to stay away from the comments section at all if you wanted to stay sane... This has, of course, also been an important and symbolic year in Finland, considering LGBITQ rights. There has been much (needed!) debate following the Tahdon-initiative (have mentioned that earlier - found here.) and this initiative surely helped keep that discussion alive.

Today, though, the trolls must have gone into hiding - I have read comments (Yes. My own fault.) about "feeling forced to leave town over the weekend" or choosing to boycott the entire local festival (An annual happening, culminating this weekend. Does not relate to the pride march) - so the whole thing seems to have gone down peacefully. Ans some believe that all the negativity and prejudice displayed in the debates might have been the spark needed for many to make the choice to take part and show their support. And so many did! I am both happy and proud!

Of course I realize this is no proof of an entire town suddenly having grown more liberal or tolerant, but it is a great leap of a first step, and I doubt that anyone will forget this party in the first place!

think of a headline, think of a headline... meh, this one's about work and the weekend, and it includes a quote, OK?

Fed up with my job again. Doing those extra rounds in June didn't pay as much extra as I expected. Not by far. Even though it was a lot of extra work. I'm also tired of having such a hard time even trying to calculate what I'll make the next month. Which is rarely enough anyway.

It was very naive shortsighted of me to decide for a trip to Britain this summer too, but it can't be cancelled now. And secretly I'm glad, but this also means that almost everything goes to Britain-and-Bills. (No less with the expensive phone bills I receive after the update to a phone I can use to access the internet.....) Now I've been forced to shorten this weekend's trip to my hometown, as the train tickets are too expensive. VR (the Finnish national railways) have raised the ticket prices again, so now the price of a return trip - with one cat - to my hometown ends up at around 80 euros, or possibly even more. And that's with a student discount. I will be missing out on one reunion, but luckily not all. Still feel bad for not being there.

There are good things, too. I still have this trip, this small break from everything to look forward to. It did feel good to return the work keys. And I've had offers of car rides, and been able to take up one of them - tomorrow. Did not find anyone to care for miss Cat, though, so she'll be coming along. I so hope she'll... well, not sure if you should ever use the word "behave" when talking about a cat, but let's just say I hope she won't be a complete pain in the @#%* - at least not all the way! Keeping fingers crossed.

...oh, almost forgot the quote:

Friday video

Yay, Friday! Had some rain, and as a result Turku is finally green! (and it's easier to breathe)
Here's a short instruction video on the Finnish summer - enjoy!